Sintel, the Durian Open Movie Project

Post-premiere sponsoring: stereoscopic 3D

Although Sintel has been released, we will still continue to work on re-rendering the film in 4k format (3840 pixels wide, for digital projection or screens). This is being sponsored by the Amsterdam Cinegrid consortium, and will be available (tentatively) end of 2010.

As last and ultimate target we also would love to be able to deliver the film in stereoscopic format. We believe that an open and free accessible ‘stereo 3d’ film has a great potential to become a worldwide test and evaluation standard. It’s currently even open to deliver this in stereo-4k.

Blender Institute intends to produce this with the highest quality possible, which means that all shots in the film will be carefully (re)designed by an experienced stereographer assisted by experiended Blender artists. We also want to spend considerable time on optimizing and implementing an efficient stereographic editing workflow in Blender (camera tools, integrated render, compositing).

You can e-mail Ton Roosendaal to get further information about this opportunity.

Sponsor prospectus

The production method we use has proven to be very interesting for various companies to get involved with. Thanks to the open nature – both software and content is freely licensed – we can provide an unique offering for sponsors. We have nothing to hide, so access to the studio pipeline or methods how content gets created can be freely defined with partners. Think for example of:

Testing specific hardware or technology in our production pipeline
Delivering content exactly according specifications of a third party (color depth, multi-layer, resolution, frame rate, stereo, etc). Sponsors or partners can also get early access to the results.
Having specific features developed that align well with our content creation, so it gets tested and validated well.

Apart from that, we have high profile projects that generate a lot of good publicity and PR. Having your name credited well (film scroll, website, press) or using special artwork we made can give good added value.

Project Partners

Project Partners are companies or institutions that have a direct and immediate interest in our work and or production pipeline. With them we can discuss delivery formats, technology to use or to develop. We expect partners to help funding the project for about 10% of our direct costs, plus covering for the additional expenses and man-days it takes to realize it.

Project Partners get premium crediting and mentioning on co-producer level. Around the premiere date of the film they will also get a USB disk with all original frames and original soundtrack of the film, in highest quality.

Development Sponsors

Durian had a very impressive list of features we want to add in Blender. We would like to have as many developers as possible working on it, preferably here in the studio – for day to day interaction with artists – but remote work is well possible too.

For practical reasons, limited time and resources, we can of course always decide to drop some features. But as a Development Sponsor you can ensure we’ll spend sufficient time on realizing it! Funding level will depend on the amount of time we expect it to take, which will be calculated using the average costs of a man-month in this project (4000 euro p.m.).

Development Sponsors get well credited and mentioned, which will be further negotiated based on the contribution.

Premium Sponsors

The Premium Sponsor credit is for those who have sponsored the project – in cash, services or material – with at least 10,000 euro.

Premium Sponsors can get crediting on the blog frontpage, get a prominent film scroll and dvd credit, mentioned on film poster and DVD backside cover, and in press releases. Around the premiere date of the film they will also get a USB disk with all original frames and original soundtrack of the film, in highest quality.

Main Sponsors

The Main Sponsor credit is for those who have sponsored the project – in cash, services or material – with at least 2500 euro.

Main Sponsors will get well credited and mentioned in the film and dvd credit scrolls, on the sponsor page of the website. Around the premiere date of the film they will also get a USB disk with all original frames and original soundtrack of the film, in highest quality.

Gold Sponsors

The Gold Sponsor is for those sponsoring our project with at least 250 euro. Credits will be included in a special section of the film credit scroll, on the website and on the DVD itself. The movie DVD itself is included too.

DVD Sponsors

As usual we will organize a DVD pre-sale campaign, giving everyone the opportunity to get their name mentioned in the main film credit scroll (for those who purchase and pay before the project starts) or in the a special DVD credits scroll (for those who purchase and pay before the film premiere).

Past experience has taught us that such credit is being perceived as very valuable, we will make more efforts to ensure we don’t miss a name this time!