Bricks in Motion
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STEAMPUNK
Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you, "STEAMPUNK," a sci-fi film nearly a year in the making. With unprecedented animation and effects from the studio, and boasting nearly the longest running time yet attempted, STEAMPUNK is sure to dazzle and delight audiences around the world.
Or something like that....
Also, I'll get the voice actor's names and links in the Youtube description in a bit. Done.
Last edited by Pritchard Studios (February 7, 2014 (07:45am))
THe animation was good and so was the sound. My one critique was the sudden transitions the two ones that stood out the most were-
All of a sudden the villain is on the ship
and
All of a sudden the robot turns out to be the captain's sister
Great film though 
I agree with END films. With that first transition I had problems figuring out where they were, and felt that if you actually showed how they got on the ship, or if they were talking next to a window, it would be much more understandable.
The montage showing what happened to the sister was very well done, but I also agree wit END films that the captain revealing that that was his sister was a little fast, especially since it had an effect on the end of the ship.
This film needs a follow-up to explain all the things that weren't explained.
What is the Black Coal Corporation? Why does STEAM want to bring it down? What were in the documents?
It was a great pleasure making a score for this film! I really tried my best to make some really deep impacts that reminds you of those big Hollywood films. 
Not bad, Pritch! I enjoyed the cinematic feel of this, you did a great job on that. I didn't have to look at the cast; I automatically recognised the voice actors. They did a great job on that. Overall, you did a fine job on this! Congrats on being able to get it done!
This was awesome.
The animation was great, the camera movements were great, the set was really great, and overall this was enjoyable. You had some great bits of animation in there two, the robot fight was really cool (especially the ending). The lighting looked pretty nice in some shots too. The music was well done and definitely fitting.
Of course, the writing does have one or two problems. First off, I think you had too many characters for a 7 minute film, and most of them had no more then two or three lines of dialogue. For example, the squishy character could have been cut out of the film completely. He kind of added nothing, it was just there for the sake of it. We never needed to see the saboteur, we just knew he was onboard. (also, the name "squishy" is way too silly for a more serious film). It might have been better to have given the few character that do speak a lot more dialogue, not random dialogue like orders or reports, but "story dialogue".
Also, I think I cared more about the antagonists then the protagonists. They had much more story behind them and didn't say/do anything really evil. If you want us to root for the good guys, you should focus the story more on them. They didn't evil seem evil, I just knew they were bad because of the clothing they wore. STEAM seemed like the bad guys to be completely honest.
The part with the sister was a great idea, but it had absolutely no build up and kind of came out of the blue. When the captain[?] says "you shouldn't have done that", I thought he meant shooting the gun at him.
Also, some of the lines could have been a bit more creative. "Why not?", seemed a bit boring. the line: "it doesn't matter how, they just are" is pretty bad. It actually kind of does matter how, because if we (the audience) know nothing about the papers, how are we supposed to care about them? I think you could have briefly explained their importance. And then finally, "We're losing altitude" is sort of pointless. I would assume that that is a that bad and threating thing, and we are never really told if the problem is solved.
It watched it about three times before I finally understood everything. Still please note that this film was really enjoyable regardless of all that stuff I just mentioned. I am probably critiquing this too much considering its only a seven minute film, but I figured I might as well put in what I thought. Unlike some of your other films, this one didn't flow very well. Ax 2 told a story very well in an even shorter amount of time.
Anyways, great job! I look forward to your future projects.
EDIT: Oh, wow, this is a really long review. Why do I keep making such long posts lately? Gosh.
Last edited by PushOverProductions (February 7, 2014 (10:34am))
This was nice! I enjoyed it. Here are my critiques:
Animation: Decent. Could have used some better easing in some places, but overall it was good.
Score: Fantastic. T.G. Tom didn't let down.
Voice Acting: While mostly okay, it was a bit stale at parts. It seemed like some people didn't have any emotion.
Effects: Could have been better, but there weren't too many shots with effects so the film wasn't hampered by them.
Story: This is where my main critique is. I agree with PushOver with the fact that I cared more about the antagonists rather than the protagonist. It also rings true that I didn't find anything necessarily evil with the villans (Trying to shutdown STEAM didn't seem evil to me). Also, while I enjoyed the emotion you tried to provoke with
the protagonists' sister
it didn't seem well placed. I feel like there should have been more character development along those lines.
Overall, this was enjoyable, but the holes were noticeable and somewhat detracted from the quality of the film. I realize that you took a long time on this project, and hopefully this will lead to better films in the future!
3.5/5
Really liked it a lot. Its amazing that you stuck with this for over a year. The animation set design lighting sound track sound and cinematography were really really good.
Thanks for all the honest feedback, lotta great insights here.
And the bigger the post, the better. I like details. And even long lists of critiques mean that you care enough about the film to analyze it and think of ways how it could be better.
Even before it was finished, some of the scripting flaws were known. It went through several versions, and it really should have been polished up a time or two more. The script was cut down, and then expanded back out during filming, so that left an impact. Some scenes were also cut due to various reasons that would have cleared up the two major holes mentioned above. In regards to the spoilery thing, I meant to hint at it earlier in the film, but never put those musings into action. I wanted the shocking twist, but forgot that the best twists are the ones that you can see coming once you know them, but didn't know and couldn't see before.
I'll agree that there were too many people. It only served to complicate matters. The character of Squishy was originally the one that let the Black Coal guys on the ship, but then now that his main purpose is cut he does seem to be pointless. Also, way too many Black Coal guys on the ship for no reason. Effects shots were avoided like the plague because I'm terrible at them, and this was taking too long as is. I like the look of the flying shots since they give it an interesting feel, but can understand if you don't like them.
It's nice how you couldn't tell which group was "good." That was the original intent of the film in fact. Captain's motivation was going to be to savagely avenge...you know what...which was caused by the Black Coal Corp. The Corp would have been shown to be horribly corrupt, but the leaders would still have human and sympathetic elements. Thus trying to balance the two out. The poor writing just didn't make that work like it did in my head. It's interesting that you sympathized more with the BC guys in this version, I think I'll have to watch the film again and try to look at it from that way. The STEAM guys were supposed to be the good guys, but that's just another shortcoming I reckon.
The concept deserved a much bigger film, but apparently when it was compressed the wrong things got cut out. Also, delays and setbacks got me less excited about working on it, so many of the issues were not addressed simply to finish and finally release the thing. The long production time also caused the difference in animation quality.
From now on I think I'll stick to smaller more compact projects, but make sure that the script and story are high quality.
Here's the backstory that was written to help form the film. Maybe it can help clear up some confusion.
The Black Coal Corporation is an all-encompassing organization that mines, gathers, manufactures, distributes, and sells all manner of mechanical instruments. They have bought, bullied, and beaten their way into the governments of Earth. Their reach extends through many companies, and they own one-third of all the world’s businesses. They control most of the globe, and there are few that dare to stand in their way. But one day, a rumor flew through the air. Something, maybe a prototype, maybe a blueprint, maybe a piece of information, but something had been stolen. A something that, if the rumor could be trusted, was capable of bringing down the corrupt giant.
Soon, a word, just one word, just a plain common word, took on a whole new meaning: STEAM.
STEAM stole the something. STEAM can bring the Black Coal Corporation down.
STEAM will save the world.
Also: STEAM=Superior Tacticians Exterminating Allied Monopolies...Or something like that.
Also, I feel really jealous of your steampunk and grey/brown lego collection.
Well done Pritchard, I really liked it. Okay, so the script could have been better, but I myself am not a very good writer, so I won't comment on that. I think that technically it's your best film yet; the lighting and sets were amazing, and the animation felt more smooth than your other stuff, although I suppose I'd have to go back and re-watch a lot of it to be sure.
The fight between the "robots" was confusing, it was hard to tell what was happening until there, I sort of had to piece it together instead of paying attention to the next shot.
Also, I have to say, I feel bad about the weird lack in quality of my one line, not sure what happened there, sorry. I think it's a really good film from the technical side, and although it definitely feels like it wants to expand into a much larger film, you did a really nice job. Way to finish a project of this size.
Nicely done. I will restate what others have said in that I had to go back and watch it again to understand what was going on, but the whole film had a very well established atmosphere, with the choice of bricks, the color correction, and the score by Tom Gudde, whom I have had the pleasure of working with before.
I've never worked more than a few months on a brickfilm. so kudos for executing a project of this size.
Nicely done!
For criticisms, they're all the same as those already stated that you know about. Also, the dialog levels were a little bit too quiet compared to the music in some parts but the levels can be hard to perfect, I know I have that problem.
I really liked the designs of the sets and the colours used. It was especially cool when you had gears or levers in the set and they were animated, it really added to the overall feel, as did a few brilliant angles on the sets (like at 5:29) that really made the location feel expansive.
It watched it twice and it made much more sense the second time around. Overall I enjoyed the film and it was a very large project and a good watch, great job!
@Willco66, Bet you aren't jealous of the Bricklink bill. 
Those are some of my favorite sets, and it's nice to see the work put into them shine through in the film.
Thanks guys for finding the time to comprehend this video, it means a lot that ya'll want to watch it again.
This is not the first of my films to take months to complete, but it has thought me to try not to split production with a semester of college. Too many changes come from that idle time that only serve to muddle the whole process.
It's cool to see months of labor finally come together, but I recommend getting a brother/real life friend involved with a long production time like that to help keep you motivated and excited to keep working on it.
Anyway, thanks again for all the comments!
I do like this film, it actually one of the best that I've seen recently. (Glad I watched it before the LEGO movie, though)
However, I don't really like the fast paced editing. The shots seem to be too quick and some things are revealed a little too fast. The good thing is that, though this may be just a differences in taste, it means you're a much better writer than you give yourself credit for. (And, a slightly weak editor, though, your animation is great, as always.) The story you wrote could have easily been adapted into a novella, and, as a film, should have been somewhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour.
Overall, I still love this film, and even it's big negative (it's quick editing, and short length for the story told) Has actually given me, at least, a new look at how to brickfilm. I, too, as many, tend to edit very fast-paced little shorts, which, can actually ruin the films presented. Now, I think I am starting to finally learn how to edit a film properly, with long and slow shots. If that makes me the Stanley Kubrick of brickfilms, than so be it... lol
Either way, this is still a really good film, and I'm glad to see you expanding past 5 minute running times, Pritchard.
This was a very ambitious project, and for the most part I quite like how it was executed. The animation was just as stunning as usual from you. However as other people have some, my main issues are probably to do with the writing and the sound mixing, especially the latter, at times the music was way louder than the dialogue.
Also I know you brought it up, but the fact that there's no real 'good' or 'bad' guys there's not much motivation behind the film. You can have stories where the protagonist/s are unlikeable, but here it just felt like 'watch some stuff happen' rather than 'become emotionally invested in the characters and plot'. I think that maybe if you spent a bit more time developing the cast then the film would have held a lot more impact.
Still though, this is very impressive by brickfilm standards, the animation particularly, which I brought up earlier, it's just gorgeous.
the dialog levels were a little bit too quiet compared to the music in some parts but the levels can be hard to perfect, I know I have that problem.
Sometimes I take months more to release a longer film because I spend a whole load of time trying to perfect audio levels.
Those things can be really rough getting them all just right, but it's a well worth investment of time, and a very important one.
The film is pretty great, the animation is smooth and it has some lovely slants. The sister plot point was clever, though, is doesn't really seem right somehow, and feels like it was just thrown in there because it was a cool idea but without letting it fit in properly.
This is pretty cool. I took too long to say anything, though, since anything good was already pointed out by someone, but even still, this was definitely an enjoyable watch. Even with its flaws, great job!
I really enjoyed the film, me and my friend DT98FILMS have a Brickfilm review show called 'BrickView' and we would like to review this, but we require your permission. Please may we review your film?
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