Today we found some DVD’s (around 2500) outside the door of the Blender Institute. So we had the idea to just bring them inside and start packing them, get them ready for shipment. All I can say is pretty awesome.
Many thanks to Anne and Anja from the e-shop, some guys from the Apricot team and Martin Poirier (theeth) who are working hard to get the dvd’s out as fast as possible…… oh, and Ton too.
Peach out,
Sacha
The dvd gold masters were sent in time to the printer, with as aim the may 15 release. Of course the day after we sent the discs some errors were detected… like stereo sound in the ntsc movie, where 5.1 was more appropriate! New gold masters were sent, but it means that the printer needs extra days too. That means the discs get delivered here now on tuesday May 20th (confirmed date by printer). We then will ship all of them the same day.
The online release of the film will then happen 10 days later, May 30 or 31.
We’re already lining up great mirror websites, sufficient for everyone to watch or download the film the same day!
Really curious to learn your reactions… :)
-Ton-
(BTW: May 17 or 18 is Blender 2.46 release. We’re going to get a good website traffic test!)
We’re doing the last bits on the dvd set… encoding and authoring a video DVD and collecting and testing all files for the DVD-ROM is just a bit too much work to be really fun… especially for people suffering post-BBB fatigue! :)
Even after about 6-8 manweeks of work on this DVD we could easily add another four or so. Nevertheless, we should now finish! Here’s a quick shortlist of what you can expect, at least:
The day after the BBB premiere Ton was a member of a panel at a conference called ‘Economies of the Commons’, where topics as ‘financing open source and open content projects’ were discussed. Before the panel started Ton gave a presentation during which he also showed material from BBB. During the panel discussion there was a question from an audience member for Ton.
Yesterday morning, the talkshow producer from “De Wereld Draait Door” (DWDD, or “The world revolves”) phoned me if we were interested to be guest in the monday show. Surprise!
It especially was good news for our project and for Blender because the show is very well known in the Netherlands. It’s prime-time from 19.30 and 20.30, broadcasted on the quality public TV channel. Usually it hosts a varied mix of entertainment and information. Items typically don’t last more than 5-10 minutes. About half to a million people watch it daily.
The nice thing was also that the studio is literally around the corner, a few minutes walk away from the Blender Institute. So, we were there in time, got our make-up, drinks as much you wanted and excellent dinner. As groupies we could get Margreet, Campbell and William in.
Apart from getting surrounded by the obligatory Dutch tv celebs (the show host, a famous radio DJ, a political commentator, some actors), it was interesting to see how smooth and well organized it all went. For a daily show that already runs a couple of years quite logical though!
On the moment supreme it all went so fast that I’m still surprised a bit… it was overwhelming to suddenly have the talkshow host and cameras turning to you, and firing the first question to Sacha while you expected a movie fragment to be shown. You also clearly feel that the program makers are in extremely tight control, you’re merely a puppet that acts when they want you to say something… and please don’t be boring!
If you click on the image above you can watch the interview with subtitles on BlenderNation.
Thanks!
-Ton-
Here’s the first major newspaper article about the premiere. It’s the #1 newspaper here in Amsterdam, with mostly Amsterdam related topics. You can find most of this also on their website here:
“Big Buck schudt filmwereld op”
(“Big Buck shakes the movie world”)
The images:
First clipping is from page 8, right-bottom corner.
Second clipping is in the weekend supplement.
Note that they consider the “gratis” aspect most interesting! But, the “free software” concept is pretty well covered in the text.
Other news: currently the dvds are being authored… end of april it should be at the printer’s still. Expected release is May 15. But… you know how it goes when you announce dates! Let’s try at least. ;)
-Ton-
In the past years I’ve been asked a couple of times by companies to make the original renders if Elephants Dream available. They sent me a usb hard disk, and I just copied all of the OpenEXR files over. That made us think (great idea Campbell!) to just put a entire copy of our studio backup in the e-shop, on a 250 GB usb disk. Everything! All Creative Commons of course.
Now the first reports from the premiere get posted (check videos on Blendernation) almost everyone now is banging on o
ur doors to get the film as well! So… here’s some answers about what do now and what the intended schedule is.
This is an important aspect we should never forget. We were able to make BBB thanks to the generosity and confidence we received from people who ordered and paid for the DVD set. The deal we made was that they would get the dvds first, and only after that the files get released (which will go automatic, because the dvds are “CC-by”, open content).
To be able to wrap up the project and continue work in the Blender Institute and get ready for a new open films we depend on DVD sales still. This is a special hint for everyone who’s screaming for the downloads btw! :)
