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!
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BULB
After three years of work, BULB is finally out!
Based in the London Underground, a minifigure discovers that the tunnels aren't just used by trains.
Well done Isaac! The animation was top notch, as was the editing and sound mixing. Few brickfilms have as good sound mixing as this one. The sets were a little bit bland from time to time, but it didn't really distract too much overall. I also liked your attention to detail. For example "The Legoman" poster.
All in all, a very well executed film! 
Hat off for you good sir!
Wow! Absolutely amazing! Love the cinematography along with the great set design! The story is probably one of most well executed I've seen around here lately. And it surprisingly worked real well to not use voices in this film, but just subtitles. I probably never would have the willpower to stay at a film for three whole years! Way to keep at it! This is definitely one of the best films of the year!
Wow, this is a great film Isaac. The sound was great. The animation was smooth, everything was perfect. I loved the sets. Great job Isaac. 
Wow, this is really amazing. I don't really know what else to say, but I love it! 
One of the best films this year.
It makes me really want to make films, which is good, because I need to animate today.
I felt it's really weird that you didn't have voices, though. Somehow, the film felt like it should be voiceless, but I think it would have been better to have somehow done it in a such a way that doesn't require subtitles by not having any sort of speech, or you could've just had some people record voices. Having just subtitles but hearing nothing feels slightly off.
But it's still a really good film. I like all of the sound effects that you found. It really gives it the feel of the Underground, and it makes me think of all the times I've been on the American equivalent several years ago. The lighting and some of the creepy stuff is just delightful. Bravo.
A really great film, it's always such a relief when a film of this quality is released, as there's so much junk to sort through these days. Only a couple things bother me. One is the printing on the back of the head that's visible under the hair piece, that's one of my pet peeves, I always switch the head out for a different one on shots of the back of the minifigure. Along the same lines the sweater printing on the back of the doctor was weird. Also, 300 volts is like nothing, the non-lethal tasers used by police are 10,000 volts, and the effects of those shocks wear off after a short time. Something like 30,000 or 40,000 volts would have been more appropriate. Those are small things that probably don't bother most people. Overall the film is brilliant, good animation, good sets, and and engaging story. I especially loved the dream sequence. The sound design is what really sets it apart from other brickfilms, you did a great job creating a creepy atmosphere and instilling suspense. Awesome job, and way to stick with it this whole time.
I hadn't been paying attention at all to this film's development at all, so it was nice to go in with a completely open mind.
Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was an interesting story told in such a way that it totally held my attention for the full length, with great lighting and superb sound design. The animation was nothing particularly special, but was still good enough so as to not hinder the storytelling.
The film is not without its flaws though, which I'm gonna address right here:
The dialogue really didn't feel well-executed. I think you should have either got some voice actors, or removed the subtitles in favour of just body language. You'd be surprised at how well what the characters were saying would have come across had the subtitles not been there. I also think Arial was kind of a bad choice of font for this purpose...
The black screens were a little jarring. You need to be careful when presenting the viewer with just a black screen, because suddenly their eyes have no idea where to go. Your eyes just kind of drift around and it can be really immersion-breaking.
Lots of other little things like the mouth on the back of the protagonist's head, the lady's very un-female face and the really distracting "GIANT LEGOMAN" poster in the film's crucial scene all added up to take something away from it. That said, I do quite like little errors in brickfilms. They make them feel more charming.
Massive props for managing to finish this huge undertaking. I think this film is something to be proud of, and I hope you feel the same.
I loved this! The music was great and went well with the scenes, and the story was interesting. Like everything said before, the giant mouth on the back of his head at first, I thought was a tattoo, so yeah, you should have changed that. And when he opens the door, the giant lego war poster was weird. We get a close up of it, and we can see and read the info. It didn't go well, as this is a horror film, and that poster was coming out of a comedy. But overall, I loved this. Keep making more brickfilms!
Wow, this is a feat, Isaac. The cinematography and sets were amazing. But, the sound editing was the best I've ever seen in a brickfilm. It felt more like a supernatural thriller--than a horror--to me. But again, I can't stress how well BULB turned out. Great job!
That was pretty nice. As has been mentioned, I liked the music and sound design quite a lot. And like Squid, I suddenly have a desire to animate (maybe even do a large project). There were some problems, most of which Haz already touched on. I would add to the list that the frame blending was quite annoying, especially in the walking shots. I'd say it degraded from the overall experience. However, overall nice job. Can't wait for more.
Thank-you everyone for commenting! And of coarse, thank-you for the critique.
I'm pleased everyone overall likes it 
@Legoguy501 I use Vegas Pro 10.0 and I'm not actually sure how to turn frame blending off so if anyone has any idea, please fire away.
I was excited for this. You sure delivered. Great job, Isaac!
It makes me really want to make films, which is good, because I need to animate today.
So true! I am supposed to be working on a project, but I have been procrastinating. Bulb makes me want to animate! 
Last edited by Lavamation (October 24, 2013 (03:48pm))
I'm kind of like Hazzat in that I had no idea about this film so I was definitely pleasantly surprised when I opened it up. I think everyone else has pretty much said it. The sets were simple but super effective, and some great lighting throughout. I personally think going with voice actors would have ruined it for me, partly because let's be honest, it's hard to find a really good voice actor (especially for a serious role), and I also think that having no voices adds to the mysterious tone of the film. The subtitles is a toss up. I liked them but I could see how people wouldn't.
The sound design was very good, but I felt that there were certain moments where if it was just tightened up a tiny bit, it would make it brilliant. But dang man, great job. The best brickfilm I've seen in awhile.
Thought the set design and the animation was fantastic 
Great job! Definitely worth all the work you put into it!
I like it.
I absolutely love the noir-ish lighting, and it's actually inspired me to start animating again. The animation was very smooth (although it seemed slightly slow at times), the sets were great, though occasionally a bit bare-looking (I liked the London Underground station and trains especially) and the sound effects/music were great as well and did a lot to add tension. The usage of camera perspective, movement and angles was excellent.
On the other hand, I found the lack of voicing and the use of subtitling odd--especially since all other sound effects were there as "normal", and the train announcer even spoke. Also, things like naming of the person "Mr. Figure" was pretty jarring too (I think it would have been much better to have him simply unnamed, or give him a realistic-sounding name). The plot itself seemed pretty disjointed too; the protagonist doesn't seem to do much aside from going to work, then having the odd nightmare and blacking out in the tunnel--he never seems to conciously investigate what is going on, or tell someone, and I dodn't really get the impression that he was even particularly concerned about what happened to him. It was never really made clear to me what was happening in the tunnels and how this was connected to lightbulbs. And I felt the ending was pretty abrupt. The exposition of information through the black-screens-with-writing-on-them was a bit forced too; it would have been much better to express this through dialogue or newspaper headlines.
All in all though, this is a great film, and I really enjoyed it!
@FlyingMinifig
One of the big things about the film was I didn't want too much to be explained about the mysterious light bulbs. Maybe there was a funny gas leek that could sometimes cause hallucinations. Maybe it was supernatural, you decide
The reason in the end I didn't voice the characters was purely that #1 there are not terribly many great voice actors which I could just PM and #2 most of us on here are male and there are hardly any female brickfilmers on here and even less that would make great voice actors!
Great video, smooth animation and great sound effects
Whoa... 
Most impressive!
I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. I just hope it's remembered come awards time.
I kinda liked the use of subtitles, and they seemed to give it a special feel. And I agree that we need some sort of explanation of what happened. The girl did seem awfully committed after only going on one date, and the seven month time seemed to be a bit long for her to wait. And Mr. Figure sounds silly.
You've done a fantastic job, and have managed to get me into an animating mood as well. Now I'm really looking forward to whatever you're doing next.
I really can't add on what everyone else has said as far as suggestions for improvement. I think they covered it pretty well.
I really enjoyed this though. It had a very unique quality to it. Great timing on the release!
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