World of Apple

At this year’s Macworld the Apple faithful had a real treat in store, but little did I know just how good the treat would be. Ahead of Macworld I had invites to two new movies that were out to cover Apple as a company and the cult following: Welcome to Macintosh and MacHEADS. Unfortunately I was only able to attend one of these events. MacHEADS is not currently available for me to pick up and watch, so this review is not a comparison.

Welcome to Macintosh by Josh Rizzo and Rob Baca primarily covers the history of Apple and packs a star studded cast. The film starts out with a one-minute breakdown of Apple’s earlier years and then jumps right into the action.

Baca and Rizzo told me why they decided to film Welcome to Macintosh and where the idea came from:

We loved Robert Cringely’s documentary series “Triumph of the Nerds” – Especially the parts that address Apple. We always wanted to see an update to the story, and one cold January morning we agreed to set out to make a movie about Apple and the Mac. Over time we decided to make the film a true introduction and overview of what it’s like to have a passion for Apple products, placed in the context of the history of the company, as well as what might happen at Apple in the future

This docu-movie (as I like to describe it), consists of a series of interviews with some of Apple’s original staffers such as Andy Hertzfeld, Jim Reekes, and Guy Kawasaki who give background on what it was like to work at Apple and some little known history on the roots of the Mac. In addition to these popular figures, Rizzo and Baca managed to pull a couple gems out of the bag; in particular, Wayne Wenzlaff, a buyer for Team Electronics back in the late 70s who is often credited for the success of the Apple II.

Despite having what I thought was good knowledge of Apple’s past I was unaware of the massive significance Jim Reekes and Wayne Wenzlaff played, I asked Rob and Josh just how they came about these two characters:

Ron Wayne is also on hand to offer some original stories about the first Apple logo and give insight into Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak’s relationship when Apple was first started in the mid-70s.

We had been shopping around for classic Apple computers to use as props in the film, and Rob came across a very expensive Apple II on eBay. That machine turned out to be Apple II serial #5. Rob made contact with the seller to ask about the machine’s history, and got an overview of the story presented in the film… the rest is history.

As far as Jim Reekes, Josh was doing research on the origins of the current startup sound and he found an article on BoingBoing by Jim retelling the story of SOSUMI. This article linked to Jim’s website which goes a little further by detailing Jim’s contributions to the Mac, Quicktime and the Start-up Sound we all know today. From there Josh arranged a meeting during Macworld 2007 which lasted exactly 47 minutes, and ended exactly 58 minutes before Robs flight back to Ohio was set to take off. It was then that we learned that there were only about 5 taxi cabs in San Francisco, and they don’t drive through the embarcadero district at 6pm on a Thursday. It was quite a comical scene as Rob and Josh sprinted, carrying all of the equipment back to the car at our hotel a few miles away. But it was well worth it as Jim ended up becoming one of the stand out characters in the film. (And we got Rob to his flight just in time.)

After detailing the history of Apple in superb and unrelenting detail Welcome to Macintosh changes direction and covers some of the individual factions that make up Apple’s cult following. In particular the film takes a look at “The Collector”, “The Author”, “The Film Maker” and my favourite “The Satirist”.

Leander Kahney, the author of “The Cult of Mac.” features heavily in Welcome to Macintosh but when covering the cult aspect of Apple Rizzo and Baca couldn’t have struck upon two greater figures than Wayne Bibbens and John Moltz.

Wayne Bibbens (“The Collector”) gives a short tour of his premises where he stores literally thousands of old Apple computers, keyboard, monitors, and of course empty boxes.

John Moltz is probably a name you’ve come across before; and he of course is behind the brilliant Crazy Apple Rumors site. Unfortunately Moltz’s sections are done in iChat losing the beauty and high definition of the rest of movie.

Between all of these interviews we often get a glimpse of a classic Apple computer sitting in odd location such as on rail tracks or on a log in a stream. The scenes aren’t what you’d expect at all, so I had to ask Rob and Josh on why they came up with this original idea.

The transitions with the “crazy” cut-away shots of Macs in unusual places stems from the idea that Apple products are symbiotic and seem to co-exist well in any environment they are placed. Macs are also different in the sense that the machine, over time, becomes like a friend for many users. We thought this theme was an interesting way of representing these notions visually while transitioning from thought to though.

Availability

Welcome to Macintosh is available from FilmBaby on DVD right now $19.84 (World of Apple readers can get a $2.00 discount by entering coupon code: WOA2009). The DVD is really a bargain, not only containing the usual theatrical trailers, a “Making Of” segment, Spanish and English subtitles and a montage of the “Macs in Nature” scenes I mentioned before but also more than three hours of additional interviews (including a great segment from Jim Reekes about SOSUMI). It is also worth mentioning that the DVD is region-free and can be played in DVD players all over the world.

The DVD is not only available to purchase but can also be rented from NetFlix.

The After Show

Now for a bit of storytelling, the original press-only screening of Welcome to Macintosh was on Monday, January 4th, at the Sundance Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco. Both I and fellow writer dizzle attended as well as Apple Computer co-founder Ron Wayne and Wired.com’s Leander Kahney. Following the movie, I had a chance to have a good chat with co-director Rob Baca who insisted I come down on Thursday for the public screening; at the time he mentioned that Guy Kawasaki may well be attending.

On Thursday I decided to attend; maybe I’d get to meet Guy Kawasaki I thought to myself. Little did I know that also in attendance would also include Andy Hertzfeld, Jim Reekes, Ron Wayne, and Steve Wozniak who sadly doesn’t feature in Welcome to Macintosh.

Following the screening (which I enjoyed for the second time); Guy Kawasaki, Leander Kahney, Jim Reekes, Andy Hertzfeld, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne all sat down for some questions. Being the unprepared person that I am, I didn’t have a still or video camera on my person so failed miserably to get any content. Luckily Nik Fletcher was able to grab some photos, and dizzle was on hand to film almost the entire question session on her camera. The lighting isn’t great, but the sound is good.

View the 30 minute question and answer session here.

Also see the answer to the first question by TUAW’s Mike Rose of the Q&A directed to Steve Wozniak asking what he thought about “Welcome to Macintosh.”

Directors

Robert Baca & Joshua Rizzo are 2002 graduates of Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications. Robert resides in Columbus Ohio where works as a producer of industrial and commercial video. Joshua currently resides in Los Angeles and works as a post production systems engineer for TV and film. “Welcome to Macintosh” is the first feature-length documentary film from the pair.

Pros

• Star-studded cast.
• Perfect length for documentary
• Superb collection of Apple facts and insights
• Available on DVD

Cons

• Some of the cut scenes should have been included in the main movie
• iChat parts not so enjoyable due to quality
• Not available on iTunes Store

Verdict

If you couldn’t tell by my review, I thoroughly loved this docu-film. I went into the Welcome to Macintosh screening with an opinion based on other similar films which I won’t name here, which wasn’t a good opinion at all. Frankly I envisioned two hours of boredom.

Welcome to Macintosh delivered laughs, stark realisations, and a fantastic breakdown of Apple history and insight. I highly recommend it to anyone with even a vague interest in Apple.

dizzle’s Verdict

I concur with everything that Alex has said above. As a fairly new convert, I was completely transfixed by history that I was either previously unaware of or had only heard filtered through the lens of a story about Steve Jobs. It is somewhat unusual to find books or films on Apple in which the figure of Steve Jobs is not foremost, and I am glad that I did not know in advance that this film would be different as I might not have gone. However, I am glad I did as it really did open up a whole new world for me on the history apart from Jobs and a look into the whole Apple culture. I had brought two friends with me, one of which was not a Macintosh user. It was interesting to see how the film helped her to understand the unique atmosphere that exists in the Apple community that causes its member to band together over “just a computer.” She had known me pre-Macintosh, and witnessed the transformation over the past few years in my own devotion. Most people who would see this film will have already seen The Pirates of Silicon Valley to which, for me, this was a fascinating supplement. Even though the press had been given a free copy, I have also purchased an additional copy that I am going to donate to my Mac Users Group as an item for our monthly door prize raffle. In fact, I am going to recommend that we spend an evening together watching the film.