Hi There

[A1]

i just checked, it looks very good!

Welcome to TOONDRA, the first Video On Demand (VOD) web site that is specifically dedicated to animated short films.


Who are we?
TOONDRA is a company made up of independent authors and producers of animated films (short films and series). They have come together as creators and promoters of the short film format and have decided to offer direct access to their work via the http://www.toondra.com web site. Users can now access short films which are rarely available to the general public.


Our approach
Most of the films that you will be discovering here have been presented at many film festivals worldwide. Many of them have received awards and have been broadcast on television (often very late at night) or in cinemas. They are films in their own right, a testimony to the talent of many artists and directors, as well as the passion of seasoned directors.
TOONDRA's mission is to use this web site to offer a space that is always accessible to as many people as possible, to discover the largest possible choice of animated short films, which is a sector where films are often extraordinarily inventive.
For example, you will be able to acquire cult series, highlights of animation or films that had been reserved for a savvy public until now.


Online sales and copyrights
The films that you can download on the TOONDRA web site are being sold within a legal framework. We have concluded agreements with the beneficiaries of the copyright for their use on the Internet..
When you buy a short film from TOONDRA, the sales price, after the payment intermediary's commission has been deducted, is distributed as follows :
- 50 % to beneficiaries of the film (producers, directors, authors, etc.)
- 50% to TOONDRA who runs the site, is in charge of the technical aspect of providing the films and regularly updating the catalogue.


Functioning of the site
The TOONDRA web site proposes a catalogue of short films and animated series that are available for sale by downloading.
The procedure is very easy, and comprises the following stages:
- sign up to create an account
- browse the site to discover the films available (film fact sheets, extracts, etc.)
- select the films in the catalogue by adding them to your shopping cart
- validate the payment and choose the payment mode
- downloading the films you've bought

However, i do not know how to get your film on there.
It might be worth investigating and if you do please let us know what your findings are

[masterchief]

have any of you considered actually hosting your animations on your own websites? purchasing a domain name, etc....

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/


regards,
William

[idragosani]

have any of you considered actually hosting your animations on your own websites? purchasing a domain name, etc....

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/

Yes... but some providers have monthly bandwidth limits and will charge extra if you exceed it... of course, you could just post clips and offer the full piece for sale of DVD or CD-ROM or something

[masterchief]

I use yahoo webhosting... gonna call them for clarification.

regards,
William

[Peter Wassink]

i just checked, it looks very good!

Toondra

However, i do not know how to get your film on there.
It might be worth investigating and if you do please let us know what your findings are

yes, i love this initiative, unfortunately their catalog is still rather small and there aren't a lot of classics.
I had hoped this at first because I received a mailing anouncing their startup through the Annecy festival, so i thought i could maybe find all films that where once shown there!
imagine that, alas no such luck.

[masterchief]

I just talked with Justin in Portland, Oregon (YAHOO)... he says unlimited means UNLIMITED contingent on how popular you become of course because they are shared servers for the entire yahoo webhosting community. justin wants me to give out his number to anyone interested in asking him for additional info. contact me first.

regards,
William

[idragosani]

I just talked with Justin in Portland, Oregon (YAHOO)... he says unlimited means UNLIMITED contingent on how popular you become of course because they are shared servers for the entire yahoo webhosting community. justin wants me to give out his number to anyone interested in asking him for additional info. contact me first.

Google may offer something similar also.

[masterchief]

so... the way I see it, you can either create your own site to post your animations OR use services already available and be concerned about what happens to your material, etc.. just have to shop around.

anybody look at podcasting??? this would be appropriate where you distribute from your website or ftp server.


regards,
William

[hisko]

Stefan,

I suddenly realise that our producers ( www.illuster.nl ) have a podcast -thing or whatever it's called. I'm not sure about the quality though.
Maybe you have to ask them when they are back from Annecy.

[Anim8tor Cathy]

Wow - I'm so late to the party!
Just wanted to say "Welcome" Stefan and tell you that I really enjoyed your show reel. The work that you and Hisko are doing on Junkyard is really amazing. He was kind enough to send me a clip. The depth of color and vibrancy of each scene is so impressive. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your work.

-Cathy

[Stefan]

Thanks Cathy,

but most of the the credit for the work on Junkyard should really go to Hisko (especially the dept of color and vibrancy of the image).I'm just a humble (and I hope capable) servant in this.

I will look into some of the suggestions that were made regarding publishing of my films. I kind of like the toondra-idea but doubt hat it will be a success if you have to pay for a download . I'm more with Paul on this that online content will have to be free (and income for the authors should be generated otherwise) for such a site to be a success. Podcast might be nice, but indeed what about the image quality?


In the meantime I'm preparing to upload some clips through yousendit (QT MPEG 4). I think I can upload them and provide you a link. The clips should stay on their server for 7 days and/or 100 downloads.

I'll post the links ASAP

[Stefan]

Underneath the link to download a sequence from The Polish Ambulance Murders.
This sequence was/is used as the opening sequence for a documentary feature that was broadcasted on BBC Four last februari.
I made 2 other sequences for a 3 episode version of the same film + a sequence for the end titles (not used by the BBC since they want 30'' max. scrolling end titles only ). The film had a cinema release in Sweden also. Software: Mirage. Technique rotoscopy (!).

Format Quicktime MPEG 4 Size approx. 40 Mb

https://download.yousendit.com/882CCEDD441BDDAA

Enjoy!
Stefan

[hisko]

.I'm just a humble (and I hope capable) servant in this.

I still look in awe at the way you animated shot 49, where the boy tries to keep in balance. I would say that you are a better animator than I am.

[Stefan]

You're too kind Hisko

Meanwhile I had a look at the Toondra site and I recalled having applied already for this site.
As far as I know it is not explained on the site how to enter your films.
I did send them an e-mail a while ago but never got a reply.
I suspect the site is an exclusive initiative from three or four small (french and belgian)production houses .
I know one of the producers vaguely and could try to find out.

[Yojimbo]

Almost any webhost today will give you many terabytes of bandwidth on their most basic plan, for less than $10 per month, or they are not being competitive. There is actually no value whatsoever to the creator of intellectual property to post their work on those content portals. I mean any of them! Their goal is to have the most amount of content possible to attract the most amount of users to gain the most amount of advertising revenue. That's all. They don't care about any individual piece of work and they are not promoting it.

The problem with content portals, especially the big ones, is how easy it is to simply get buried. This can happen in mere minutes on Youtube, an only takes slightly longer on others.

Your website is the future. It maybe was too much for home users to handle in the past, though I did it as far back as 2000, but today there is no reason to turn your work over to anyone. Some great creators out there (Drowtales, Homestarrunner) do everything on their own site. They spend the time to build up an audience, and then they turn it into revenue by any of the common means used today on the net.