Project Gooseberry Launch Trailer

The Blender Foundation, as part of developing Blender – the software we at Gecko spend most of our time using – has for several years now been producing short films to help drive forward software development by engaging with artists using Blender to find out what they need. Now the Foundation’s newest project is the most ambitious yet, and we’re on board!

The Gooseberry project launched yesterday (March 9th) at the South by Southwest Festival, and aims to write film history by producing the worlds first open-source feature film. Production will be split between twelve studios using Blender around the world, coordinated by the Blender Foundation in the Netherlands. At Gecko, we’re teaming up with art director Jonathan Ball (PokedStudio.com) as one of those studios. We’re very excited about the challenge of working on our first feature film and looking forward to starting work on it soon (we already produced one of the shots shown in the trailer above).

The project is currently seeking crowd funding, and we encourage you to join in. Project Gooseberry is a one of a kind project – production data from the film will be shared with backers, who will get unparalleled access to the film as it’s being made, and after a limited exploitation window dedicated to remunerating those who helped make the film, the final movie will be released under a creative commons licence. It’s a unique project and one we’re very proud to be a part of.

Crowd funding for the project has just launched. If you’re interested in Project Gooseberry you can visit Gooseberry.blender.org to find out more and support the film.