Norse Women's Saga Series & The Indigo Iona Saga

THE NORSE WOMEN'S SAGA SERIES

An update to tell you that Episode 2. Expedition Greenland has been submitted to festivals in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the USA. It has been accepted to the Montreal Independent Film Festival and we are waiting on the results for the other festivals. I was in Iceland at the SIM residency in Reykjavik for the month of July 2023 to film a promotional documentary on the making of the Norse Women's Sagas series. We interviewed Michèle Hayeur Smith archaeologist and narrator, Stina Ágústdóttir the composer and musician who scored the sound track and Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir (Queen Hertha) one of the composite actresses for the animation. We will keep you posted on our upcoming screenings and completion of Episode 1 The Indigo Iona Saga and the Settlement of Iceland. Thank you for your support and interest in this project.

Takk,

G. Scott MacLeod Director.

The Indigo Iona Saga and the Settlement of Iceland (In production) https://www.theindigoionasaga.com is a live-action/animated historical fiction film (English & French versions) and a graphic novel about the Viking era. The short film is a part of my Norse Women's Saga series. The story is rooted in the sagas and deals with emigration, ambition, conquest, slavery, deception, love, war, women and the settlement of Iceland. I am interested in the cross-cultural links between my Norwegian and Scottish heritage and how they are connected to the settlement period of Iceland.

This project was conceived during my 2017 and 2018 SIM residencies in Reykjavik, Iceland. I was inspired to write the Indigo Iona Saga and Expedition Greenland scripts after seeing the "Bundle-Up In Blue" exhibition at the National Museum of Iceland, which was of a Scottish Viking woman's skeletal remains and grave goods which were found in the East of Iceland in 1938.

With the first batch of money raised, I returned to Reykjavik for my July 2018 SIM residency. I auditioned and selected Icelandic actresses and recorded them narrating the script during that time. We also filmed some spectacular live-action (with a drone and in 4K video) of key locations. We photographed stills of the actors and actresses in period costumes for the animation process.

During my last SIM residencies in August 2022 and July 2023, we completed the live-action filming for both films and presented the graphic novel version of Expedition Greenland to publishers in Reykjavik. The first signed copies were given to Katrin Jakobsdottir, the prime minister of Iceland and Eliza Reid the First Lasy of Iceland.

We are still looking for the following production costs :

POST-PRODUCTION 2023

- $750 To hire Michèle Hayeur Smith archaeologist & consultant

- $750 To hire Catherine Lavoie to translate The Indigo Iona Saga script into French.

- $5000.00 To hire 5 French Canadian voice actresses for The Indigo Iona Saga.

- $1500.00 To hire William Le Gallee to record 5 French Canadian voice actresses for The Indigo Iona Saga.

- $3000.00 To pay G Scott MacLeod to make 100 animations for The Indigo Iona Saga

- $3000.00 To hire Jo Meuris to stabilize animations and do all VFX (special effects) for The Indigo Iona Saga.

- $3000.00 To hire editor Becca Arsenault for off-line edit for The Indigo Iona Saga

- $1500.00 To hire Paul Scriver to create sound design for The Indigo Iona Saga

- $1500.00 To license music for the soundtrack Stina Agustsdottir for The Indigo Iona Saga

- $1500.00 Graphics and promotional and educational guides Studio Tag Team Jessica Charbonneau for Expedition Greenland and The Indigo Iona Saga

- $2500.00 English and French graphic novel by Studio Tag Team Jessica Charbonneau for The Indigo Iona Saga

- $900.00 for two film trailers (The Indigo Iona Saga)

- $1000.00 Send to festivals (Expedition Greenland & The Indigo Iona Saga)

- $1000.00 Website updates (Expedition Greenland & The Indigo Iona Saga)

- $500.00 To hire Rob Lutes to help write and proof learning guides and production notes

- Distribute both films and graphic novels to libraries, schools and museums in Norway, Iceland and Scotland. 

Once we have assembled this material for a first rough edit at MacLeod 9 Productions, we will do the post-production phase; the online, colour correction, sound mix and credits will be done at the new ONF-NFB facility, the new Balmoral building.

As a filmmaker and artist, I am interested in knowing more about my female ancestors via the sagas, history, archaeology and migration patterns of the Vikings to examine the sage knowledge that can be gleaned from their lives, experiences and history. Studying and sharing their stories is an opportunity to learn about the adverse outcomes of war, exile, slavery, religious differences, famine and, equally, their successes to the greater world narrative of women’s contribution to the building of families and society as a whole. 

These films from the Norse Women's Sagas series will be sold to schools and museums, exhibited in festivals, galleries, and on TV, and accompanied by educational guides for teachers, students and the public. The University of Iceland has committed to showing the work on completion.

$50 Contributors will get a signed print of an animation drawing. 

$100 Contributors will get a signed print of an animation drawing, and your name will be in the credits.

$1000 + Contributors get an original animation drawing and a producer credit.  

I am committed and passionate about completing the "Indigo Iona Saga and the Settlement of Iceland".

Thank you for your interest and support. 

G. Scott MacLeod

Producer/Director/Animator

www.macleod9.com

Episode 1. Synopsis: The Indigo Iona Saga and the Settlement of Iceland (in production) https://vimeo.com/297574547 tell the story of three women from three different territories during the Viking era. The saga chronicles the rise of Queen Hertha, who leaves Norway to settle in Iceland to acquire new lands and power. While stopping in Orkney to resupply, she steals the valuable Celtic slave girl, Iona, from the tyrant King of the Isles, Ketill, for the girl’s knowledge of his trading partners and ambitions. She brings Iona to Iceland during the settlement period as an enslaved person. When Thorsteinn (a rising Earl from East Iceland) proposes marriage, Iona accepts and is granted her freedom.

Episode 2. Greenland - Solveig’s Strength and Aud’s Prosperity (2023) completed https://macleod9.com/expeditiongreenland/public/ trailer https://vimeo.com/819138715

Synopsis: Greenland - Solveig’s Strength and Aud’s Prosperity tell the story of two first-generation Icelandic women – Solveig, who is looking to marry, settle and have a family, and Aud, who is expanding her opportunities in the walrus ivory trade. The women’s friendship is tested by the handsome and broken Óttarr when they leave their young colony of Reykjavik to join Erik the Red’s settlement of Greenland. This historic fiction occurs in the context of the Norse epics, The Saga of Erik the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders, which describe the Norse expansion west across the North Atlantic. This story follows Solveig’s and Aud’s adventures while discovering these new lands and establishing the first settlement on Greenland.

Episode 3. First Contact (2016) completed http://www.firstcontactthefilm.com Synopsis: From the west, a Proto-Beothuk hunting party.

From the east, an expedition of Norse Greenlanders looked for farmland. At the turn of the first millennium on the island now called Newfoundland, native North Americans and Europeans chance upon each other for the first time.