What's the copyright on "There's No Tomorrow"?
The completed film is released under this Creative Commons 3.0 licence. This was the licence under which the music was released, so it's necessary to keep within that constraint. You are free "to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work" under the following conditions:
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.
However, if you want to use clips from the film (absent audio) in a project, feel free to email to ask; this shouldn't be a problem.
Under absolutely no circumstances should visuals or narration from "There's No Tomorrow" be used in any future "Zeitgeist" sequel. This is not a joke.
Can I screen the movie at the local theater/school/group?
Yes. You can download the film on the main page, and make your own copy for screening. If you want to charge for admission, go ahead: the incubate pictures lawyers will not molest you.
The film is for free...even though it took you 4 years to make. Why?
It would be odd to make a film that critiques the money economy and then try to profit from it. Future projects will be made for lucre, as even monks have to eat.
Will you link to my site?
Feel free to forward the URL, but the chances of regular updates to this site are veryslim. Time and energy are in short supply, and there are better things to do than messing around with Dreamweaver and FTP.
How much is the film worth?
The budget for a 20 minute Flash TV show would be between $100,000 to $200,000, depending on quality. "There's No Tomorrow" is 34 minutes long. Bear in mind that a U.S. based animator would average anywhere from $800 to $1400 a week, depending on ability/job. The film consumed between two and three full years of personal labour - and that's not counting the additional help from those who helped with the script, audio and video post-production.
Where can I find that ambient music used in the first and last sequences?
It's fully downloadable on archive.org. The composer has no attachment to this production; his/her music was there on a CC licence, and fitted nicely with the visuals.
How did you create the animation?
All of the animation was created in Flash 8. Although the storyboards were drawn on paper, all of the animation was done on the computer - although some traditional animation from the 1940s and 50s was used for reference. There's a much longer description of the creative process on this page.
Why did you make the film?
The decision to make the film was made in early 2005, after seeing the difficulty in trying to explain the complexity of Peak Oil to members of the public. It is a natural subject for an animated cartoon. At first, it seemed that a brief two-minute film would be enough to convey the basic principles, but the project grew larger as time went on.
Would you do it again if you knew how long it was going to take?
No! In the intervening years, it's become clear that people are deeply set in their opinions, and that most of the writing/commentary/movies that are made simply reinforce existing beliefs, rather than change them. Also, the fracking bubble hit just as the movie was finished - so the chances of making a dent in that level of delusion were slim to none.
It would have been wiser to create a cartoon about crime-fighting squirrels with super-powers.
How long did it take to make "There's No Tomorrow"?
Work began in early 2005, and halted in late 2005 (having been hired by a company that claimed "Intellectual Property" rights over all of their employees ideas, both at work and at home, it seemed wise to not give them the option of claiming ownership). Once extracted from their clutches (read: laid off), serious production began in March 2007, and subsequent sequences were completed in 08 and 09, with gradual improvements from then until 2011. Although the gap from start to finish is ~6 years, there are 2 to 3 years of total work involved.
Some of the scenes look familiar - why is this?
The original idea for the film was to be a pastiche of the pro-capitalist propaganda cartoons of the 1940s and 50s. These works are all in the public domain, making them an invaluable resource: "Going Places" (1948), "Meet King Joe" (1949), "Why Play Leapfrog" (1949), "What Makes Us Tick" (1952), "It's Everybodys Business" (1954) and "Destination Earth" (1956). However, it soon became apparent that a serious treatment of the subject rather than an ironic one would be preferable. Therefore, "There's No Tomorrow" is more of an homage/sequel to those films than a crude mockery.
Again, this painstaking process is explained in more detail in the making of page.