Elephants Dream
Produced by Ton Roosendaal; directed by Bassam Kurdali
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 under a Creative Commons license. The short film was created by the Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam during 2005/2006, bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world.
Following is a preview of the film and a backgrounder on how it was made.
Elephants Dream (10 minutes)
Making of Elephants Dream, Part 1 (8 minutes)
Following is an interview with the film's producer Ton Roosendaal.
Q: Was the original idea to produce the film for Internet as the main medium of distribution? Why did you choose Internet distribution?
Ton: The original idea was to produce the film based on internet community funding, via a presale of DVDs and - after the DVDs arrived - an online release of the film and its production data. We can afford to release it all under a free and open license by pre-financing the entire project, which makes internet distribution then fully possible.
Q: Did a decision to distribute via Internet change the way you produced the film, for example did it influence length of the film or storytelling style?
Ton: The target was not to distribute it via the Internet, but to produce a film using open source software and use the studio with artists to help improving the Blender 3d creation suite. Having it available online was just a logical implication of this decision.
Q: What was your experience in using Internet for distribution? Are you pleased with the results, hopeful for the future?
Ton: Although millions have watched our films online - or downloaded it - the fact it's available as DVD or blu-ray was a great added value. Downloading several gigabytes of data was not attractive for everyone. Having a nice DVD on your shelf also serves as a good backup! There's also lack of good quality HD streaming services available.
