What is truly groundbreaking about "Loving Vincent" is that every frame of the film is an oil painting on canvas, using the very same technique in which Vincent himself painted. And what makes it a great story to experience is the intriguing, tragic, and inspiring story of Vincent Van Gogh himself.
[NEW REWARDS!!!! - SCROLL DOWN]
Imagine yourself in a journey that you could never experience before...
Loving Vincent is an investigation delving into the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world's most beloved painters, as told through his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.
Here are some stills from our concept trailer:
Loving Vincent features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh's greatest paintings. The plot, drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself, leads us to the significant people and events in the time leading up to his unexpected death. Vincent wrote in his last letter: “Well, the truth is, we cannot speak other than by our paintings”, and that is what we are doing- letting his paintings tell the story of what the painter had inside his heart, and ultimately, what happened to him.
ALL OF THAT HAPPENS INSIDE OF YOUR FAVOURITE PAINTINGS!!
Was it suicide, or was he shot? And if it was suicide, what would have led him to such a dramatic act, when he at last was gaining recognition for his work?
Every film you see is actually a collection of still images, played back at a speed that makes it appear to be moving. In our film about Vincent Van Gogh, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE individual images will be a painting in the style of Van Gogh. That means our 40 painters (which we will be able to train thanks to YOUR support) will create 56,800 PAINTINGS to make this film!! To make this possible OUR WONDERFUL TEAM created PAWS (Painted Animation Work Stations) that allows us to make the demanding process of stop-motion painting as efficient as possible, by allowing our artists to focus on the painting as opposed to the animation. In fact, over the past 18 months of R&D we've managed to halve the painting time of each frame, while maintaining the individuality of the painters.
THIS IS WHAT "PAWS" LOOKS LIKE:
Vincent Van Gogh is often cited as the father of modern art, and his painting Starry Night is regarded as the most famous painting of all time, after the Mona Lisa. He is known for struggling with mental illness and cutting off his left ear, and also for only ever selling one painting in his lifetime and for shooting himself at the age of 37. What isn't widely known is that Vincent only picked up a paintbrush a mere 8 years before his untimely death, after failed careers as first an art dealer, a book sales clerk and then a preacher.
In his short career as a painter HE MANAGED TO PRODUCE AS MANY OR MOREpaintings than great masters managed over careers spanning many decades. He went from being a jobless 29-year-old living in a barn in a poor mining area, having never picked up a paintbrush, to, at 37 years old, being proclaimed by one of Paris's (and therefore at the time the world's) most influential art critics as:
"a messiah, a sower of truth, who would regenerate the decrepitude of our art and perhaps our imbecile and industrialist society"
IMPRESSED? WE WERE!
The most important thing for us is to bring this really amazing story to life. We would like to SHARE with you our feelings on the work and life of this extraordinary and inspiring individual.
We are an Oscar-winning animation studio (Founder Hugh Welchman won the Oscar for Best Short Animation for Peter and the Wolf). From the very beginning, our recipe for success has consisted of finding stories and ideas that passionately move us and then going further than anyone else would reasonably expect us to go to make them a unique and brilliant experience for the people watching them. (Here are some links to our work so you can judge for yourself).
BreakThru has collected over twenty international awards & nominations, including two BAFTA nominations, an official selection at Cannes, the Annecy Cristal and Annecy Audience awards, Canal+ Prize, TCM prize, the Rose D’ Or as well as an Oscar for Best Short Animation Film for Peter & The Wolf.
NEW UPDATE!! [13.01.2014]
In the video below, Hugh Welchman will take you for a tour inside of our studio, where all the magic happens and present the rewards:
We're at in the final stages of pre-production. And we need your help! Your contribution will not only help us train painters in animation, but will show others that this is a film people want to see happen!
If we achieve our Kickstarter goal, we'd have the opportunity to TEST OVER 200 PAINTERS AND TRAIN 60, preparing them to work on the project. Your contribution will also help us FINALIZE PRE PRODUCTION AND START PAINTING THE FINAL FILM.
The painters we are auditioning - each audition takes 3 days - are all highly qualified painters, many of whom are working in temporary jobs or jobs that in no way use their specialist skills. Your support will not only be helping create the world’s first painting animation feature film, not only be bringing great paintings of Vincent Van Gogh to life, you will be helping talented painters, young and old, find a suitable outlet for their artistic flair.
You are the person that can help make this happen! if you like the project, it's just a choice of pledge. And remember – a pledge of even one pound is not just about the money: It’s about showing support to get this film made!
TAKING PART is EASY. It's just a few simple steps:
1. Click the "BACK THIS PROJECT" green button to the right of our appeal video.
2. SIGN UP (if you are not signed up already)
3. CHOOSE THE REWARD and PLEDGE!
If you like "Loving Vincent" PLEASE SHARE this page with your friends!
[NEW REWARDS UPDATE - 20.01.2014]
Today we have a great treat! New REWARDS are ready to be announced! ;)
To make a long story short, here they are:
1. A marvelous collection of THREE FRIDGE MAGNETS with scenes from our trailer on them! All of it produced from bio-degardable materials. Don't you want one for your place?
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2. A Loving Vincent's original MUG... for the pleasure of your morning coffee!
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3. A set of 6 beautifully desiged COASTERS
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4. A PAINTER SPONSORSHIP PACK
This is ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY to sponsor a Painter in our project! By buying this REWARD, you can support learning efforts of one our our Painters.
As a SPONSOR you will get:
** one of the paintings created by YOUR PAINTER during their training (you will be able to chose which painting and painter),
** A DVD with the all the animation painted during the training by YOUR PAINTER,
** the set of paintbrushes, used by YOUR PAINTER in the training process.
Price: 600 pounds
DON'T MISS THEM!
P.S. JUST A REMINDER: If you'd like to get a few rewards, just sum up their prices, PLEDGE and message us with the list of your choice... (example: If I'd like to get a DVD for 40 pounds and the VLogs access for 5 pounds; I just pledge 45 pounds)!
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[NEW REWARDS UPDATE - 17.01.2014]
LOVING VINCENT - SPECIAL KICKSTARTER LIMITED EDITION DVD!
Responding to many of your requests, we had decided to ADD a new reward to our campaign: A "LOVING VINCENT" - SPECIAL KICKSTARTER LIMITED EDITION DVD! It will include the movie itself, both with full of special bonus videos, produced during the production process and A SPECIAL THANKS VIDEO from the Producer and the Director of the movie!!
The video is available as a separate reward and it's also included AS A BONUS in all the rewards "+150 GBP". If you want the DVD, but you had already pledged less; you can always add to your pledge the amount of "+40 GBP" to get your chosen award AND DVD...
ATTENTION! We had previously only included rewards that we knew we could deliver, if the Kickstarter campaign is a success, and completion of the film is definitely down the road once financing is raised. However, due to your requests, we have chosen to include THE LIMITED EDITION KICKSTARTER DVD as a reward, as so many of you had requested it... but YOU SHOULD BE AWARE that this reward is a bit risky, as it is going to be delivered after the production of the movie is over, so in case the film doesn't get made, we unfortunately won't be able to deliver it. To cut a long story short - if you pledge for this reward, you do it at your own risk. We do believe we are close to gathering the production financing, but until everything is signed, on the dotted line can't guarantee that it will.
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You can find out more about the project here:
Over the year since we’ve announced the project, the press and bloggers all over the world have been writing about "Loving Vincent"! You can see how POPULAR the trailer is, just by the "views" statistics on YouTube. That means a lot to us...
