That was the original goal of the Gooseberry feature film, I’m guessing that axing the worldwide collaboration part was part of the scaling down to the ‘pilot’ episode.
Their next project is Agent 327 - it’ll be a non-open commercial movie based off an established IP, so they’re at least making moves in the direction you suggest. This even compares with what contemporary Hollywood is doing - picking up an established IP which already has a following and translating it to the screen. Investors are more likely to feel generous when there’s a proven IP involved. It raises the likelihood they’ll make their money back.
And if this test is anything to go off, BF - or technically the newly-convened Blender Animation Studios - can pull it off.
Let me just squash that one…
Everybody is working seriously hard. The impression you get from the weeklies might be because the weeklies are at 6pm on a Friday when we’re all tired and have to stop work for the broadcast, so we all just have a beer and relax for an hour.
We’re trying to make 10 minutes of animation of a furry flock of sheep on a field of grass with a tornado. Just imagine the technical challenges involved in doing that. Add to that the subtle and nuanced acting that the director is asking for and yeah, trust me everyone is working long hours and weekends at the moment to get this done.
As far as I know, this isn’t possible on YouTube.
I’m not sure about existing comments but it is easy to set up the comments so that they have to be approved before being posted.
I’m not saying that is what’s happening just that it is possible.
edit to add: I checked on my youtube site and it is indeed possible to remove any comments to your video. Still i’m not saying this is what is happening because I have no evidence that it is.
Sounds like you’re just bitter after having high expectations for the previous open movies. I meant a lack of any expectations, including negative ones. The sort of reaction you had when finding out about Elephant’s Dream.
With all due respect, my expectations on this one are pretty low. I was impressed by the lighting, by the fur/wool, and by the rendering… all of which appeal to me as an artist interested in Blender development. However, as a hook for a story, it is lacking. I’m not the only one saying it and, despite freen’s impression to the contrary, BA isn’t the only place saying it either.
Compare it to Sintel’s trailer. Approximately same length (3 seconds difference), less impressive rendering, and yet a far more engaging hook for the regular audience. Well received here too if I recall.
While Sintel’s story was well-received, people were complaining that it looks no better than “game graphics”. You just can’t please everybody, especially if it’s a small community with an inferiority complex. Movie’s not even out yet and folks are speculating about how much it will suck, or that the trailer doesn’t reveal much even when that won’t matter once the finished product is out. If there’s no interest or it or ends up sucking then fine, it’s an experiment after all, move on. No point in trying to artificially inject hype when there’s no interest.
The problem with listening to opinions on a forum like this is that there are too many people with too many backgrounds. Age, gender , nationality , personal preference all come in to this.
There are a lot of people into CGI that love sic-fi films and games, thats natural thats where its used most ,and that seems to be where most of the positive commentary regarding 3D animation and images on all forums is focused.
Any lack of commentary on this type of film should not been seen as a negative it just reflects the background of a lot of people into 3D.
Personally I’m 41, from the UK, hate most hollywood films including many of pixar and dreamworks largely bland output , love using 3D, we don’t all fit the old and some of us will try something different, its what art is about!
well, my 2 cents:
i think it is wrong to compare the teaser and CL to hollywood movies, in terms of success, budget spending (“money wasted”), etc. interstellar, tomorrowland, big hero 6 (to name a few) all had budgets circa 1-1.5 million $ per minute of film (not including PR budget, which would likely double that amount). that’s about 2 orders of magnitude higher than what CL has. (not to mention they are all kind of meh movies.) making a good movie, even a good short, is really really hard.
moreover, oftentimes the teasers/trailers are outsourced, which in this case would be a waste of money.
In my opinion it is important in a team that is not used to work with each other to reach for this kind of milestones. It means they have to finalize something and bring it to an end, which will most likely help them to finish the project due to the gathered experience. Just understanding who is responsible to do what and how are things coming together at the end may be extremely valuable.
i agree wholeheartedly with dantus here.
about the teaser itself, i liked it. the visuals are stunning, and it was generally appealing to me. is it the best teaser ever in the history of filmmaking? no. but it’s solid.
also, i think none of us here are good target audiences of the teaser. we all have biases, and we all know a lot about the production. the true measure of the teaser (from cinematic perpective) is something only people without prior knowledge can give. and that is not something likely to be found on BA.
TL;DR: i don’t know how will CL turn out to be. i reserve my judgment until the short is out. i do know that the team is working hard, and so far the results are encouraging.
>it’s an experiment after all
Well is it? Originally this project was declared by his Highness to be a full blown movie with multiple teams working simultaneously across the world.
A grand scheme being the logical culmination and extension of several successful previous projects. A stepping stone to a personal dream to make real movies in a real studio with Blender because well Blender is for artists.
That was it, one very big goal, no compromise. No commercial funding, no lesser duration. No one was going to tell the BI what to do. After a meeting of the best talent available the subject was announced to be… SHEEP!
Stunning! Gripping! A sure fire run away success. YES! It was to be 90-100 mins, O-P-E-N and have freedom for artists to do their own thing in their own time in the snug studio of the BI. There was no thought or consideration of anything else.
A Plan B was only conjured up after community fund raising fell well short of supporting the full movie, really something that might have been anticpated with a more pragmatic and flexible outlook. SHEEP! did not seem to capture enough imagination to open wallets.
So the next best idea was it would revert to be a decent pilot with a few scenes from different worlds to the same full movie pending securing more magical no-strings-attached philanthropic funding. I seem to remember at this stage it was to be nearly 20 mins long…
More chopping of the already belaboured and rehashed script ensued and there was a fair bit of artist work already done that was chopped as well. Exit jungle with frog, dragonfly and possibly 9 months of script refinement and re-refinement and re re refinement. Good work if you can get it.
Then it was announced perhaps unsurprisingly that the Dutch Film Institute didnt want to back the dispersed movie because it wasnt sufficiently Dutch and after all there was sufficient exisiting funds to cover a pilot and beyond. Shock!
After still more cuts and revisions which I will dare to call frittering away now valuable production time while not having any clear idea what we were wanting to deliver, what we actually have time for is put across as being an initial episode of a series.
For a long time it has to be said the artists worked as individuals on an open ended please yourself basis. The declared priority from Ton was to have fun, drink beers on Fridays, and not listen to any contrary comment, and so a lot of time went by before people got serious and worked as a team, far too much time.
As it is now this legacy or default episode is so short it struggles to tell any interesting story or engage any potential audience. In fact it has so little substance and so much done to death editing it is a virtual non event, a ‘meh’. Unfortunately we have been here before in other movies…
Honestly if the trailer was any longer or those blank seconds were filled it would have told us everything that we would see in the full 10 mins.
In short this project has gradually lost all its scale and worth, and yes there will be a lot of hard work and long hours to deliver at least something passable to stick on a DVD but the artists will come through and deliver as they have in the past.
Once again we have mishandled our way into a corner and will come away with something rather unremarkable when you think about what might or should have been.
If there was an experiment here it was to do with the blind belief we will achieve something regardless of a lack of thoughtful ‘management’.
Well, we’re talking about the teaser/trailer here, not the full film. Go back and check if you like, but the trailer for Sintel was better received than this one. Here and elsewhere. This is despite the “game graphics” level of rendering.
The Sintel trailer inspired more excitement for the final film than this teaser/trailer does. Pretending otherwise is not of benefit to anyone. This one is not made any more exciting, appealing, or audience-drawing by being revisionist about Sintel’s.
Inferiority complex? Oh goodie, freen’s “blame the BA community” narrative. That tactic just worked so well during the Gooseberry campaign, it’s being trotted out again. I mean, after trashing the community, the campaign just sailed through to success… oh, wait, maybe not. :rolleyes:
Seriously, is it the intention of BI & it’s supporters to blame the community for every negative impression of their work? It’s not like this one is even that harsh. “Fails to grab me” is a pretty weak as far as it goes but, hey, it’s clearly the community that’s got an inferiority complex. :rolleyes:
Just to clarify: I don’t “blame the community”, I said a handful of BA users, most of whom don’t seem to produce any artwork themselves. They aren’t the community.
Go make some art. It’s a better way to spend your time and might just give your opinions some weight.
- picture, lighting, attention to rendered/visual detail
- boring, no feel of storytelling/substance, too exaggerated visuals (waaaay too much camera shake, hair, colors…)
It shows it can be done, though also shows they have scarce or no experience with kids, audience, end users, nature, story telling, art…
With all due respect to your artistic talents, that line is complete and total bull$#%&… and, more importantly, I think you know it.
One doesn’t need to be an artist for an opinion about whether or not a teaser is exciting, alluring, or attention grabbing to have weight. Which was about the worst opinion expressed in this thread prior to your post about “churlish whinging”. Being an artist in no way gives an opinion about that more authority than anyone else. Unless, of course, the target audience is only artists. If that is the case, let us know so we aren’t judging it on the assumption the teaser was meant for everyone and not just artists that post their work for you to review.
For what it’s worth, I spent most of today creating art. Does that give my opinion more weight with you now?
Ooh, can we see?
When it’s finished, sure. Somewhat off-topic for this thread though. It is not Gooseberry art. 
–
[SUP][SUB]Edit: Realised this was probably implying I did not do so. If someone honestly wants to see what I’ve been working on, send me a PM and I’ll send a screenshot of the progress. I’m not interested in a back & forth “artist credibility” argument in this thread.[/SUB][/SUP]
Wow. That hurts.
I was going to suggest putting it on http://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?16-Works-in-Progress or http://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?23-Traditional if it’s still WIP. Invitation accepted.
Reading through this thread I am reminded of this quote – “Why can’t we work out our differences? Why can’t we work things out? Little people, why can’t we all just get along?”
Me. A blender user who has logged less than 100 hours using it.
For the passion and work the team has poured into CL, I just hope it comes out great.
Nice trailer, looking forward to the whole 10 minutes. The sheep looks spectacular.
Sorry for OT, but I can’t let this stand:
I wish! Where did you get that from? Maybe it’s true for the richest 10%. For most of the rest the opposite is true.
So basically you are saying we have to be chefs to be able to distinguish between bad and good food, movies’ directors to set apart good and bad movies, artists to like or dislike art, car manufacturers, interior designers, etc. You get the idea where I am going with that…
Another thing that baffles me is when people keep saying “passion”, “art”, etc. People forget when a company asks crowd (not even community) for money, there is certain level of expectations. Sure, there are fans who will fork over money for anything. It happens. Although there wouldn’t be enough money to make 10 min pilot with that.
So if CL was made out of own pocket, with no crowdfunding, we would really have no say-so in the matter. That’s how a lot of “I do what I want and you don’t understand a thing because you are …” art is made - creator does what he pleases and there are no strings attached. Then creator has all right to say: “Don’t like it - move on.”
Another version if there is an individual or a group of individuals with thick wallets who like the direction of CL, and they fund it.
CL’ case isn’t such case though. Especially if CL will need more funding.
You can’t just promise next big thing, get funding, show entirely something else (that is not impressive story wise and narrative wise), then respond to critique/suggestions as some individuals responded in the thread and ask for more money.
Would you, yourself, take a diluted 5% from concentrate orange juice when you paid for 100% freshly squeezed one ? 
Waow. As usual, things go crazy here !
we are sorry if people that supported us are disappointed with the trailer (which is more a teaser btw). Of course it’s hard to hear and read that but we accept it and we feel sorry for that. On the other hand a lot of people feel excited too ! Lots of kind words and great expectations for the pilot. A good teasing feeling seems to appear. Also from people not knowing the project at all (around me, online…)
It’s really related to your tastes, and as Jonathan “poked” said : who you are as an audience. I think I would have been curious and intrigued by this trailer. But teased like an inception or gravity trailer, of course not ! It’s not the same league.
Again my approach is to make something not “traditional” or too much alike big studios. And I think that was made clear from the beginning of our campaign. And this debate is also going on a lot in house and it’s very exciting to try to combine the best of indie and mainstream…
I’m very sensitive to criticism and I sure take them into account. But I also know we can’t please everyone supporting us. And supporting us is a challenge too 
so again, I really hope you’ll find something good out of it in the end… And believe it or not, we do work to please you.