Here we have a Tube Open Movie postcard / A5 suitable for printing! Rather than ship them all over the world, we offer the print-ready files [front, back] (in CMYK with bleed margins in place). We hope anyone who wants to help promote the project and campaign knows of a few spots to post them or pass them around. If you want to show the image on the web, better to use the ones displayed. Thanks for helping us get the word out!
At officially 1:27pm EST Saturday, we heard the BOOM that pushed us over the threshold to achieve real funding. Since Kickstarter pledges are not guaranteed until the target is met, it feels in a way like this is the real beginning. Looking back over the slog of reaching the production mid-point by keeping a low overhead, trading lots of favors and putting anything earned back into Tube, I can only say what a fine day indeed! Mega-thanks to our earliest supporters for their solidarity and incredible backing.
Tube is designed to scale with the resources we have. You can see from the project video that we are hard at work making the movie, in tandem with running its campaign — and we want the result to be amazing. Crucially, further funds will allow us to focus on Tube without interruption, give commissions to our valiant crew and make new hires. Budget permitting, Bassam made this sketch of what other passengers on the train might look like:
In the next few days we’ll post a video update about this week in production, showing some of the cool tools we’ve developed to help us (and you!). Let’s keep momentum building, and make this a totally awesome movie under the clock we’ve set ticking.
AND NOW FOR AN EASILY FORWARDED SUMMARY
Animation with substance. The crowd funds it, the crowd owns it.
Elephants Dream, the original open movie directed by Bassam Kurdali, proved it possible to make high quality 3D animated films using free/libre tools in a studio setting. The Tube Open Movie is a new experiment, this time in distributed collaboration — a love letter to free software and open culture that marks their convergence with independent filmmaking.
Tube is inspired by the Gilgamesh poem, which comes down to us as an incomplete, conflicting set of fragments and variations, the clay tablet remnants of more than a few ruined libraries. The epic centers on the Sumerian king that ruled in ancient Iraq, who for his tyranny the gods teach friendship and loss, and through them, the fear of his own death. In the end, the immortality he achieves is different to the one he first seeks. Nearly five thousand years later, Gilgamesh, a woman and a soldier, rushes into a station in pursuit of a paper blown about by the passing of trains. In an ever-accelerating vortex, her hero’s journey becomes the animation’s own frames.
The finished film and its mountain of data assets will be released under CC Attribution-ShareAlike, meaning that you can use them for anything — even commercial appropriation — at no charge, but you are required to allow others to reuse your work on the same terms.
Your support will enable us to complete a movie in which a passionate volunteer team has invested years of hard labor. We hope you will check it out and spread the word.
http://kickstarter.com/projects/1331941187/the-tube-open-movie
(Production blog at http://URCHN.ORG)
We are thrilled to report that our podmates Evan Viera and Chris Bishop have premiered their new short, Caldera at SXSW. Chris Bishop is of course also wielding his supreme anim supervisory-fu on Tube. Congratulations to the whole Caldera team, and the excellent Bit Films mentoring and independent production program at Hampshire College that helped the movie happen. Look for it at festivals and thereafter in full release on the web!
Calling all students (18+), recent graduates, and professionals wanting to ply their 3D skills in libre software:
Applications are open to join Bassam’s team this summer for the ‘Tube’ production, hosted by the very cool Bit Films Animation Incubator at Hampshire College, Massachusetts.
Helmed by Chris Perry, formerly of Pixar and Rhythm & Hues, the program draws together a number of interesting projects and a lot of talent, so although the internships are unpaid, it promises to be a very stimulating and fruitful space.
For applicants to Tube, there is a possibility that housing can be offered.
The official internship period runs from Tuesday May 31, 2011 through Friday August 26, 2011. Applications are due (via email) no later than Monday May 16, 2011 at 5pm (EDT). We understand that this is short lead time for those needing to make visa and travel arrangements. Because the project is ongoing, the internship period is flexible; if in doubt, apply!
Although it may not provide as immersive an experience, we are open to considering applicants to a remote internship. Remote interns would join the already global team using our web-based project management software, SVN, and IRC.
Please read *carefully* the open positions announcement and FAQ! Have more questions? Email fateh [at] freefac [dot] org.