A few things. The sets are very good, probably the strongest part of the film. They have a nice amount of detail without being distracting, and I love that bookcase. The cinematography was also quite good, it really helped keep the film engaging. The story was a bit cliche, but I stayed interested the whole way through. Animation wise it wasn't perfect, but certainly not bad enough to take away from the film, sort of average, I'd say. The only really distracting things that I think need immediate improvement are the random camera jitters and the bumping of the props. Camera jitters are always disconcerting and pull the viewer out of the film, and in a serious style film like this the bumping of props does the same thing. You should try to eliminate these issues in the future, but other than that I think it's a very solid film.

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That was a great film. The story was amazing, the sets were really detailed and the voice acting was good. I loved the camera movements, but at certain times during those movements it went out of focus. I know you can't really help this as you said you used a point and shoot camera with auto-focus; yet you managed to achieve really good movement.
The bullet time effect was nice and looked very impressive in the video.

I enjoyed this video a lot and I hope you achieve high in the competition.

Well Done!

I'm not sure what to call the spin thing, but I would guess dolly.
The camera isn't actually moving on a dolly, but by moving the set that way you sort of imitate the use of one.
But whatever it is it's really impressive, and it makes me feel a little lacking for having not tried anything like that.

Near the end part I felt a sort of chill, it was a really cool scene and well executed.
However, I felt that some different music could have worked better there.  Perhaps something low and foreboding, a little suspenseful and very dramatic.

Thanks!  It was actually pretty easy to accomplish, although the method I used would only really work with fairly small sets.  I was worried that keeping the lights in the same position and turning the set would result in changing light or flicker (which is why I used one lamp more or less directly overhead, and used my other to illuminate the windows behind Virgil's desk),and that adding/removing walls would cause set bumps, but it worked surprisingly well.  I suppose one could rig up a camera to turn around a set, but it would be pretty awkward to pull off (with the way my current animation desk is set up, at least).

I'm really glad that scene was effective.  It actually annoys me a bit, since I feel the animation when Virgil asks Mr White whether he's the traitor is really bad and looks a bit amateurish and lolzy, and it kinda pulls one out of the film.  Regarding the music, I was experimenting around a bit.  I wanted to use the lack of music to create tension.  For example, a film such as No Country for Old Men, has virtually no music, which really helps build up tension in certain scenes.  I was seeing if I could achieve such an effect.  Plus, one needs the right music, as it can come otherwise off as cheesy.  But it's definitely something I'll consider next time, thanks for the suggestions!

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (July 31, 2014 (02:26am))

You have dramatically improved from your last two films. This is definitely your best brickfilm yet. The voice acting, the cinematography, the sets. I would say that the shot of the guy dipping his cigar would have been a really difficult shot to pull off; what if the stud had wobbled around a bit? And you did that very well.

My only gripe is that the classical music during the shootout scene seemed a little unfitting. But, that's a small issue. Awesome job, overall!