That was morbid. But I am impressed by your epic poetic skillz. Good job.

Really great cinematography Squid as always.

The set designs were eye gorgling!

Really enjoyed the story of the poem.

I love the setting and the short great job Squid!

Sincerely,
Divine.

Good job, Squid! The animation is quite good (though it doesn't hold a candle to your other entry huehhhuehhuueee), but I do feel that your film would have been better without almost every other shot being a pan or dolly shot. After a while it got a little repetitive, making lots of shots feel really similar.

But still, your narration and script were very well done. As someone who's done a rhyming brickfilm in the past, I know how much of a challenge it can be to come up with good rhymes.

You set design, per-usual, is great. The Pumpkin's lair was a bit of a stand out, though it did remind me of the similar set in your film last year.

Also, how did you do the colored expanses? Did you use paper? Green Screen? I really like the effect, and it may be useful in the future.

Youtube @TheRealSonjira I consider it a personal defeat if my pee is not perfectly clear every time.]

Thanks everyone!  I'm glad you like it.  But especially so that people seem to think that my delivery of the poem wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

That head comes from this cheery fellow:

It's from the Hobbit set Attack of the Wargs (the one with the burning tree), and this dear fellow wasn't even in this scene but I'm glad he was because I love this head.
It's actually not a faceless head, but one side of it is printed with scars and imperfection as to make his bald head look less dull from the back.  After I got it before THAC X, I realized that it was perfect for creepy faceless people.  It works particularly well if you want to make a really gritty looking Slenderman.

I also use the face part of the face for characters in two different planned films, Cabbagerash the Bogey from An Adventure in Bogeyland/The Absorbent Old Man and Nora Webb from Vampire Cinema:

I usually keep the head on Nora, who's body comes from Elizabeth Turner's Pirates dress.  I realized a few minutes into the contest after I had started on the pumpkins who were my first choice of the mod that Elisabeth's hair and torso would be perfect for the mod as well to create another character.  I briefly considered using a regular female head for the character, but the torso had persh skin (the Faloovian word for the light skin tone of Gnomes and Elves) so I had to use a persh head.  And if I used my favourite one she would be exactly the same as a character from Pirates of the Caribbean.  So I thought to turn around the head I had already left on that torso and I really liked the look and thought it would be make for an interesting story point.

Yeah, I started very soon in editing to realized that was a mistake.  There are a lot of scenes where nothing really happens animation wise and just a still shot showing a scene looks really lazy, so I used the dolly to add a lot of filler.
The dolly itself is still pretty lazy since animating a dolly shot by itself is super easy with my contraption.
What I should have done is find a way to animate more on the actual set or find a different way to do camera movements, but I wasn't feeling up for anything really experimental since Korange has a very risky lighting setup and was a bit afraid to take any more risks.

Usually when writing a script I blaze through it crazy fast, however, I thought it would be interesting to try something which would be more of a challenge.  I still managed to write the whole thing in only two and a half hours (though I did edit a little for slightly better syllable flow as I rehearsed, and I cut three lines, but all the rhymes stayed the same).

I did base Korange off of the Odoriferous lair intentionally.  I still had the base from that lair constructed left over built specifically so that an iPhone can be slid in underneath.  However, I really wanted to try to improve the lighting setup and make it look a little nicer.  I tried a few things and I think I may have improved it slightly.  I just love how the vat of magma casts lights on the faces of the characters and sits as a rift betwixt them.
Though for this film it might actually be a vat of orange potion, considering the Pumpkins' love for potions it's likely that.

I also used the same base but replaced the vat of potion or magma with a grate with a little hole in the middle and stuck a little LED bulb in there to light the set for the Potion Purple and the Tears of Silver.
I'm very glad I specifically didn't destroy that whilst building Darkmoor.

Simple coloured paper.  They're all in close up shots and the paper sits around about 30 centimeters from the camera so it's all blurred into a simple colour instead of looking textured like paper is.
Since it's not greenscreen all of the figures reflect the colour properly.
I thought it was an interesting way to show simple thoughts and ideas, though it was very bright and colourful, which I don't think was very fitting for this film, however, in a contest like BRAWL I don't have as much to think of a better idea, so I just used the first thing to pop into my head.

Last edited by Squid (July 27, 2014 (09:10am))

Ah yes, I see now.  That head looks really awesome, it works perfectly here.  I also really like the Mouth of Sauron head from the Black Gate set.  I feel like I should be getting more Hobbit/LotR sets... (though, at this point I don't have any particular ideas for a fantasy brickfilm, although I really really want to finally make something Mr Vertigo-related, and I suppose I could make a really short Slenderman-type monster brickfilm).

By the way, how are Vampire Cinema and The Absorbent Old Man coming along?  I'm assuming you'll be making them at some point after Welcome to Darkmoor and I Am The Night?

Nice work writing the poem and with the lighting! I'm not sure I completely understand it, but I like the way you told the story with minimal character animation - just a lot of shots of different sets and narration.

I'm curious to know how the BrickWarriors logo is in here (or if it's in here at all)?

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I'm impressed by the number of sets you had built for this film. The idea of telling a brickfilm through poetry is neat, and in general I think it was well done, though there were some awkward parts that sounded like the making of a rhyming dictionary, notably the "deplorable" line, but considering the time constraint I think you succeeded pretty well in the writing. I wasn't a huge fan of the narration, it always sounded like you were out of breath, but hey that adds character.

I can certainly see this placing highly in the contest, the technicalities are solid and the storytelling is unique. Nice work!

I'm pretty sure the logo was supposed to be included in the final uploaded version, but that's just my take on the rule. Submitting a low quality version with the logo and then almost immediately replacing it with a high quality version without the logo seems a bit disingenuous. The idea behind the rule was that Brick Warriors would get some exposure from the entries.

Hopefully they won't judge it for the video quality, though there are many people who can't get a decent film rendered in HD as well.
Though I really should try to make an export which is probably slightly less pixelated, I can probably get it a little nicer without sacrificing that much time but not going quite to HD.
Next time, perhaps.

This video is truly a visual treat! The lighting is absolutely astounding and the sets are wonderful. The music is perfect and the sound design works. The story is also engaging and wonderful - it feels like a classic that belongs in a compilation of fables and fairy tales.

My one criticism, and unfortunately it's a big one for me, is the poem itself and the resulting vocal track. I can certainly appreciate how difficult it is to write a poem; especially under such a restrictive time allotment. However, from a technical standpoint, the poem feels completely disjointed - there is no consistent meter, the number of lines vary from verse to verse, some examples of internal rhymes are sprinkled in but not consistently used; the end result of all of this is that the poem does not develop the rhythm that the listener expects, and therefore, it is difficult to follow. Rather than mask the shortcomings of the written word, the vocal track compounds the issues. For starters, the vocals sound rushed. The visuals are so lush and need to be soaked in; however, the vocal track does not allow it to happen. The vocals also sound breathy (at times) and somewhat restrained or hushed which further taxes the listener/viewer. Throughout the whole film, I found myself saying, 'what just happened?...what was that?...what happened?' There are some genres where a rapid, disjointed presentation works but I don't think it works for a classic fable/fairy tale. (also, a post-credits joke after such a dark, somber vid seemed like an odd choice)

I still like this film very much - the visuals and the storyline carry the day. You don't make is easy for the audience but the end product is worth it.