Hi Daniel,
Daniel Rogers wrote:
> The only
> real choice is to start asking for support and seeing what happens.
Agreed :)
> I checked with the lawyer today and it seems that she would be
> ready to give me all the information I need to fill the paperwork to
> start The Gimp Foundation out myself after Thanksgiving.
That's great news! If we give thanks now, does that mean it'll be
done soon? When's thanksgiving?
> As far as sniffing around Hollywood goes that is really Robin Rowe's
> territory IMO. I had a conversation with him recently, trying to
> encourage our projects to work together, and because I didn't understand
> where he was comming from, and because it was email, I ended up sounding
> arrogant and condesending (it just became an argument, really). At this
> point, I simply don't want to step on his toes.
I understand your point, but I think it's not valid. I don't see
us as being in a turf war with CinePaint. If he has better
contacts with the studios than we do, that's fine. But our target
audience for funding is people who have used the software no
charge, and have a vested interest in seeing it improve. The
studios fit that bill to a tee.
I would ask Calvin and Yosh for contacts here - they both worked
with film companies for a while. Caroline Dahlof at R&H might be
a good place to start, afterwards it would be nice to try to
contact someone at Disney (following on from their recent
evaluation of the GIMP and CinePaint) and ILM who use the GIMP
lots.
> I am also deeply concerned about what several sections of the movie
> industry think about open source and the GIMP in particular. If it is
> anything like what Robin Rowe thinks we are, then I will likely just be
> laughed at for having the nerve to knock on their door.
If Robin continues to preach revisionist history about the evil
GIMP developers unopposed (Robin if you're reading, I'm sure this
isn't an accurate reflection of your intent, but it's how it has
been perceived here and by others) then it is normal that that
viewpoint will gain credence.
To some extent, it's a matter of visibility. We need to be seen
again. A 2.0 release will help. Going to people and saying "here
are our goals, here's what we've done to work towards them,
here's our plan to get to them" is another great way to get
people outside the project enthused by it again.
> I am afriad that if I try and go to hollywood without a good technical
> incentive and a convincing argument as to why they should support the
> gimp, I will do more harm that good for our relations by reinforcing
> whatever negative opinion they have about us.
I think that you are in a better position than most of us to give
good technical arguments why the GIMP should be supported. GeGL
is (still) the future of the GIMP. We are hoping that GeGL will
have a stable base which we can integrate into the GIMP soon (8
months time?) as well as something we can add advanced
functionality to quicker, easier and better than the old core.
We're not selling a panacea. But the GIMP will be competing with
Adobe again, and will have outstripped CinePaint by a long way
once we have a compositor engine that works well and has a nice
interface. But that's not going to happen soon, unless we meet up
more frequently and talk about it, plan it, see where we're at
and how to get to the next waypoint.
> I am waiting until we have color management, high bit depths, an awesome
> compositing engine, and a frame manager before really trying anything
> over there. This would give me convincing technical achievements with
> which to approach Hollywood. All but the last is being worked on, while
> the last is not technically challenging.
I think that this is somewhat putting the cart before the horse.
I think that the time that money will do the most good is now,
before we have those things, so that people can get together and
brainstorm through the problems. 2.0 itself represents a
substantial technical achievement which could be leveraged.
> Hmm, better get started on that then. I think I could fill 60 minutes
> with details about our compositing engine, color management, and some
> exciting far-future ideas. How will I know when the call for papers starts?
I'll post it here, among other places.
Cheers,
Dave.
--
David Neary,
Lyon, France
E-Mail: bolsh@xxxxxxxx
