Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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How will that help? They had 10 months and they waited 9 months to begin working on their entries, why wouldn't they do the same thing if they had even more time?
could you pm me the full results please 
Ludvig's right, everybody had plenty of time to do it, just there were a lot of people who kind of left it to the last minuite. There's nothing wrong with that, it just meant that some films could have done better if more time was spent on them. I think 10 months is plenty of time, I made a ten minute film in 6 weeks, so I think there's plenty of time for people to come up with great stories, scripts, animation, etc. By the time I joined up with this site BiM 2010 didn't have long left, and at the time I'd never made a film with any speaking in it (I've only ever made 1 now).
Next year I'll be ready... 
I think it would actually help if you announced the contest later. Because then people will feel that they have to start earlier and they'll spend more time on their entries.
Next year I'll be ready...
Me and you.
I think it would actually help if you announced the contest later.
Agreed, and they're going to do that too, I think.
I think announcing the contest in the fall is fine, but I think you should have a much longer entry period. Usually the entries can't be made public until a week before the deadline, why not make it sometime in Spring or Winter? That way if someone finishes their film in March, they don't have to wait 4 months to let everyone see it (waiting 7 weeks to put my A-G up on youTube after I finished it was torture) and other members might get inspired to finish their stuff sooner. I understand that if you have the entry date closer to the deadline, then you get all of them showing up in the Release forum close together, but I think that making the public date a lot earlier might motivate people to finish their films earlier and spend some more time polishing them.
The release date thing was to stop people from stealing other people's ideas. If someone released their film in March, then other people would have plenty of time to copy their idea.
They should tell us the theme for BiM 2011 late September or early October. Then make the deadline sometime in July and allow people to release their films if finished on Youtube or Vimeo of whatever, a month or two before the contest ends. That way, people can't copy because they'll be started already with they're entries. That's what I think anyways.
Actually, the plan is to announce the contest later than usual, not earlier. That way people will be more likely to not procrastinate as much.
I completely disagree with you madlibs, like I said.
Smeagol, I think the quality suffered because most of the entrants were spending most of their time trying to come up with an Idea.
It's unfortunate that some people agonized over it so much, either ending up putting something quick together at the last minute or dropping out of the contest. Seriously, I have my doubts that anybody spent months developing the film concepts they ended up using.
We sort of figured this contest wouldn't be the most popular possible theme possible with the site at large, but that didn't stop me from going ahead with it. To me at least, it seems like it was worth it to avoid something like STAR happening again, where we got really literal but sort of inaccurate interpretations of the theme that was intended.
Haven't decided when the next Summer contest will be announced. I've heard both sides of the argument and am currently leaning toward November, with a YouTube announcement in February or March.
Can't say the idea of a long entry period appeals to me. It's good that people are giving feedback on how they think this system could be improved. I seriously don't mean to attack you/your entry (fallentomato) but I'll try to be thorough in explaining why I don't like the idea of a longer entry period.
Part of the fun of the contest is having all these new films to watch and compare at once; if you have a longer entry period there are risks of people copying other peoples' entries, or at least benefiting from taking somebody else's idea and taking it to the next level, which is sort of uncool in the context of a themed contest I think. I don't know of any serious film contests that allow for months of leeway on entry time and I think it would detract from the idea of having a contest in a big way. Having a really long/seasonal entry period begins to shift the contest into "submit whatever you were working on and contort it to fit the theme" mode, making it like the BiMAs but with prizes.
If there's a specific deadline it helps ensure people are actually making their entries for the contest, or at least increases the likelihood of that happening. To use your example, in the instance of your own entry, fallentomato, wasn't it originally made for the Cannes contest, with the caveat that it was sort of Avant-Garde suitable so you could double-dip? You didn't really violate the rules by doing that, but if everybody were did that, which would be more feasible with an extended release period, I think it'd take away a lot of what makes the contest unique.
I would guess that if you had seriously been making the video just for Avant-Garde it wouldn't have been a commercial for LEGO, which was kind of what was off-putting about it to the judges; double-dipping is appealing for contest entrants I suppose but it detracts from the integrity of the contest. In the instance of your entry, the use of the LEGO trademark at the end was really a violation of contest rules but we tried to be lenient since there wasn't anything to be gained from disqualifying people if we didn't have to.
I think that making the public date a lot earlier might motivate people to finish their films earlier and spend some more time polishing them.
I don't think people are going to spend more time polishing their films if they can release them earlier; that sounds really counter-intuitive to me if, as you've said, it is torture to have to hold onto the film longer than necessary.
-the use of the LEGO trademark at the end was really a violation of contest rules .
Heh, well, that's true, but the Lego minifigure is also a Lego trademark.
what happened to places for 16, 15, and 12??
Some entries tied, and that's why those numbers aren't there.
Sméagol wrote:-the use of the LEGO trademark at the end was really a violation of contest rules .
Heh, well, that's true, but the Lego minifigure is also a Lego trademark.
While the minifig design is something of a trademark, having a minifig appear in a video isn't the same sort of issue has having the company's logo clearly displayed. I guess it's just something that I'd rather have avoided but given the blurry divisions in rules like this it's not something I'd necessarily disqualify over.
Congratulations to everyone who made a film
, and an especially big well done to Nick, LGFB and A.
You guys deserve it !
Seriously, I have my doubts that anybody spent months developing the film concepts they ended up using.
Crime Stories took me over 400 hours to record and edit. There was plenty of hours just in post-production.
That still doesn't account for the weeks spent getting bricklink orders together or the weeks spent building the sets.
Or the thousands of frames recorded edited and thrown away while I tested concepts.
I spent a few months recording frames and editing test scenes.
As I stated publicly in these forums to the contrary I take offence to your remark.
Screw you Smeagol and the horse you rode in on.
I think you're the only exception Bodville. I personally would have chose your entry for the level of animation, and the placing of the entire contest was messed up. Personally my favourites were ZachMG, yourself, and the BuilderBrothers. Simply if you'd mixed the BuilderBrothers idea with your level of animation it would have been Avant-Garde.
However that being said finding a balance is too difficult, unless you get someone like David Pagano (Who didn't enter unfortunately). None of the entires I practically thought deserved to win, however for next year I'd like to see a theme like STAR again. CYCLIC and The River, in my opinion, were two of the best Brickfilms created up to date. And though a theme is hard to do, it does mean people are aiming for something and it makes it easier to animate.
I'd like the September contest coming to be a bit like a practice for next year's BiM 2011 contest, however give it a wisely chosen theme. Something that can be delivered well in LEGO. Maybe a Murder Mystery? That's always a good 'un. Those are my main thoughts anyway, but I must also state my dislike to the the contest was presented. The Chat thing was handy, but the space between each result and the constant chatter (Especially from some of the Mods as well) seemed to take away the excitement away from it. I'd prefer to announce it in one Chat Room, while the people's opinions are in another.
That's my share anyway, just thought I'd give a viewers (And reviewers) perspective to the competition. Overall if I'd have to rate the entries, idea, organization, and all of the others things I'd give the contest about a 6.8/10. My favourite thing would be how well it was organized at the beginning, with the sponsors very well planned out and the titles and stuff very well presented. That's all anyway.
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