Bricks in Motion
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Manhole
YouTube
Vimeo
2K WMV download (124mb)
Two people attempt to escape from the depths into open air.
Music is by Perturbator (may contain lewd images)
also featuring Dead Astronauts
I actually got permission from Perturbator to use his music for the film, although it was rather informal permission.
That was great. Too bad it wasn't finished in time for THAC. Obviously, with the time you spent on it, it would have been impossible to make a film with that quality in 24 hours. The story was great. I wish there were more backstory to it, but the lack of it actually makes me think of lots of different possibilities of what happened before this.
(I know this is kind of off topic, but here's my theory of what happened before this 
)
There was a war years ago, and the humans were forced to flee underground, because a bunch of robots now rule above ground. These two minifigs are enhanced with robot parts, for some unknown reason, but they want to see what's more in the world. Thy want to find out what else is out there. And that's where the film comes in.
I did notice one error, though, and it was in post-production. Your name is spelled "Chris", right? Well, at the bottom, it's spelled "Chirs".
Great job, I really like the whole thing.
How on earth did that manhole come out on the top of that overpass?
Good work, I like the aesthetic of this a lot! The set design, lighting, characters, and music all worked together to create a sense of atmosphere.
That was great. Too bad it wasn't finished in time for THAC. Obviously, with the time you spent on it, it would have been impossible to make a film with that quality in 24 hours.
I'm really glad I didn't finish in 24 hours, after the deadline passed I was able to get permission to use Perturbator's music which helped add a lot to the atmosphere of the project.
The story was great. I wish there were more backstory to it, but the lack of it actually makes me think of lots of different possibilities of what happened before this...
I love that you are left guessing and are trying to form your own backstory, I am not opposed to revisiting these characters in the future, my next film is unrealated but I hope to finish it in 6 months or less so who knows, you just might get to learn a bit more about this world.
I did notice one error, though, and it was in post-production. Your name is spelled "Chris", right? Well, at the bottom, it's spelled "Chirs".
ugg, I'm going to render out a correctly spelled copy to Vimeo, figured I couldn't misspell my own name, I figured wrong.
How on earth did that manhole come out on the top of that overpass?
The manhole was directly under the overpass, I was trying to imply that they climbed up the overpass to 'Get a better view', maybe I didn't to that good of a job on that transition.
This is a great film, Chris. It's a shame you couldn't finish it in time for THAC, but just being able to see it completed makes me very happy.
Awesome! I was looking forward to this one and I'm glad you finished it. That cityscape shot is beautiful, definitely a cool atmosphere you've built. And I love that thwack at 0:55, it's such a gratifying hit!
Fantastic!
The sets, the characters and the music all fit together perfectly.
Also, I love the Tron-esque and 80s gritty punk vibe of this film.
I do hope this story and these characters are revisited in the future.
Wow....Your sets and lighting are amazing!
Some films have complex sets and cool lighting, but this is a whole other level of incredible.
Some other aspects could use a bit more refining, (Animation, sets bumps, and flicker) but everything else is just fantastic.
I like the way you wrote the script, it gives it a sense of being part of a bigger story, but doesn't feel unnaturally cut out of anything. It tells just barely what it needs to, and nothing more, leaving the viewer to some interesting speculation.
Thanks everybody, this was a challenging film to make this quickly. Even though I did not meet the 24 hour deadline I was still rushing to finish as I had scheduled my voice actors for my NEXT project for Saturday the 17th, I had only finished hours before they arived at my house.
The way I am I have a hard time working on more then one project at a time, and in the past when I have started other side projects in the middle of another project the first project would ultimately get abandon so I have to try and force myself to only work on one project at a time otherwise I will end up wasting time on something that will never see the light of day.
The first film I watched after finishing Beyond the Eleventh Dimension was Akira. In Beyond I had worked so hard to create a huge sense of scale and I was just blown away watching Akira (it gets me every time), it made everything I had accomplished look so small. I learned I needed to approach the way I create scale from a different angle which is why the first set I created after finishing Beyond was the final city shot in Manhole.
I built the set like it was a Photoshop file, I planned to shoot in silhouette and use a long lens to get the effect I was looking for, I feel like I spent 4-5 hours of THAC adding the last touches to the horizon, I didn't want the horizon to be flat so I needed a few more things to break it up, you can even see my nifty 50 filling in as a building under the glass dome. I feel like I could have used the rest of the day to add touches to that set but I had a deadline.
At some point near the end of production for Beyond I began listening to the [excellent] Hotline Miami soundtrack, which is were I discovered Perturbator, I had looked at a few of the other artists on the soundtrack but none made albums that felt as complete or focused as Perturbator's, who's work often felt like an amazing 80's cyberpunk film soundtrack, the Nocturnel City EP in particular had the vibe I was trying to create this film.
A day before THAC I ran across some Mixtapes Perturbator had created on soundcloud, three sets called the Android Love Mixtapes, and those ended up being my insperation durring the contest and through the final completion of the film. Android Love Part II is my favorite, it might be because of he used an amazing track from the second half of David Bowie's Low, which is by far my favorite Bowie album.
The sets, the characters and the music all fit together perfectly.
Also, I love the Tron-esque and 80s gritty punk vibe of this film.
I will take this as the highest complement, a re-imagined gritty 80's vibe was what I strove for.
Some other aspects could use a bit more refining, (Animation, sets bumps, and flicker) but everything else is just fantastic.
Haha, oh yeah, the flicker is, in my opinion the worst offender here, really should have reshot the second to last scene but the set was so cramped and annoying I didn't do it that day, I told myself I would do it after I came home from work, which is always a lie as work tends to leave me compleatly exhausted.
I do hope this story and these characters are revisited in the future.
I like the way you wrote the script, it gives it a sense of being part of a bigger story, but doesn't feel unnaturally cut out of anything. It tells just barely what it needs to, and nothing more, leaving the viewer to some interesting speculation.
I have some loose ideas of how this world works, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, writing characters is something I have been trying to improve and I guess that is paying off. You can actually learn a bit from what the 'Hospitality Replicant' says when she approaches Greer and Nox. (and I did have Nox refers to Greer by name in the script but it just mucked with the flow so I cut it out)
One of my friends who is a writer is working on a short story that might be a prequel to this, although no promises I will film that, if I am not interested in using that story I may write some of my own script(s) for these to cyberneticly modified folks myself, who knows.
Right now I'm sort of on a film making productivity high and I will try ride that wave as long as I can conceivably do so.
I think the highlights of this are the sets and the animation. The sets really set the tone to this video (along with the visuals of course). Though like others said, I did see some flickering. The music fit well, the sound was good, along with the voices.
To sum it up -Nice piece you got here!
The set design and lighting is beautiful, especially the ending shot. I also really like the camera movement; it's rare to see such subtle movement in stop-motion, yet it really adds a nice dynamic to the fight scene shots. The music fits perfectly as well, giving the whole film a really retro-futuristic cyberpunk vibe. As noted before there's the odd bit of light flicker and some slightly wobbly animation, but really good job otherwise.
Thanks Harborlight & Vertigo
it's rare to see such subtle movement in stop-motion, yet it really adds a nice dynamic to the fight scene shots.
The camera movement is thanks to my good friend the Manfrotto 410. For the shot with the more dynamic movement I couldn't get the framing I wanted on a locked down shot, so I used Dragonframes drawing tools to circle the head of the minifig, and tracked her head with a little bit of lag to make it look like a human was responding to her movements, the 410 is the king of stop motion tripod heads, nothing compares to it. After using mine Sméagol had to get one, I also let a still photographer use mine and she went out and bought one after I needed mine back.
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