Look into Elephants Dream.

Talking to the director of an open source movie

Ruslan Kulski interviews Bassam Kurdali, director of Elephants Dream

From the site: Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use however you please, under a Creative Commons license.

Ruslan Kulski: What was the catalyst that brought all of the contributors together on this project? What was inspiring all these people to contribute?

Bassam Kurdali: The contributors for the project were primarily (a) blender users, (b) interested in film making and animation, and (c) interested in making an open movie and a contribution to open source film making. Inspiration probably was personal for all of us, so it's hard to say one thing for the entire team.

Q: Was the core team on 'Elephants Dream' made entirely of volunteers, or did the open aspect of the film consist of the software used and the licensing?

A: The core team was paid- for sure not "industry rates," just enough living expenses to be able to work and live in Amsterdam for 6-7 months. The open aspect consists of the licensing and software used, we also did solicit outside help for some specific tasks, and had some great volunteer contributors, that you can see on the credits.

Q: Are there any stories/anecdotes that encapsulate the free/open nature of the project?

A: No specific anecdote seems to fit the bill exactly. An interesting ongoing effect has been the degree of involvement many in the community have had with the movie- such as people who volunteered textures, help and code to the project, and the (still ongoing) stream of criticism and praise the movie gets- which I think is a healthy sign that people feel involved, and that they have a say in this movie. I hope this results in new open movies, and further uses and remixes of the Elephants Dream material.

Q: Has the use of the Creative Commons license inspired others to use your work?

A: Yes, there have been some remixes of the movie set to different music or ideas- even the recent net neutrality issue. A big use has been for education purposes, such as self teaching, or incorporating models and materials into peoples pictures and animations.

Ripped wholesale from here...

Project Orange

‘Elephants Dream’ is the result of almost a year of work, a project initiated and coordinated by the Blender Foundation. Six people from the Blender user/development community were selected to come over to Amsterdam to work together on an animated short movie, utilizing Open Source tools only.

Below you can find the text describing the original motivation and background for Project Orange

Motivation

With Blender originating as an in-house creation tool, the day-to-day feedback and interaction of both developing and using the software was one of its most outstanding features.

In the past 2.5 years of open source development, it was especially this uniqueness of Blender that has proven to be difficult to organize and maintain. The Blender Foundation itself has no intention to grow or expand into a company or studio; such a development would conflict with the public benefit goals. Instead, the Foundation aims at endorsing and supporting activities within (educational) institutes, universities and companies.

It is our conviction that establishing - content targeted - incidental, independent and temporal projects will be a strong boost for open source development strategies in general. Daily interaction of artists and developers can not only result in proof of concepts, but also in research of innovative solutions for the whole range of tools artists can deploy.

By keeping such projects content focused and temporal, it also is possible for a wide range of currently active volunteers to participate. Not many people are in a position to give up a career (study, job) to become full-time employed on the projects of their interest. But there are many active volunteers prepared and motivated to do this incidentally for shorter time spans.

Whilst Project Orange’s prime target is to create an outstanding movie short, the secondary goal is to research efficient ways to increase quality of Open Source projects in general.

Producers

The project has been a co-production of Montevideo and Blender Foundation, both sharing financial responsibility on equal basis. Both producers will decide and agree together on the Milestones A) Creative Concept and B) Final Project Plan.

All production related internal staff costs of the producers are excluded from the financial plan. The producers jointly will further define their respective tasks for this.
Overall project coordination

The Blender Foundation will be responsible for establishing and coordinating the team, making a project plan, coordinating the concept/scripting/story-boarding, tools development, post-production & audio, and project deliverables.
Employment issues

For those who will be part of the “core” team, Montevideo will do the legal/taxes stuff, housing arrangement, and actually will hire the team.
Subsidy/Funding

Montevideo will take the lead for applying subsidy grants with funds like The Dutch Film Fund, the Mondrian Fund or the VSB Fund.

The Blender Foundation will finance their contribution via an internet community based donations campaign, based on pre-sale of the “extended DVD edition”.
Blender Foundation

Frederiksstraat 12-2
1054 LC Amsterdam
the Netherlands

foundation (at) blender.org

Producer: Ton Roosendaal
Project management/finances: Angela Plohman

Montevideo
Netherlands Media Art Institute

Montevideo / Time Based Arts

Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
the Netherlands

T +31 20 623 7101

Producers: Gaby Weijers and Annet Dekker

© Copyright & sharing info

Press Release

May 18, 2006
For Immediate Release

Elephants Dream, internet release of the first 3D ‘Open Movie’

(Blender Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - The 3D animated short ‘Elephants Dream’ will today be released as a free and public download. This is the final stage of a successfully completed Open Movie project which has been community-financed, using only Open Source tools, and opening up the movie itself as well as the entire studio database for everyone to re-use and learn from. The movie and production files are licensed as “Creative Commons Attribution 2.5″, which only requires a proper crediting for public screening, re-using and distribution.

In the past weeks, the donating sponsors have received the dual DVD set of this project in their mailbox. This DVD set remains for sale via the blender.org e-shop as support product for future Open Movie projects. The Blender Foundation is committed to start working on similar projects soon.

The movie files and download mirrors can be accessed here:
http://www.elephantsdream.org/download

Elephants Dream is the culmination of the Orange Open Movie Project, produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The project was conceived to help develop and establish the capabilities of the Blender 3D open source tool for the creation of cinema quality animation.

The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two people with different visions of the surreal world in which they live. Viewers are taken on a journey through that world, full of strange mechanical birds, stunning technological vistas and machinery that seems to have a life of its own.

‘Elephants Dream’ features the voice talents of renowned Dutch movie actors Tygo Gernandt and Cas Jansen, as well as an original score by German composer Jan Morgenstern. The short brought together the talents of a team of artists from countries as diverse as Syria, Germany, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. In addition to the performances of the cast and creative efforts of the lead artists, Elephants Dream has had the assistance of hundreds of individuals across the world who contributed a variety of work such as programming additional functionality for Blender, creating textures used in some of the scenes, and providing international translations for the DVD release.

The files have been released on two DVDs with the movie in PAL, NTSC and HD formats, a making-of documentary, and all of the studio files. The DVDs were shipped in early May 2006. As promised, shortly after, the movie and database of source material is now available for public download as well.

Studio Orange team:
Director: Bassam Kurdali (Syria /USA),
Art Director: Andreas Goralczyk (Germany)
Lead Artists: Matt Ebb (Australia), Bastian Salmela (Finland), Lee Salvemini (Australia)
Technical Director: Toni Alatalo (Finland)

For more information:

http://www.elephantsdream.org
http://www.blender.org

Contact:
Ton Roosendaal
Chairman, Blender Foundation
Email: ton(at)blender.org

© Copyright & sharing info

Elephants Dream was made by a core group, with the assistance of varied individuals and organizations.

Homepage - http://orange.blender.org/ or http://www.elephantsdream.org

Download & Watch - http://orange.blender.org/download

Credits - http://orange.blender.org/theteam

DVD purchase - http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info.php?products_id=84

Background - http://orange.blender.org/background

Press - http://orange.blender.org/press

'Making of' presentation - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1831262087977442632&hl=en