I have a very specific idea, a standard, that I try to have my films capture. It spawned from an old VHS (even old at the time I had VHS tapes... back in the late 90's), some Universal movie, that had an ad at the beginning. The ad featured several Universal Studios films from the past century, including Jurassic Park and Back to the Future - both films I had yet to see. I'm not sure on the other films that were featured, however, I do remember that all of them also had a counterpart-ride at the theme park.

Long story, short, I remember watching the commercial and trying to find similarities between the films, and some other big films to come out soon. (At this point, Spider-Man, and Tomb Raider) I noticed that, aside from most of these films featuring a heavy amount of action, they all seemed to have a more... not degraded, but rather, "orange-ish" tone to them. Something that made the likes of the Matrix and the Fast and the Furious look duller and "bluer."

Years later I discovered that the reason for this was mainly due to color correction/film vs digital, (i.e. compare the colors in Saving Private Ryan to The Wizard of Oz) however, before that discovery, I'd always thought that this "orange-y" color was some sort of "magic" that the film possessed. Just think, all Disney classics had bright colors, Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark were shot on film, and movie posters were under constant exposure to light-bulbs! (not the new, florescent kind... no, the old "yellowed" ones) All appeared to not only have "brighter" colors, but also seemed to look like an illuminated bathroom when you're taking a soak in the tub. - Magic.

When I started to get into LEGO, around 2001 or 2002, I noticed that these plastic figures, compared to MEGA-Blocks or other similar brands, had that same sort of "orange-y" magic that my favorite films had. I was inspired before I even truly understood what inspiration was.

I'm guessing that you can assume where this is going next: The infamous LEGO color change. When this came about, and the old plastic's yellowed look was changed for a bluer look, I was horrified. Was LEGO Batman, Indiana Jones, and Agents not as magical as classic Star Wars, Johnny Thunder, and Alpha Team? I sure thought so until I started to believe less in a "magic" around me, and more of a magic within me - ergo when I knew that I was going to be a film director for the rest of my life.

So, I'd say that my biggest inspiration has, and always will be, that "orange-y" feel that my favorite films had. Only recently, with Sony Vegas, have I been able to easily color-correct the frames of my brickfilms. And with that, I'll admit, I've gone a little overboard sometimes with adding too much of a yellowing to the frames, but, I just really strive for that feel; the feel that I associate with nostalgia, my childhood, and some dang good movies!

For me personally, as with many others, I suspect, there are many different things.

Movies and TV shows, for one.  I've always loved movies, and there have been a lot of amazingly good TV shows lately.  Sometimes I take inspiration from specific parts of a TV show.  Often, if I find that there is a specific thing about a film/TV show I love, I take that particular concept and store it in a sort of "mental notebook" in which I keep ideas--if I see something I like, I remember it and may use it as inspiration for a specific brickfilm I happen to be developing.  For instance, ever since watching Nikita I have been determined to come up with more brickfilms which have a female protagonist, or several female main characters.  Or take Breaking Bad; often, the cinematography is beautiful and has given me many ideas for different shots and has forced me to think more carefully about camera angles and movements (rather than just plunking down the camera and snapping away). Sometimes films inspire me more directly: for instance, the film Wild Target inspired my current project.  And some literature as well, such as Death Note.  Music too--just listening to certain songs and tracks helps me feel inspired (it's also useful for when I'm actually animating).  Something like this makes me want to get out there and create something amazing.

In a way, this makes me feel like a thief, as I just take the bits I like from stuff I watch, and re-assemble them into my own projects.  Then again, I've heard that the most creative people often take inspiration from other works and re-work it into their own unique vision.

However, I find that--counter-intuitive though it may seem--"negative inspirations" can be equally important.  I once watched the film Seven Psychopaths because I thought it sounded funny and would be a type of film I'd really enjoy.  However; I didn't like it--though I loved the basic premise/concept, I found the actual film dull and unfunny and I didn't ever finish it.  I suppose something inside me said "I can do better than this", so I took inspiration from the basic premise, which I liked, and decided to write a script for a brickfilm--which is now to be my latest project.  So I was inspired by something I didn't like.

Another unusual thing that I found helped me a lot was my English Literature course.  It taught me to think analytically about a piece of writing, and then break it down and examine the component parts of why it creates the effect that it does, sometimes down to the very word structure.  I find I can translate this to watching cinema, and now I find myself noticing certain details, such as why a certain camera angle was used, or why a character is wearing a specific item of clothing.  Such analysis helps me when I create my own films.

I find less obvious things inspire me too, such as art styles and architecture.  Seeing certain real-life buildings and vehicles gives me inspiration for sets and props.  I personally love Art Deco (I've been wanting to make a Dieselpunk film for some time now), so I often design things with that sort of an aesthetic (or at least try to).  I'm not an official artist/architect/designer, so I don't know how close to the actual style it is, but I find it helps me be creative.  There are also a bunch of smaller things that I like.  For instance, I sometimes like using bright colours as a visual contrast, or using noir-ish lighting, or utilise a certain style.  I find small details like this are often quite satisfying to implement, and it's also fun looking for them in other brickfilms or films or TV shows.

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (June 23, 2014 (04:42pm))

Personally, I believe there is inspiration in everything. I often find inspiration in mundane, everyday occurrences. An old woman is sitting at a bus stop - where is she going? Why is she going there? A plane flies overhead. Where is it going? There are 150 people on board - they each have a story...

These everyday events are the jumping off point. Take a seemingly mundane instance and create a fantastic story around it. The reverse works as well; take fantastic characters and create a mundane story for them.

As far as brickfilms go, I don't usually get inspired by much else non-LEGO.  For Pirates Rule I just had some pirates stuff and I really liked them so I wanted to make a movie about them.  For Bank the idea just popped out of nowhere like an idea machine, and the same goes for Leprechauns in France and Sharks and Clowns.

For Odoriferous, I had once before heard the word odoriferous, and I thought that it was a marvelous word and decided that I wanted to make a story with that name.  I didn't know what to do with the word so I just tucked it away until it came back to me for BRAWL, at which time a friend was at my house who could not smell.  Somehow, I felt like that could be part of a story involving smell, and so I tried to fit that together with the theme of the contest and the colour mod, which I thought would have to make it a medieval film since I had knights in that colour.  I fit all of that together and wrote the script.

In a similar way I also really like the word "phantasmagorical" and I want to make a story that fits with that word and uses it as the title.  Phantasmagorical is probably my favourite word after no, followed by odoriferous and then pathetic.
I also really want that story to involve a villain who looks exactly like the woman from a paining called Lady in Black Velvet, which is without doubt the single most horrifying paining I have ever seen in my entire life.
However, I'm not sure exactly what's supposed to happen yet, it'd probably involve phantasms, of course, and it probably couldn't be in LEGO as the frightfulness of the Black Lady would be lost in a minifigure translation.

For Welcome to Darkmoor, I was inspired by a dream involving Jack Nicholson's Joker and a cop played by Matt Damon.
For a very long time, I let the idea sit in my head.  I wanted it too be called Welcome to Something.  It needed to be called something like that, but that something needed to sound good.  But I didn't try to force it and just let it sit and wait.
Then, sometime later, I became cognizant of a something called Welcome to Nightvale.  To this day, I still do not know what happens in Welcome to Nightvale at all.  But I thought the name sounded exactly like a very good name for Welcome to Something, but, of course, I couldn't use that name since it was taken, but it did reminded me of it and I finally thought up a name.  Also, though I don't know what happens in Welcome to Nightvale, Welcome to Darkmoor is a lot like how I imagine it to be even though I know almost nothing about it.  Which is probably nothing like it at all.