[Bf-marketing] ED public release

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

It's going online soon... today! So I've re-edited the previous  
release; will then mail it to about 20 of my press contact list. PLease  
check text!

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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 Open Source  
tools only, 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  
Attribute", 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 Project Orange, 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 on 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 have been shipped early May 2006. As promised, shortly after,  
the movie and database of source material will be made 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



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Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org