Background:
John Moran has often been considered the protege of composer Philip Glass. In 2003 Glass was quoted as saying, "I am convinced that there is no more important composer working today, than John Moran. His works have been so advanced as to be considered revolutionary." His strange, and impossible to describe works of music-theater have featured performers such as Iggy Pop, Uma Thurman, Julia Stiles and Allen Ginsberg, and have toured to international acclaim. As a composer and choreographer, Moran has been compared by The New York Times to such figures as Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp. And The Boston Globe has written, "Moran is a modern-day Mozart." Between 2005-2011, Moran created works for the brilliant and charasmatic Japanese dancer and performer Saori Tsukada. Together, the duo toured extensively throughout Europe and America.
For a full-length example of 'John Moran...and his neighbor, Saori'
http://youtu.be/ln_3thwwJqU
Project Description:
An 'Open Source' Animated Movie by composer/theater-artist John Moran, featuring Saori Tsukada, based on the original stage-work which toured Europe extensively for several years after being commissioned by The Arches (Glasgow, Scotland) and Das Pumpenhaus (Münster, Germany) in 2010.
The feature-length film is currently in animation and post-production phase. The completed film is expected for 2014, and the film, plus all the original source material will be available online, and dedicated to the public domain. This means that anyone can re-design or remake the film, at will. Also included in the online package, are a series of animation/compositing tutorials by the artist.
What does 'Open Source' mean for a movie?
'Open Source' means that all of the original (green-screen) footage, plus it's models and original elements, plus extensive animation tutorials by the artist, are available over the internet for anyone to re-design / re-create the movie, without charge.
This means, that as technology evolves, the work can be re-imagined, and re-created by anyone, with the work and all it's elements being dedicated to the public-domain. Also included in the online-package, a series of Animation and Digital-Compositing Tutorials are offered by the artist, also free of charge.
[Images from Tutorial Series]
The 3D-modeling software used to create the project, is Blender - a free, open source animation, compositing software and gaming engine, which boasts a huge, international community of support and extensive documentation on wikipedia. If you don't already know about Blender, check out www.blender.org
What is needed for the project to be completed?
Currently, the work is entirely shot - with director of photography Michael Intile - and is in animation/post-production phase. John Moran is doing all the animation and CGI work himself, along with the soundrack and score at his studio in Bangkok, Thailand. For examples of the film, please see the video presented at the top of this page.
The work is expected to be completed for 2014, and the artist is creating the work solely, requiring an almost 24/7 approach to meet it's completion deadline. Hardware is needed, like back-up drives and a replacement computer (having recently burnt through the graphics cards on the first one dedicated to the project), plus the costs of operating a studio in Bangkok, where the composer works this year on the project.
Every Donation is Appreciated...can be of any amount, and in most currencies.
Please help this open-source project reach the net by 2014
For more information about John Moran:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moran_(composer)