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	<title type="html"><![CDATA[Forums - Bricks in Motion - Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
	<link rel="self" href="http://bricksinmotion.com/forums/feed/atom/topic/28679/"/>
	<updated>2021-09-02T03:13:01Z</updated>
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	<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/topic/28679/roses-a-film-by-jake-willeford/</id>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/392008/#p392008"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Glad to hear it, Jake. The review turned out a lot longer than I thought and I was afraid it might look like this giant wall of criticism, lol. Looking back through the thread, you already talked about some of the technical flaws. With a film that was two years in the making and you having to adjust the aspect ratio manually for each shot, I can imagine that some inconsistencies might crop up. I can see how the red titles gave it a little more pizazz, too.

So about that animation and frame doubling... I see your point regarding all the fast action looking better on 24fps, that's something I hadn't really considered.

(I feel like I made a fool of myself trying to explain the concept, so I recommend [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbZswIjjTDM]this excellent video[/url] instead.)

Animating on twos might be something to keep in mind for future projects, though. It's a tried and true much-used technique both stop motion and cartoon animation. Basically, animating "on twos" means taking two frames before changing a characters pose. This can help out especially with smaller, finnicky movements like a head turning or a arm moving up or down. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but it could help eliminate some of the "jittering" with the end result looking more smooth.

It's sort of the best of both worlds because you'll still be taking twenty-four frames for every second of animation. "Film grain" and other such details will still be as fat as before, and special effects (like clouds moving by or digital camera movement) will still be at that silky smooth 24fps. At any point during shooting you have the freedom to say "ok so this is too finnicky, I'll just hold this pose for two frames instead of changing it every frame" or "well, I can easily animate this car at basic 24fps".

You can even combine different movements in the same shot. Example: a tracking shot of a character walking, with a car driving by. You could have the character walking "on twos" (so you only change his pose every two frames) while the car and the camera moves every single frame. Still smooth 24pfs overall, but it's much easier to film the walk cycle itself. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejKxrzqllMY]Sillypenta's film "Sticky Situation" is shot like this[/url], if you want to see how the end result looks. The camera moves at 24fps, but some of the character animation (in the opening shot, for example) is shot on twos. It's a very handy technique.]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[BertL]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/194/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-09-02T03:13:01Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/392008/#p392008</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391986/#p391986"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Thanks for responding BurtL!
I am aware that the animation isn't great. The animation really isn't my primary goal when I make something like this. I'm not saying I just ignore it, but I focus more on the story and cinematics of it all. And I was also on a deadline when for when I had to finish this film. That left some shots unpolished, like the opening gun shadow shot you mentioned. A little backstory on that... I had a week to finish this movie and all I had left to film was the final scene between Roses and Franco and the opening scene. That's also why the opening scene is my least favorite scene in the movie. Yeah that's far from ideal, and the opening scene is supposed to be what hooks you , but I got what I got with the time that I had so I am just doing my best not to dwell on it. 
I kinda disagree about the 24 frames per second. Any lower framerate just looked to slow so I went with 24. With all the gunfire, car chases and lighting effects I needed a faster framerate to make that realistic. I don't know what you mean by frame doubling, I dont really know what that means. And I filmed this over too years so there is points where some animation is better than others and that's just because I was improving over time.
I already explained the aspect ratio in earlier comments but to sum it up my editing software went on a fritz because my computer wasn't good enough to handle a huge project like this, so It wouldn't crop the aspect ratio right. There was nothing I could do about it, it just sucked
I also disagree about the red titles. I liked the pop it gave. I originally had it colored white but just didn't seem as cinematic as it did in color. Having the titles white made it feel a little dull. 

And don't worry about offending me or anything. Criticism is one of the best things an artist can receive.]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-29T15:45:15Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391986/#p391986</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391962/#p391962"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[To preface this, I came out of this film with some mixed feelings, although overall I enjoyed it. I haven't read the other reviews here, so I might be repeating stuff others have said.

I'll not be saying too much about the plot/story since that's not an area I'm very well versed in. Generally, I'm not too big a fan of brickfilms that dig into serious, mature subject matter, but you made it work for Roses. It was a little difficult to keep track of who was who across the time spread, but the issue probably lies in me not remembering LEGO faces too well.

Roses is the result of a long labor of love, and it shows. It has a distinctly "filmic" feel to it, almost in a film noir sense. This is immediately obvious from the black-and-white look, but it goes beyond that. A lot of care and attention was put in the framing and lighting of the shots, and it makes for a great viewing. I loved the "silhouette scenes" in the 1914 parts. Later in the film, the dramatic lighting really worked for me. Some of the car shots reminded me a lot of the "rear projection" technique often seen in older films. It serves almost as a love letter to films of the period, and the influence they have had on this film is obvious.

Another aspect that I think was really good was the audio. The music in particular was well chosen, it felt very period-appropriate. It really helped contribute to and elevate that filmic feel. Similarly, the voice acting was overall quite good, nothing too stand-out but decent at the least.

So, about those "mixed feelings"... they mainly come from some of the technical aspects. I want to say first that with a film like this, you're shooting for the stars, so to speak. With an ambitious project like this you're setting high standards, and while they have been met in a lot of aspects, I do feel that unfortunately it was lacking in some others.

The quality of the recording could be distractingly bad at times. Some of the lines sounded like they were recorded in a bathroom environment, with a lot of reverb. The sound design in general was pretty good, but overall it did suffer from this.

My main gripe, however, is with the animation. I took the liberty of downloading the film off YouTube because I was interested too see what framerate it was shot at - I think it was 24FPS? (The YouTube rip was 30FPS but I think I saw some frame doubling in there... anyways.) To put it bluntly, I think the high framerate was ultimately not a great choice, especially since you didn't shoot on doubles. The problem with shooting at 24FPS is that you will need to animate in very small increments, which makes it very difficult to achieve smooth animation. 

Unfortunately, there are parts in the film where it didn't quite work. The second shot overall of the film (at 0:58) where the guy holding the gun takes a few steps forward into the frame, is very jittery and it really took me out of the film. Another sequence (at 11:05) has the main character walk through a hallway towards a door, and suffers from similar jittering. These are the most egregious examples that really stood out to me - especially the second shot, which occured early in the film where you can't really "afford" to break the illusion like that with a technically flawed shot.

Some of the editing choices also looked a little off. The 1956 sequence had some shots where the aspect ratio felt "off". They looked stretched or squished. Compare a shot from 14:00 to one at 12:20, for example, and I think you'll see what I mean. Not sure if this was a conscious stylistic decision (I'm inclined to think it wasn't), but it didn't do the film any good in my opinion.

I wasn't going to delve into the plot too deeply (because overall I think it was great), but I'm a little saddened that a large part of the main character's life, 37 years of him working his way up the ranks in the mafia, was told through a couple of titles. I feel like even a little montage to go together with those titles would have gone a long way. It would also have helped establish the complicated friendship/partnership Roses has with Franco, which in turn would make the "betrayal" and ending a little more impactful.

Also, let me get even more nitpicky for a second here lol. Some of the titles were colored in red, which isn't a bad decision per se, but it felt a little disjointed being in an otherwise completely black-and-white film. It may have worked better if there were some select red-colored elements in the shots (like a red cup, or taillights or some blood or something like that), but with the absence of that it just looked off.

I don't mean to take a dump on your film, and I hope it doesn't come across that way. Overall I really enjoyed it and it was an engaging story, and most of it was done very well. But with the level of quality you strove for, the aspects which didn't achieve that level stood out like a sore thumb instead.

So yeah, that's all the thoughts I have about the film.]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[BertL]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/194/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-27T12:01:49Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391962/#p391962</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391958/#p391958"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Thanks for watching Helix!
For the foggy battlefield shot I used a small table lamp with a dimmer attached (So I could manually turn the brightness up and down) I set the lamp up behind the set. I raised up the battlefield set so it wouldn't sit flat on the table. Then when I set the lamp up behind the set, it was out of shot. Then I put a whole lot of cotton stuffing on top of the lamp so when I turned the brightness up it lit up the cotton balls making it look like an artillery shell in the distance. Then in front of that set up I had a sheet of plexiglass that I put and dried Elmer's glue all over (This made it look foggy and hazy instead of just clear glass)  So that's how I did the explosion shot.  Also, I did the gunfire effect with laser pointers that reflected off the plexiglass.

Yes, some of the shots were streched a little bit. That's because I was filming at a wider aspect ratio so I could capture the scale of the city and the battlefield. The problem was that the aspect ratio I was using wouldn't  export out of dragonframe for some reason, so I had to manually change the aspect ratio of every single shot (This was a major pain in my ass). Then since my movie was so big my editing software wouldn't work right and it wouldn't crop the shots right sometimes. So thats why some shots are streched. 

Thanks so much for watching and giving feedback!]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-27T00:34:05Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391958/#p391958</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391942/#p391942"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Great film! I can see why it took two years!
The audio (aside from some of the voices which you've addressed) is really great and really got me into the mood of the film. The lighting is also good and the silhouette and large building shots looked super cool. The foggy shot looking over the battlefield was also amazing (how did you pull that off?). I do agree with what the others said about some of the storytelling but it was a good overall story and there was a lot of suspense especially at the beginning during the battle. And the interaction with the general and the medic made me feel Roses' anger. The only other technical thing was that some of the shots seemed stretched, some vertically and some horizontally. That could be from having your camera and software capturing at different aspect ratios or maybe something in post. 
Anyway great film and well done!]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Helix Bricks Productions]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/146127/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-25T01:27:42Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391942/#p391942</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391936/#p391936"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[[quote=Jake Willeford]Thanks so much for your feedback Squash! I know the audio is kind of messed up. I recorded all my dialogue in a room that had too much echo. Learned my lesson on that lol. As for the initiation into mob life, you are very right about his decision being too abrupt. There was originally a lot more story there but I had to compromise (I was filming with a due date). What I was trying to get across was that Roses had been trained and hardened to kill while in the military and when he got back to civilization killing was easy for him. So he goes along with Franco's plot and is sucked into the mafia life. 
That was the plan... I guess it wasn't executed perfect but like you said it might have slowed the film a little too much.
And by the shot transitions, I think you mean the cuts to and from black that happened fairly frequently in the film. I don't really have much of an explanation for that other than I thought it was cool at the time but then looking back it is kinda jarring.
Thank you so much for watching the film and giving your feedback! It means the world

Thanks
Oso-Good Cinema[/quote]]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-24T01:30:43Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391936/#p391936</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391935/#p391935"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Thanks so much for your feedback! I know the audio is kind of messed up. I recorded all my dialogue in a room that had too much echo. Learned my lesson on that lol. As for the initiation into mob life, you are very right about his decision being too abrupt. There was originally a lot more story there but I had to compromise (I was filming with a due date). What I was trying to get across was that Roses had been trained and hardened to kill while in the military and when he got back to civilization killing was easy for him. So he goes along with Franco's plot and is sucked into the mafia life. 
That was the plan... I guess it wasn't executed perfect but like you said it might have slowed the film a little too much.
And by the shot transitions, I think you mean the cuts to and from black that happened fairly frequently in the film. I don't really have much of an explanation for that other than I thought it was cool at the time but then looking back it is kinda jarring.
Thank you so much for watching the film and giving your feedback! It means the world

Thanks
Oso-Good Cinema]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-24T01:29:14Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391935/#p391935</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391934/#p391934"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Thanks so much! And thanks for commenting! On a side note, do you have any tips on how I could possibly get more views. I realize part of it is that there is generally a long time between uploads on my channel, but that comes with animation. I guess it's just kind of disappointing to work on a project for two years and barely get any feedback. 
Thanks
Oso-Good Cinema]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-24T01:17:18Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391934/#p391934</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391929/#p391929"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[I was amazed by many of the shots - it’s some of the best looking black and white photography of Lego I have come across.

Very enjoyable cinematography-wise and the soundtrack works to great effect. There were quite a few pieces of music listed in the credits and each served a purpose.  At many points this really felt like experiencing a “real” movie from the past.

Squash makes a good point concerning the structure of the film and some of the hero’s motivations though.

(I don’t understand why the views and ratings are so low, not many people could make a brickfilm of this high level)]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Robukka]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/226/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-23T21:06:39Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391929/#p391929</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391910/#p391910"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[This is an interesting film! The decision to style it with the golden-era aesthetic, the B&W visuals and music, lends the whole thing a pretty unique atmosphere for a brickfilm. It's also clear you put a lot of effort into creating dramatic lighting to support the B&W, as opposed to just filming as you would in color and desaturating it, and you accomplished some pretty striking shot composition as a result of that. You've got a lot of really impressive sets here- the battlefield has a nice sense of scale, with the shot of the soldiers coming over a hill lit by artillery being a highlight for me. I also liked the city sets, particularly in the car chase sequence.

Plot-wise I thought everything was solid, though I did get a little lost with respect to when the initial scene fit in chronologically. A little more detail about why Roses chose to join the mafia initially (was he having trouble adjusting to civilian life? couldn't find a job?) might have added some depth to his later choices. Of course you had spent a fair amount of time on his military background  serving that purpose, so I understand not wanting to slow things down with more exposition.

I have a few comments for improvement. On the cinematography side, I found some of the transitions between shots a bit jarring. It looked like you were trying to work in unconventional shots and keep things fresh (which I like), just bear in mind that sometimes cutting back and working those in with more conventional stuff helps the progression of a scene read better to the audience. Audio-wise, your choice of music and the way you blended tracks worked well, but some of the acting was a little stiff and the recording quality varied from character to character. It's hard to get good consistent recordings though, especially if you were arranging that over the internet; in the end I didn't think any of it was too distracting, just something to work on.

All in all, I enjoyed watching! It's encouraging to see people making films like this, and hopefully more people here will watch and comment soon. Thanks for posting!]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Squash]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/36/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-22T00:40:51Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391910/#p391910</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Re: Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391909/#p391909"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[Hey guys, I would really appreciate some feedback on this. I have been working on it for two years so it is kind of like my baby at this point! :D]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-21T22:21:03Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391909/#p391909</id>
		</entry>
		<entry>
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Roses - A film by Jake Willeford]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" href="https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391896/#p391896"/>
			<content type="html"><![CDATA[[h1]Roses - A film by Jake Willeford[/h1]

[b]Watch Now:[/b] [url=https://youtu.be/_rQ537529zw]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPDMSxLQnDHDU3o4SPebnyA[/url]
[b]Released:[/b] August 20, 2021
[b]Content Advisory:[/b] [i]mild violence[/i], [i]no language[/i], [i]no sexual content[/i]

[quote]A man's experiences in WW1 and the early days of organized crime leads to a climatic night in the year 1956...[/quote]

[url=https://bricksinmotion.com/films/view/11256]Directory Link[/url]
]]></content>
			<author>
				<name><![CDATA[Jake Willeford]]></name>
				<uri>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/user/142331/</uri>
			</author>
			<updated>2021-08-20T14:35:41Z</updated>
			<id>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/391896/#p391896</id>
		</entry>
</feed>
