Re: BrickFilm Cinematic Universe: Story thread
I second Walter, Coronum sounds off to me. It makes me think of a brand of beer, or some sort of medical heart condition perhaps...
Agreed. I wasn't very fond of it anyway.
I do quite like the sounds of the other names ("Antrozia" reminds me of the BIONICLE Phantoka Makuta Antroz...) although Wyvendale or Tuskwood sound more like regional areas or towns rather than entire kingdoms.
That was part of the idea, as I wanted to give them the impression of being smaller kingdoms than the Crown kingdom. Perhaps kingdom is the wrong word to use; I see Tuskwood at least being a realm similar in size to somewhere like Lothlorien - it's not big, but it's still kind of referred to as a kingdom or a realm in its own right. The names are also Tolkien-inspired, since LOTR is kind of the paragon of Western fantasy literature (well, a lot fantasy takes cues from it).
I love the idea of having loads of kingdoms; with all the Castle factions and shields the possibilities are near-limitless (although I myself unfortunately don't have loads from any Castle theme, though I do have a fair amount of Trolls and Dwarves from the 2007-2009 theme and Knight's Kingdom I and II stuff).
More kingdoms! The trolls should really have their own kingdom somewhere, as should the dwarves and the bull knights. Perhaps we could even lead into an elf kingdom later on, but definitely the trolls for now. The stereotypically evil, orc-like race is something that should definitely be present in the Castle side of the BFCU.
The Space timeline seems somewhat arbitrary, though--I myself always though the Galaxy Patrol and Galaxy Squad or Space Police minifigs could fit well together. There's also lots of potential for crossovers, given that the Galaxy Patrol minifig has the Classic Space logo, and that SPIII in particular references loads of other Space themes.
Perhaps they could, but I see them as an evolution of the same thing, starting at SPI. That would explain why the same space logo carries on throughout, from Classic space to Galaxy Patrol. Plus, Galaxy Squad's style gives the impression of either being really deep in space or in the far, far future. That's not to say GP and GS couldn't be at the same time, though.
I just think it's important to set out some vague parameters of time - nothing too limiting, like saying "this happened in the year 2107", but enough to give collaborators an idea of when stuff happens.
An alternative is that they all happen at the same time (let's say the 24th century), but Space Police is police, Galaxy Patrol is military, and Galaxy Squad is a specific taskforce. That would probably work better than my original idea, and allow for better integration of all the themes. I do think it's important to establish vaguely when in the future it is, though. 23rd or 24th century onwards.
But all the stuff I mentioned being modern day (Mars, Classic space, Alien Conquest etc) should really be modern-day. We don't want to make our sci-fi bits purely in the future, 'coz then we limit ourselves too much.
As far as Forest Police goes, it seems a bit too specific--perhaps park rangers might be better.
Whichever would probably work well. Besides, there's nothing to say both can't be done. The reason I initially chose Forest Police was because it was out in the countryside, and could cover a really large area of land in the story. They have all the authority of the police, and the same 'enemies' to deal with (all kinds of criminals) but if you stick 'em deep in the woods, you can have all kinds of strange and mysterious things happen around them (hence the UFOs and werewolves). Park rangers, to me, brings up images of Central Park and Yogi Bear, which wasn't what I originally aimed for. But hey, this isn't just mine anymore, so we can work with whatever works, so to speak.
That said, I think a police investigation involving Slenderman-like entities in a creepy wooded area would be great--something a bit along the lines of the "Strangers" series made by Bionicle28...
Yes, although we don't want to rip off his series, which is why I suggested including it in Forest Police/Park Rangers. They provide a different dynamic to the FBI or CIA swooping in. That said, a bit of rivalry between the CIA and the forest police might be interesting. If you watch Lethal Weapon or The Negotiator or other movies like them, the CIA are always the supposedly tough agency that swoops in and makes things worse, so we could build on tropes like that.