Academy Award-Nominee David Strathairn in:

"A new genre of digital expression is born... immerse yourself
in the world's first NAVworld™ Experience"

Watch Clips
- Bloggers influence Henderson
- Col. Henderson's confession

What is a NAVworld™?
Nonlinear storytelling comes of age

The Story: The Onyx Project
Col. Henderson's world

Viewing Instructions
Viewing Instructions

Get Creative
Imagine Other NAVworlds™

Contact Us
Inquiries/Feedback

Purchase
How to buy

Credits



$29.95

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NOTE: plays on any late model Windows XP PCs with DVD drive & QuickTime.
Does not play on a TV DVD set-top box.

Watch Clips



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What is a NAVworld™?

NAVworlds™ are a new form of video story telling - a world that is written, directed, acted and edited. [NAV means Non-Linear Arrayed Video.]

Movies are written, directed, acted and edited. We love movies.

But NAVworlds™ are not movies. Movies - or, rather those who make movies - choose what you see as beginning, middle and end. Movie makers must do this. They have no alternative. Because movies are strips of film that have one image following another. Movies are linear in form (even if, in skilled hands, movies create nonlinear psychological perceptions).

NAVworlds™ are nonlinear in form. Their form does not have a beginning, a middle or an end. Nor are NAVworlds™ "choose your own adventure" movies. Nor are they "choose our own ending" movies. They are not "interactive movies." Not browseable movies. Not movies.

NAVworlds™ are worlds you explore and experience just like you explore and experience the Web - by clicking your way through a body of material. With this important difference: the material in a NAVworld™ is written, directed, acted and edited to create a coherent world for you to experience - a world built around character, theme, and narrative.

Video games present worlds. We love video games. But video games are programmed. NAVworlds™are written, directed, acted and edited.

We love movies and video games. And, we now invite you and your imagination to explore and experience a new form of video story telling -- NAVworld™ -- by purchasing and experiencing The Onyx Project

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The Story: The Onyx Project

When you explore Col. Henderson's NAVworld™ in The Onyx Project, you will not be watching a movie. You won't be fed a beginning, middle or end.

You'll be experiencing the powerful testimony of a man and an officer who made a disastrous choice just prior to the 2004 US presidential election for a host of complex personal, professional and political reasons -- and now wants to account for it.

You will be exploring and experiencing Col. Henderson's world - a NAVworld™ written and directed by Larry Atlas and acted by Academy Award-Nominee David Strathairn.

We invite you to experience Col. Henderson's world - the world of any man or woman in uniform fighting the war on terror. We invite you to imagine Special Forces in this strange and dangerous 21st century, post-modern conflict whose roots trace back to the early centuries of monotheistic humankind.

Imagine - ask yourself -- how, why and what it means to use one's military professional skills in this murky conflict while simultaneously upholding one's military, family, religious, social and other cultural values. Ask yourself about the many and nuanced impacts on military professionalism caused by shifts in US culture to partisanship, anger, intolerance, religious fundamentalism, and extremism.

Ask yourself what it must be like to be a man or woman, like Col. Henderson, wearing the uniform of the US military in this age of humankind.

Imagine the challenge of doing the 'right thing' as opposed to the 'right versus left wing' thing - and, then, to hold yourself accountable as a man and as an officer.

Imagine what you would do - what you would have done - had you, too, believed you had learned the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's number two man on the eve of the 2004 election.

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Viewing Instructions

The NAVworld™ interface has these elements:

- A main viewing panel where scenes play
- A left hand panel ("Back Panel") that stores previous scenes in the order you have selected
- A right hand (mostly hidden) panel of future scenes
- A links panel in lower left of screen from which you choose the next scene

Navigating The Onyx Project
- Click on A or B to choose your entry point. If you click on B, you'll get five entry point choices.
- Click on 'lit up' links to select the next scene you wish to explore
- Click on Main Panel to pause or restart
- Click the left-hand Back Panel to return to the previous scene. The Back Panel stores scenes in the order you've viewed them. So, if you wish to retrace your steps, continue clicking until you find the scene you want.
- Click on the "&" link at any time to be presented with a set of choices that will take you to a different part of Henderson's NAVworld™
- Click on "T" links to see a 'thread' -- a series of pre-set, selected scenes
- Hit Ctrl-Q to exit a thread
- Hit Ctrl-R to put the computer in "Shuffle" mode where the computer will randomly make selections for you. (Any click will then take you out of Shuffle)
- Hit Ctrl-S to turn off or on the music
- Hit Esc to stop viewing

Tips
-
First time viewers should click on Help for a review of the interface and how it works.
- We also encourage first-time viewers to spend 3 or 4 minutes browsing the interface without worrying about the story/content in order to gain familiarity and comfort - then re-starting
- All viewers should get into the habit of rolling the mouse over links as they light up in order to optimize the chances of making the next scene selection
- The icons are thematic. Their images are not literally what viewers see next upon selecting them. For example, icons of a "cave" and an "onyx stone" both take viewers to scenes about the specific mission at the heart of The Onyx Project while, say, an icon of President Bush takes the viewer to a scene about President Bush.
- The same icon image is used for multiple scene destinations. Thus, an image of Col. Henderson's wife takes the viewer to many scenes about his wife and their relationship.
- Viewers should avoid assuming they have already viewed a scene just because they have already used that particular icon.

Loading The Onyx Project
The Onyx Project will load and start up automatically in late model Windows XP computers with a DVD drive and QuickTime installed.

Viewers should avoid loading the DVD until the computer is fully booted and operational (some computers will not 'read' the DVD unless fully booted)

If The Onyx Project does not load automatically, try these steps:

1. Find the DVD drive icon in "my computer"
2. Right click it
3. Select "Explore"
4. Drag and drop the "onyx' icon onto the 'nav player' icon

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Get Creative

The Onyx Project is the first ever NAVworld™. We invite you to explore and experience it at two levels, not just one:

- For the story of Col. Henderson's world
- As an opportunity to imagine other NAVworlds™ you might like to experience or create.

Budgetary and operating constraints limited The Onyx Project to:

- A Windows XP DVD version of our software
- A small part of what's possible to make and experience with the NAV™ story-telling architecture.

Subject to resources, our technology plans call for both web-based versions as well as Mac DVD versions of NAVworlds™.

Accordingly, we invite you to imagine and share with us:

- NAVworld™ applications in the fields of entertainment, news, education, corporate/professional training, advertising, music, documentary, artistic and more.
- NAVworld™ features and functions you'd like to see/have
- NAVworld™ applications you'd like to have

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Contact Us

Please contact us with your ideas and and interests:

- pressinquiries@theonyxproject.com

- feedback@theonyxproject.com

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Purchase

Clicking on the yellow "order now" button [at the end of each section] will hyperlink you to our fulfillment company. They will process your order and offer you three mailing options.

Questions?

Please email: feedback@theonyxproject.com

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Credits

Cast
Colonel Robert Henderson... David Strathairn
Henderson's Wife... Ann Matthews
Henderson's Dad... Ted Goodman
Henderson's Mom... Carol Goodman
Captain Jack Caldwell... Ed Ramirez
SFC Anthony Borders... Vincent George
W.O. William Pennington... Bill Bomba
SFC Edward Whistler... John Merritt
SSG Walter Cade... Kevin Carey
MSG James Montgomery... John Milkovitch
SSG Roy Walker... Nigel Barnett

Written and Directed by
Larry Atlas

Producer/1st Assistant Director
Gail Freedman

Music composed and created by
Richard Einhorn

Director of Photography
Jim Sofranko

Cameraman
Rick Meyer

Sound
Richard Fleming

Gaffer
John Raugalis

Art Director/Set Decoration
Robert Evangelisto

Teleprompter
Elizabeth Forsyth

Production Assistants
Peggy Hurley
Gabriel DeVries

NAV™ Software Assistant
Ebbe Strathairn

NAV™ Mapping Assistant
Eben Smith

Extras Casting
John Milkovich

Original NAV™ Design by
Lisa Strausfeld and Jim Biber
Pentagram, New York

NAV™ Software by
Dataart, New York and St. Petersburg
www.dataart.com

NAV™ Technology Advisor
Andy Singleton
www.assembla.com

Photo Acknowledgements

Photos of the people, mountains, and countryside of Afghanistan were generously provided by Luke Powell
http://www.lukepowell.com/

Other photos courtesy of:
U.S. Army
U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Department of State
George Bush Presidential Library
Central Intelligence Agency
M. T. Gastner, C. R. Shalizi, and M. E. J. Newman
The White House
U.S. Air Force

Special Thanks to the Hoe Bowl, Poughkeepsie, NY

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"...no two viewers may see the movie unfold in the same way, yet its basic facts, characters and message will permeate the experience."
— New York Times

"The Onyx Project raises provocative questions about the way visual entertainments
are changing..."
— Wall Street Journal

"'... the story was written to keep the audience engaged, using a few director's tricks.
The mystery at the center
of the story is not
revealed until the end.
— International Herald Tribune

"The Onyx Project offers millions of possibilities watching the same story unravel differently with each viewing: backwards or forwards or jumping between links in no discernable pattern."
— Canadian Broadcasting Corporation


"If history is any guide, there is every reason to believe that the old idea of linear motion pictures will not long outlive the invention of the non-linear world of the internet and web-browser (the movie box office is already outstripped by game sales)."
— The Huffington Post

"Want to see the future of film? Check out
'The Onyx Project'... The movie is meant to use fairly straightforward software concepts to take storytelling beyond such interactive stalwarts as video-gaming and bonus features on DVD's. It's a movie YOU create."

—
Gen Art Pulse>>

 

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