LBT Series Project

[bestariana1girl]

The project is having thegangoffive family/members all come together and make a great ending sequel(movie) to TLBT. Here are our concerns- 1. not enough members 2. we don't have a sort of budget 3. Many of us are pretty busied with their lives anyway... 4. Universal is really strict on copyright. Anyway, to do this we would need pro animators who know how to do the job and write down the people who want to participate. Then Ducky123 and I would assign us and the people who want to participate their parts. By parts I mean what part of the movie they'd be writing. But whatever part you have you must read all the parts. Then we would have to give the movie to thegangoffive animators.   Do you think we should do this, or we would get in trouble?

[Kor]

One way is to change the characters enough so that there could be no being hit with copyright infringement.  I'm not copyright expert so I'm not sure what would need to be done.  But that is one way to avoid it.

[Ducky123]

I don't know if there is a place that is relatively safe from being discovered by people from Universal Studios and co. ... the GoF certainly isn't. Sharing any parts of the movies (which includes even self-produced and animated stuff I'm afraid) is a risk to our community, since somebody might get the idea to erase the GoF from the net due to copyright violation, and is therefore not allowed
I therefore suggest not doing the project itself directly on the GoF... though planning and discussion should be fine

Kor: Yeah, I agree... Though could we still consider this 'The Land Before Time' then?

Anyway, I will support this idea, if there's a way I could be of help

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

I think it would be good if this movie was darker like the first one.

[FreckledOne]

I personally don't see the difference between a fan film and a fanfic or fanart, and they're allowed. I think copyright laws have something in them concerning fanworks that basically says as much. You would just have to put disclaimers all over it, saying that it is a fanwork, not official, that you're not making money off it and that the LBT is owned by Universal Studios.

When you ever get to that point in production I would volunteer to help animate. First you might want to think about storyboarding, voices, and layouts after you write the story.

[Malte279]

Copyright concerns in case of such a non-profit fan project would be a concern relatively far down the queue I think. Lacking know-how about how to make an actual movie would be further up and way up would be the matter that so far it has not been possible to set up a gang of five meeting in general that would have involved GOF members from both sides of the Atlantic / Pacific. The costs are unfortunately more than most of us can shoulder, the times in which individual members could take for such a meeting without interference from school, college or work all too often don't overlap and there would have to be an agreement on the place to meet and anyone living close to that place would have to take on the organizing work to house a number of GOF members that would still have to be determined. While this thread shows the great interest in such a meeting it also reveals the difficulties which are not easy to overcome.
It might not be necessary (though quite desirable) for an actual real life meeting to take place in a time when much of the communication could be done via internet. Nonetheless I think a meeting would be rather important for everyone involved in such a project to actually get to know each other and exchange their views and opinions on what should be in this project.
Even in case we find the know-how (in terms of both knowledge and programs/materials) necessary to make a movie among our members there will be the difficulty of sometimes very different ideas of fans on what should be part of another movie and what should not. A clash of different opinions about the content might discourage participants in such a project if the plans for the content of such a movie do not coincide with their own ideas of another movie. In case of actual movie productions somebody is in charge to accept or decline different plans for the movie and others comply because it is a job they are paid for. In case of such a non-profit project in which everyone would pay (in terms of time, enthusiasm and money) such a "person in charge" approach would likely not work for everyone investing in such a project would want to see the own plans to be (at least partly) realized in the final project. A possible attempt to make "democratic" majority decisions of everyone involved in the project is not very likely to result in a very coherent project (not to mention the additional organizational difficultites).
With all this I do not mean to discourage the project, but these are some of the concerns one would have to think about and to which one needs to find solutions before we would have a chance of getting sued by Universals for any copyright violations with a non-profit fan project.

[DarkWolf91]

Malte brings up a good point. You would have to have a core team of people, and they would have to be dedicated to the project and be willing to compromise with one another. I've been on the ground floor on a lot of independent projects, and the main reason I've seen them abandoned is because the self-proclaimed 'director' disappears or loses interest. Having a creative 'team' at the head would help with that, but as Malte pointed out it might cause contention with other production members who weren't on the 'team,' and the team itself may fall to bickering and inaction. As for the contention, that might be solved by taking a democratic approach to production decisions. The heads would have to have the final say, but an open conversation and suggestion forum surrounding each potential choice might get rid of the bitterness factor that could arise in a more dictatorial system. As for the bickering and inaction... well, that's partly luck of the draw, partly team members being willing to police themselves and each other

Also, I happen to be an animator who knows a bit about film production
Are you planning on a feature length sequel? If so, plan on it taking many years to complete, and don't have high expectations as to the quality of the final product. Animation is a labor of love, and it is extremely time consuming. It is also very difficult to find animators who are willing to work for free, and, as you mentioned, most people's lives are very busy. Even a short scene could potentially take an animator months to complete.
I would suggest maybe tackling the project in shorter 'episodes.'

Keep in mind I am not trying to discourage you, either. Just being realistic
I think this is a very cool idea, and I would love to contribute if we come together and decide to take it wherever it goes.

[bestariana1girl]

Honestly, now that I see your concerns I agree. Maybe this project just can't be done? I'm 12, can't get sued lol @DarkWolf91 @Malte279 @FreckledOne @BrutontheIguanodon(again) @Ducky123 @Kor

[Ducky123]

^I guess so bestariana1girl  :unsure:

[bestariana1girl]

@Ducky123  

[Malte279]

With all I have said I was not out though to claim for it to be utterly impossible. An approach aiming for shorter stories might have a better chance and inspire more support and enthusiasm allowing for larger scale projects. Furthermore chances are that further programs and technological developments will continue to make movie making easier. In a land before time (aka. when I was young ) movie making was but the dream of a kid with no possible means to ever get close to realization. Nowadays computer programs have made simple animation a possibility even for an individual.
A major difficulty remains in the maintaining of a lasting enthusiasm of everyone involved while ideal plans for what the individual participants in such a project would want it to be like would definitely vary. For example many participants would likely want to see own fanfiction characters involved or plot ideas included which in the sum of all ideas or characters is not likely to result in a coherent plot. While some people would likely hope for a crossing over of stories also involving elements from other franchises others would probably insist to keep it strictly LBT... (yes most people who have been around know who the later might be ).
In any case IF we do have people with the means and the know how on animating (the absolute precondition for such a project) it is something that might be realized if one doesn't start out right away with the aim to produce a full scale epic movie but go for shorter stories first.
The risk of such problems is that they have a tendency to feather out and fall silent when people are too preoccupied with real life. The section about the LBT Audio Play Project testifies to this (and I'm guilty as charged there). A thread in the same section also shows the general enthusiasm for the idea of a fan movie project. If GOF members have the means and the time at their hands I'm convinced that enthusiasm could be channeled into a very interesting project.

[bestariana1girl]

@Malte279 a shorter series makes it a lot easier on everyone! I'm very interested in doing this, it will take a lot of work though.   I know we have discussed the copyright situation, that's just really my concern. Someone told me that Universal Studios is very strict on copyright laws (could have been you).

[DarkWolf91]

Oh it can be done, but like all worthwhile thinks in life, it will be extremely difficult
I agree with Malte in that lasting enthusiasm and clashing ideas would probably be the biggest hurdles. I think that we could work through it if we talked things out long enough, and everyone came into it with a willingness to accept the ideas of others and compromise on their own ideas

Like I said, if this is something that there is a lot of interest in going through with, I would be thrilled to contribute. If anyone else is interested in animating, but doesn't have the knowledge or technological means, I would also be willing to mentor in that area

Edit:
I wouldn't worry about the copyright too much, either. As long as you aren't selling anything, or providing anything that they sell free of charge, I doubt they'll bother you too much. The most they are likely to do is ask you to remove your created content from circulation.

[bestariana1girl]

@DarkWolf91 Then I guess we just wait for more people to see this thread and tell us if they are willing to contribute or not.  

[Ducky123]

I know I'm most useful as an animator but I have literally zero knowledge of animating   Oh well...

I agree that we should start with something short. I full movie would need... years for sure to be completed..

[Kor]

A short 5 or 10 minutes sounds best.  Don't want it to long.  Maybe even shorter the first few times, a few minutes at most.  Perhaps the first one with just one character or 2.  

An audio play may be possible, but that has no animation with it.

[bestariana1girl]

@Ducky123 @Kor 2-3 mins then?

[DarkWolf91]

Well, it's probably best to decide what kind of video you want to make, and then decide the time constraints based on that.

[Kor]

Also the style of animation, flash like they do in MLP:FIM, flash with less detailed movement, like I recall they did in the BBCI animated dr who online adventures of the 6-8th doctors (& briefly the one that was biefly the official 9th doctor pre new series), cgi, or another style.

[Bruton the Iguanodon]

This sounds really interesting!