Cosmos Laundromat (codenamed “Project Gooseberry”) is a 10-minute short film, a funny and absurdist 3D-animated story targeted at audiences aged 13 and older. With a planned release date of August 2015, this short will serve as the pilot of a feature film project, which would be the world’s first free/open source animated feature-film production.
On a desolate island, a suicidal sheep named Franck meets his fate…in the form of a quirky salesman named Victor, who offers him the gift of a lifetime. The gift is many lifetimes, actually, in many different worlds – each lasting just a few minutes. In the sequel to the pilot, Franck will find a new reason to live…in the form of a bewitching female adventurer named Tara, who awakens his long-lost lust for life. But can Franck keep up with her?
The contents of this website, including artwork, is licensed as Creative Commons. For more info, scroll all the way down!
Franck is a tricky character, as he’s starting as a tragic suicidal sheep who suddenly finds hope.
If there’s one person who can pull this off, it’s Emmy-award-winning actor Pierre Bokma.
Victor is a bit of a mystery — he has a rich backstory that won’t be fully revealed in the pilot. The important thing to know about him for now is that he’s much older than he looks…and he’s on a match-making mission.
Rising Dutch star Reinout Scholten van Aschat nailed the audition with his improvised take on the enigmatic man with the mix tape.
When Franck meets the butterfly Tara in his new life as a caterpillar, it’s clear this isn’t her first time wearing a timer. Yet she and her answers are always just out of reach…
Bracha van Doesburgh perfectly embodies the white butterfly’s femininity and playfulness.
Read more about the actors in Ton’s casting announcement. Voice recordings will take place in January in Amsterdam’s Desmet Studio’s. We will use a boom mike for the recording so that the actors can move around and interact with each other for more realistic performances. (See the making of the film Rango for an example.)
Franck is not alone on his desolate opening island. Behold his fellow sheep! Franck is not alone on his desolate opening island. Behold his fellow sheep!
Unlike Tara, Franck doesn’t have wings…so, when he needs to hitch a ride, this dragonfly is how he does it.
The 10-minute pilot takes place across three different locations:
Franck begins the film as a sheep on a desolate grass island. This is where he meets Victor…and the tornado that whisks him off to his first new life.
Franck’s first new life, as a caterpillar, takes place in a colorful, sticky jungle…where he meets Tara, a butterfly in this world.
The final setting of the pilot film, seen just briefly in the final shot, is Cosmos Laundromat itself. Here you get a glimpse of how Victor’s “magic” works, and the literal meaning behind his promise to Franck that his new lives will “wash him clean.”
If and when the feature film (or an ongoing series) is realized, there will be many other settings as Franck visits a series of completely different worlds — at least one realized by each of the 12 international studios selected to complete a section of the film — to live out his many lives in pursuit of Tara.
Cosmos Laundromat is an open and free production — which means that not only will the final movie and all its assets be freely distributed (under a Creative Commons license) for personal viewing and use, but the entire production process is open to the eyes of the public.
Currently, you can follow the ins and outs of the production process through this blog (including recaps of the weekly livecasts, which you can watch as they happen on our YouTube channel every Friday at 6pm Central European Time) and the Blender Cloud. The Cloud is where you will find the animatics, .blend files, and other bigger or additional assets.
The Cloud is also the primary means of fundraising for the pilot project. Supporters can sign up for a subscription to gain access not only to these extra Gooseberry project assets but also to all the training videos and assets from the Blender Institute’s previous free and open projects. All subscriptions, and subscription renewals, help Blender hire more artists and developers to not only make a better movie now but also build better software for the future. Bonus: You’re helping us prove that free/open source moviemaking is a viable business model. (See the Get Involved section of this site for more information.)
Ultimately, the Cloud should be a place where supporters can also contribute to the production process, uploading their versions of shots, etc. But that is another software goal we will need your support to achieve!
The art of Cosmos Laundromat is constantly evolving, as you can see the characters and settings evolving from bottom to top in the gallery below. (You can click each picture to see the full image.) Feel free to share this artwork — and keep in mind that there’s more to find (plus full animatics and even .blend files) on the Blender Cloud.
The ongoing and final work of the Gooseberry Open Movie project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. This includes all the data we publish on this website and, ultimately, on the DVDs. If any content on this site is not licensed as such, it will be clearly indicated.
In short, this means you can freely reuse and distribute this content, also commercially, as long you include proper attribution.
The attribution is (if not specifically mentioned otherwise):
(CC) Blender Foundation | gooseberry.blender.org
Excluded from the Creative Commons license is: all logos on this website (including the Blender logo, Gooseberry logo, Creative Commons logo, sponsor logos) and associated trademarks. Also excluded is material that’s clearly not produced by the Gooseberry project, such as magazine covers.
For questions about licensing rights for Gooseberry content you can email: foundation at blender.org.
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