<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
	<channel>
		<title><![CDATA[Forums - Bricks in Motion - Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
		<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/topic/19017/filmmaking-and-brickfilming-discussion-week-1-why-lego/</link>
		<description><![CDATA[The most recent posts in Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?.]]></description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 May 2014 15:50:13 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<generator>PunBB</generator>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323825/#p323825</link>
			<description><![CDATA[you can animate a video without having to bring your friends over. Just have them record their lines that way you don't have to worry about the one sweaty guy on set stinking the place up. You will have 0 distractions and no problems when animating alone. 

Not to mention you get to hoard all the LEGO in your house since you're using it most of the time and not your younger/older brothers/sisters.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[sean.m.carroll95@gmail.com (CarrollFilms)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2014 15:50:13 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323825/#p323825</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323775/#p323775</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I've always loved making movies, and made a few films when I was kid with my small collection of toys. I made one video of a group of LOTR Risk pieces attacking a paper castle I made, for instance, and I'd make videos whenever my family went on vacation. I occasionally played with Lego, but my collection was pretty small and I had grown out of it by middle school.

Then I discovered some Star Wars brickfilmer called pizzamovies on Youtube in 2007. His videos weren't that great, but he seemed pretty good to me, and through him I discovered some other popular filmmakers (Fancypants, spugesdu, etc). I started wanting to make videos of my own, and ordering Star Wars Lego using Gift cards. After a while I got a youtube channel, got some videos of my own and a tiny bit of followers, many of whom I was friends with. Then we all gradually lost interest in making brickfilms, especially after running a site that fell apart because of disinterest and a few betrayals.

About a year ago I really started wanting to get back into animating again and started looking around for contest, tutorials, and things like that, and ran across the Contrast contest on this forum. That has really helped me get interested and invested in brickfilming again, and my skill has improved by leap and bounds because of discovering this forum.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Willco66)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2014 17:31:16 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323775/#p323775</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323740/#p323740</link>
			<description><![CDATA[i sw a forestfre101 vid]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[rockydude411@yahoo.com (Rockydude411)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2014 01:21:31 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323740/#p323740</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323698/#p323698</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Well, I may as well pitch in and give my brief account of why I use lego.

I never thought too much of lego. I had a couple of sets that sat on my dresser and that was about it. But one day my older brother was like, "You guys want to see something cool?" and I was like, "Heck ya!" so we sat down and watched the worst animated brick-film ever. But we thought "Holy cows, this is amazing! We have to try this." so taking a little digital camera, we sat down on the floor and took some videos at 2 frames a sec. and loved it. And every year since then we have bought better webcams and more lego.

And then about 4 or 5 years ago we found FancyPant, we thought our minds would blow, he instantly became our inspiration. 

So after that, we seriously buckled down and started thinking of how to further our brick-filming skills. So we bought 50 pounds of lego, started using a Rebel T1I, bought Dragon-Frame Pro, and practiced...a lot. And as far as I am concerned, stop-motion with lego is the hobby I would like to do for the rest of my life.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (GEF)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2014 14:38:13 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323698/#p323698</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323604/#p323604</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I'm probably a unique case in that, before I started brickfilming, I owned 1 lego set. ~34 pieces. Everything else I've bought for the purpose of brickfilming.  
     So why animation? I'd done some animation before, with drawing and manually editing in paint. I bought the first lego set randomly to play with. I couldn't sleep one night and was thinking about my mums new phones ability to connect to the computer to transfer photos (Hi-tech stuff back then) then I got to thinking about my paint animations again. I put two and two together and at four a.m. made my first brickfilm.
      When I strung the pictures together, I loved the results. I was hooked, I bought two more lego sets the next day. A couple weeks later after some research I found some resources and started using a webcam to make my films.

      And Now I've got a whole toolbox full of lego that I've never seen as anything more than a tool in my nefarious plans.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Cartoonkid98)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2014 16:38:38 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323604/#p323604</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323580/#p323580</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Like many others, I got into animation because of LEGO. I think I've told the story here before, but a friend of mine showed me LEGO the Force Unleashed by fancypants when he found out that I like LEGO, and after of month of viewing literally every brickfilm I could find on YouTube (I watched all of KG's films up to April of 2010 in one sitting), and seeing a few very basic tutorials on stop motion by brickfilmers, I realized I had all the tools necessary and thought I'd give it a try, cause how hard could stop motion be. :P What started as a love for LEGO and a desire to see minifigs come to life by my hand and the hands of others, turned into an even greater love of stop motion itself. I choose LEGO because that's how I started and it's a great medium to learn in. I'm actually starting to graduate into more complex puppets, and as soon as I get through finals and summer starts I'll be working with them a lot. I will however continue to make brickfilms along with other stop motion animations, as my love of LEGO has now firmly planted itself, and for a long while into the future I will enjoy creating living worlds of LEGO, regardless of how my stop motion work evolves.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[backyardlegos@gmail.com (backyardlegos)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2014 07:22:36 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323580/#p323580</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323562/#p323562</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I know I'm not very regular here, so it might seem strange to be writing so much, but I enjoy reminiscing for my own sake.

When my family first got a computer in 2006, I quite quickly discovered the legendary 'Microsoft Paint' and 'Windows Movie Maker'. My first animation was a very basic series of about 20 frames of Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting on Mustafaar, each frame lasting a couple of seconds, in what must have been a painfully slow 40 seconds for anyone watching! Still, I was amazed at what I could do with just the free software on my computer, especially at the age of nine. Over the years I discovered Brickfilming, which was the perfect medium for animation, as I was a big fan of Lego and had amassed a fairly large amount of the stuff. I did a few very short animations that weren't really much good at all, as I lacked the software or technical expertise to do much. However in 2010 my school started an animation club, which I attended with about 3 other people, and I made use of the art department's iMac's and webcams to produce my first [i]proper[/i] films. Since then I haven't done an huge amount more, I'm sorry to say, though I have done some live action filming of my own with a couple of friends which I'm pretty proud of. In the last year I've acquired a good webcam and a better capture software, so I now have no excuses whatsoever to not be animating, and I hope to have more content to share here soon.

As for why I persist with Lego as a medium for animation? It's insanely versatile, so you can apply it to any genre. It can be either cartoony or realistic. The amount of scope for sets, props and characters is almost limitless. The grid-based arrangement of bricks makes it fairly easy to redo frames, something which can't be said for plasticene or clay. And I have tonnes of it stacked away in boxes from my childhood, so I might as well do [i]something[/i] with it...]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Jayem)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2014 18:21:51 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323562/#p323562</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323560/#p323560</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This is a great topic idea, Nathan.  Though funnily enough the discussion topic reminds me of an exam question.

I guess I might as well tell my own story as to how I got here.  LEGO has always been my favourite thing ever.  I've loved it for literally as long as I can remember.  It's always had a special place in my heart; you can pretty much build anything you want, and it's a great creative outlet for me.  So brickfilming is in a way an extension of my love for LEGO.  (It probably also helps that my current social life is about as lively as a morgue at midnight.)  I saw some brickfilms a long time ago (2008-2009ish) on YouTube (such as eanimation) and while a friend of mine and I briefly considered making our own brickfilms, it never really went anywhere (they probably would have been horrible anyway); either way I've been out of contact with him for quite some time now.

Then, about two years ago, I discovered Squid's brickfilms and I finally decided to start making them myself--although it took me around a year just to get started.  I guess it doesn't say much for my sense of time-judgement that I finally decided to start brickfilming during what would become by far the busiest (and definitely worst) two years of my life thus far thanks to a ton of schoolwork and a bunch of personal crud I won't elaborate upon for obvious reasons.  I barely managed to release two films, both of which were for contests (ironically I haven't made any of the films I'd originally intended to), and have had literally zero time to do anything since the summer besides a few tests and half a script.  Thankfully this particular phase of my life will be over in a few weeks when I finish my exams, and I'll have loads of time to finally brickfilm.  Unfortunately I fear there will be many films that I've wanted to make that will never see the light of day, as I have no idea how my brickfilming future will run beyond this summer.  I'm more or less in the same boat as Jampot, as I'll be off to University in September/October and I don't know if I'll be able to continue.  I'll be studying a subject completely unrelated to film so I won't even have some sort of excuse to continue.

Though Brickfilming has given me an interest in film and cinema I'm not sure I'd be good at live action, since I'd have a lot less control and be a lot more limited in terms of professional equipment, and I'm not sure how well I'd interact with other human beings.  (I suppose I could become an actor, but I'd probably only ever enjoy roles that I'd be interested in playing and I'd be really paranoid that I'd end up playing in a critical bomb that would ruin my career and I'd be remembered as "that guy who played in that awful movie".  Or I'd have to play in a Shakespeare play, of whom I have a deep-seated loathing.)  I really want to continue brickfilming, but I don't know what the future holds for me.

Sorry if that wall of text is too much. :|]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Mr Vertigo)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2014 15:46:50 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323560/#p323560</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323557/#p323557</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I had gotten the chicken pox, so I had to stay home for a week. I pretty much just spent the days playing computer games, and I just discovered youtube. I was obsessed with this game called "fancypants adventures 2", and I played it every day. I was stuck on the last level, so I went to youtube to look for a cheat code or something, then I discovered fancypants the animator. Then, the rest was history.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (funmiproductions)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2014 14:01:45 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323557/#p323557</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323555/#p323555</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I've always loved art in general and animation specifically, especially golden age cartoons which were my steady diet.  A few years back, I created two hand-drawn cartoons that were about 5 to 6 minutes in length each.  One of these were shown at a film festival.  I returned to my love of Lego around the same time.  A few years later, I read issue of BrickJournal magazine on brickfilming.  I've seen Lego animations prior and was thinking about trying it myself, but the magazine really was my inspiration.

I decided to go all out and focus on a sitcom series, and pattern it after a live action series.  I knew this was a huge undertaking because the films would be 20+ minutes in length.  For a while, I sought out and watched Lego comedy series.  The one that most inspired me, however, was Joe Brickmond.  They were hilarious, well-written, pleasantly animated, and well-acted.

So, in conclusion, the answer to why Lego is threefold: 1) Love of animation, 2) BrickJournal issue on animation, and 3) Joe Brickmond.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (HoldingOurOwn)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2014 13:23:42 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323555/#p323555</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323548/#p323548</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Because you can make good professional movies without spending too much. You don't have to hire actors, buy tons of clothing and props. Instead, you can just buy a few sets and start building! That's a particular thing i liked about brickfilming. Another reason was that i always was interested in filmmaking and Lego. And ofcourse there was YouTube aswell, where everyone started uploading brickfilms. I decided i'd try it for myself and became more experienced with the years.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (WoutStopmotion)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2014 22:24:59 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323548/#p323548</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323546/#p323546</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I don't. :P 

I went into live-action a while back, but I still love brickfilming. I started brickfilming with my dad's old tape camera when I first saw the winner of the 2007 star wars contest. Because of that, I never outgrew LEGO. Every LEGO set I bought from that point on was "for a movie". I just kind of got comfortable with the community and now I just can't leave it. I love watching brickfilms, and every time I see one I get an idea for a new video of my own. With my "brickfilm addiction", I spend a lot less time working on my live-action films. 

So for me, brickfilming is actually a curse, if anything.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (PushOverProductions)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2014 22:20:08 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323546/#p323546</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323545/#p323545</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Cos' its cheap, easy to do, and I have a crapload of the stuff laying around from my childhood.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (Max Butcher)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2014 22:03:43 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323545/#p323545</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323543/#p323543</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Memoir alert :P

It was June 15th, 2001 when I first discovered what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. At only five and a half, I was pretty much in childhood heaven. – I had a PlayStation 2, VHS tapes of the classic Disney Afternoon of the early 90’s, and was just phasing out of DUPLO, and converting over to the regular, tiny LEGO bricks that I’ve grown to love since. Sure, I had “One Saturday Morning,” “Back to the Future,” and the original Star Wars saga on tape, but, I’d never seen a movie in theaters. – This evening was to be my first experience at the cinema!

Atlantis: The Lost Empire was the film – One of the Disney Company’s last attempts at traditional animation before purchasing Pixar and devoting most of their time to CGI films, and Marvel series. Though I regard the film highly, I’ll admit that it’s plot is a pretty generic action/adventure spectacle! With a crew of explorers and a mystical lost city to pursue, it sure made for a great ride – especially for a first-timer.

From that day on, I knew I was gonna be a film-maker, no matter the hardships.

In 2004, I wrote my first story – another pretty generic adventure. But, at this time, I didn’t have the recourses to put something like that to film, so, I had to settle for a short-story. – A story that has garnered me much praise from both friends and teachers alike. It’s one heck of a conversation starter!

In 2007, great change came over me in two ways. The first: I discovered Youtube for the first time. The second: I heard that the great Steven Spielberg was filming another Indiana Jones blockbuster, set for release the next year. I was so excited! It actually inspired me to, for the first time, put down the pen and paper, and start to put my ideas to film…

For me, LEGO  has always been a conscious choice for film medium. I quickly learned this after some testing with filming toys. The Star Wars action figures had to be held by hand, and claymation was WAY to hard for someone like me to concentrate on… I had to find a better way to film, and what to film with.

The answer, oddly enough, came from the old Rankin & Bass holiday specials – all animated with stop-motion and little figures. Thomas Edison must have been proud, as the “light-bulb of idea” switched on above my head. I could stop-motion animate my LEGO minifigures.

The reason I chose stop-motion was clear, and so was my choice of LEGO. Aside from being my favorite toy in the world, I had been lucky enough to stumble upon some brickfilms on youtube. The rest is history, I guess.

I’m SO excited that Nathan Wells created this thread, because, he’s another chapter in my autobiography to be released in about 60 years :P Beast was one of the first brickfilms I ever saw, and definitely the first one I ever loved. It was the final push in the right direction that I needed to pick up Brickfilming as a beloved hobby. Even if I’m one day directing blockbusters in Hollywood, I’ll always Brickfilm. I just love it, and, I’d like to think the community likes me too. I’ll always contribute my films to the craft – as long as there is a community there waiting to be entertained. (:]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[thedylandproductions@yahoo.com (Dyland)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2014 21:51:41 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323543/#p323543</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[Re: Filmmaking and Brickfilming Discussion -  Week 1: Why LEGO?]]></title>
			<link>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323541/#p323541</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I always liked making up stories and building toys. When I was little my parents had to be present when I did fire truck drawings because by the end the paper was covered with black crayon "smoke". I also liked making up stories and acting them out by myself or with my younger sister. When I was young I played with Duplos, then K'nex (before they were a LEGO knock off), then regular LEGO.
   I first thought of filming my LEGO stories when I saw the Star Wars contest entries along with the LEGO Club and Space Police animations.
   When I got a lightly used Flip video camera from my uncle I started making (terrible) live action videos where my hands moved the characters.
   When I was living in California my mom found out about a short summer brickfilming "class" at the Charles M. Schultz museum that lasted for a week where I learned the very basics of stop motion and how to use Monkeyjam. Those films weren't great (lit with natural light and filmed at 5-10 fps) but they led to me brickfilming all the way to now.]]></description>
			<author><![CDATA[dummy@example.com (END films)]]></author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2014 21:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
			<guid>https://bricksinmotion.com/forums/post/323541/#p323541</guid>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
