Topic: A Fixed System
A Fixed System
What would a society look like if every individual came from the same mold?
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A Fixed System
What would a society look like if every individual came from the same mold?
Aaron, that was just super excellent. Great story, great animation, fantastic score. Can you emaile at plasticfshow at gmail.com? I'd like to chat.
Wow, where should I start. First off, this is the first animation that I've ever seen from you, and damn was I impressed! The story was fantastic, the animation was perfect and It's a brickfilm, that really gets you thinking. After this, I have to say that I'm really looking forward to other brickfilms of yours, as this was really special. The only nitpicks I have: There was some lightflicker at some points, which was a bit distracting, but hey, the pure awesomeness of this brickfilm overshadows that completely 
Lastly, I would really like to say that this had me glued to my screen at some points. Great work, Aaron!
so good i watched it twice!!! keep up the good work
Nice work! While the base of the story isn't really anything new, I like the twist you added to it, with the
guy ending up being a vital part of the society and having to save his world
.
The animation was superb, the buildup with the changing emotion was very well played. The lighting was also great. All in all, this was an awesome film.
EDIT: Oh yes, I must congratulate the composer and the performers for their great work on the score.
Last edited by rioforce (October 13, 2015 (10:16am))
First viewing: What really stood out to me was how much the facial animation added to this film;I don't think it would have worked as well otherwise. I also love the bit when his kids hug him, after he's had his epiphany. Excellent pose there, I think I laughed aloud. I'm pretty sure I gasped when you showed that the blocks he'd been building all this time in the factory were what was holding up their society. Excellent, excellent tension there; the music really helps builds it up, along with the downward pan.
Second viewing: The bit with the picture of his family falling creates some great foreshadowing and a great metaphor, I think, in an already sweet moment showing how he loves his family. You deliberately don't show the other workers around him at all until after the epiphany shot (which I will talk about in a moment), leading to an excellent moment when he starts noticing that everyone around him is living the same exact life. Why I love this exclusion of the other workers is that it ensures that all of our focus is on him, his family, his job, and generally daily routine, which is exactly where his mind is.
What I call the epiphany shot, where he slowly realizes over time that he's living a very boring life, is very interesting. If I recall correctly, it was about this point where I was really drawn in, literally. My face was a few inches from the screen by the end of this shot. Then he starts to notice everyone else around him; I feel this part goes a little overboard with the amount of kisses, and I feel like something else should have been mixed in with it. I'm not entirely sure why the scene with the pictures is there, but it does lead to the shot at 4:12, which does an excellent job at showing contrast between where he was and where he is now.
I've already mentioned the reveal, but I just want to repeat how awesome the build-up is here; great job! I can't tell at the end if he was deliberately trying to get the factory to prop up the town; my initial thought was that he was going to build a more stable prop. Another shot here guiding his thoughts (and ours) to the factory might have helped. I do love, however, that it seems to be the factory that's setting the town off-balance (aside from the breaking supports), and I can't help but wonder if there's some deliberate symbolism behind that.
I'm not really sure if there's a concrete message behind this film. I did like how the roles reversed at the end, where he was the only one smiling. Even though life is in shambles for everyone else, his smile reassured me that everyone else had a hope of finding happiness.
Sorry that review turned into an essay. I loved it the first time around, and the second time around I just started seeing how you did things, and I had to share. Seeing other people piece together how I made something work is always one of the funnest parts of creative work, I think.
Thanks for the experience, Aaron!
PS, I'd like to know if anyone else getting my "First viewing" in a separate blue bar like the "Spoiler" bar, but don't hijack the thread.
Last edited by Littlebrick (October 13, 2015 (06:57pm))
@Littlebrick
Thanks for such a thoughtful, in depth response! All of your observations were insanely well thought out. I literally had fun reading your thoughts on the film!
I definitely agree that the ending could have been greatly improved by adding a shot that could clarify the main character’s intentions as being deliberate. Great suggestion!
Also, I like how you point out that it’s the factory that’s setting the town off balance. Although this was never addressed in the film, I imaged that the factory was built in the past long ago to solve the problem of erosion. Because the bricks that replace the “core brick” broke so easily, they had to constantly be replaced. Rather than being innovative and searching for better ways to solve the problem, the citizens of the town just became content with the temporary solution. Over time, everyone’s lives became so routine, that they became stuck in “a fixed system” where they lived a shallow, falsely happy life. Although the system worked, it only took one miner change to throw everything off balance (i.e. a briefcase in the road).
So if I had to nail down a concrete message behind the film, it would be about innovation. To not be happy with temporary solutions, but to constantly look for better ways to solve problems. Just because a formula works, it doesn’t mean it’s the right answer. So experiment, create, and solve problems! Or the world might just fall apart. 
Wow, wow, wow! That was amazing. Completely original idea. reminded me somehow, of Pixar. The animation was fantastic, especially the mouth/eye movements. I've been animating the eyes/mouth in mine, but they don't look like that. What software did you use to animate them? Excellent, I've just subscribed! 
This was a very cool original idea for a brick film and I really enjoyed watching it. It's very nicely animated and I can tell a lot of hard work went into making it. Great effort - look forward to the next one
Wow. One of the best brickfilms I have seen this year. The facial animation really helped to tell the story well and the soundtrack was sublime. Well done!
Hi. Great piece of work, indeed. I presume the music was done later on to go along the finished animation - the guy did a hell of a job - it goes along the finished animation so seamlessly, and makes a fully integral part of the whole thing. If you try to watch the movie without the sound, it is very easy to see how effectively the music is pushing the story forward.
It seemed as if the camera were constantly positioned at a slanted angle almost for all shots (there are only few exceptions, e.g. the overall shot on the belt in the factory) - it reminded me of Oliver Stone's style a bit. Was this done on purpose (again, Oliver Stone-stylish) or just sub-consciously you hate leveled camera?
Superb!
I really enjoyed this, I particularly loved the cartoony style of the face animation but I do think it could have been composited in a bit better
@ThaukaFilms
I’m glad you liked it! That means a lot!
You’re absolutely right, the music was composed after the animation was finished. My friend Nathan Larsen wrote the music, and I couldn’t be happier with it! Here’s me shamelessly promoting his work:
https://www.facebook.com/NJLProductions/
As far as the camera angle goes, it really was a subconscious decision. To be perfectly honest, one of my biggest regrets with this video is that I didn’t play around with composition and camera angles as much as I could have. For the most part, I just stuck to the rule of thirds or centered the subject. In future projects, I look forward to finding creative new ways to use how a scene is framed to help further a story. It is a visual medium after all!
awesome plot, the animation was great the effects were great, the sound effects were great, good job
Good job aaronjacobfisher. Nice story. The thing I liked the most about your animation, that I've not seen in any animation before is the goofy running, jumping, climbing etc. I liked that alot because it makes the lego figures look more alive.
There was a bit of light flicker at some points, there is some plug-ins for different editing programs to fix that pretty easily.
If I was gonna rate this from the best being 5, i'd give this one 3/5 stars and a big + for the goofy style. Overall, i enjoyed it.
/GSP
This brickfilm was really great, the plot was so original and so well executed! We loved it.
And... congrats for winning the honorable mention for "Best original story" at the canadian Ciné Brique festival!
Oh man, this was astounding! The animation was great, you captured the bouncy style perfectly. The story was especially great - at first I thought it was another one of those
character-escapes-monotonous-lifestyle
videos, but it had a great twist.
The face animation was really well done, and it added a certain depth that usually isn't achieved with the static faces.
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