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Topic: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

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Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

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A quirky take on the Nativity story.

Mary has been blessed with the privilege of giving birth to the Jesus Christ (the Son of God) and she and her husband Joseph must travel to his hometown of Bethlehem to raise the Newborn King (and to be registered according to Caesar Augustus' new decree).
However, Herod (the king of Jerusalem) is not happy with the news of the forthcoming King and tries at all costs to stop it.

Feedback is encouraged

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

This is a nice film. I like the mouth movements, they worked pretty well. The animation, although could have been better, was pretty good. I did notice some light flicker, but it didn't distract me from the enjoyment of this film. In all, you told the story really well.
God bless,
-William

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

William Osborne wrote:

This is a nice film. I like the mouth movements, they worked pretty well. The animation, although could have been better, was pretty good. I did notice some light flicker, but it didn't distract me from the enjoyment of this film. In all, you told the story really well.
God bless,
-William

Thank you. I made this movie on fairly short notice (for a Christmas program at the church I go to), so I didn't have much time to fix things like the flicker. I'm searching for a "de-flickering" software right now so that I can use it in my next project.
Everybody involved in this had a lot of fun with it and they performed their characters really well. My personal favorites were Triston Weaver as Gabriel and Paul Michael Williams as King Herod.
I have a different project going on at the moment, but I hope to do another Bible LEGO adaptation like this again in the future.
God bless and Merry Christmas.

~Christian Joseph Allbee

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

Very cool, and a bit unusual... but in a cool way!  I finally got to watch this and I see you took some liberties (like a star Wars reference), and yet the message is there too.  I really like the voice of Mary.  Is she available for other projects? I'd like to use her in HOO4.  Could you pass my info to her?  LMK.

The only thing I don't like is the mouth animations, but that's just me.  I'm going to watch it again now, as soon as I am done on Bim.

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

HoldingOurOwn wrote:

Very cool, and a bit unusual... but in a cool way!  I finally got to watch this and I see you took some liberties (like a star Wars reference), and yet the message is there too.  I really like the voice of Mary.  Is she available for other projects? I'd like to use her in HOO4.  Could you pass my info to her?  LMK.

The only thing I don't like is the mouth animations, but that's just me.  I'm going to watch it again now, as soon as I am done on Bim.

Thank you for the kind words mini/smile
One of my goals with this was to be able to make the movie to where a mainstream audience could relate to it without changing the most important elements of the story (since the purpose is to reach out to others). The whole project started out as just another video that I was gonna do and I was only gonna have a few then-newly-made friends do the voices in it, but the youth/college pastor of Anchor Baptist Church saw my previous videos and thought this would be a good way of getting the whole youth group involved, so I gave everybody a part in it and they did really good in it. The movie ended up being a really big hit at church.

The tauntaun was used both for humor and due to the fact that the LEGO Company doesn't make donkeys.

Lydia Acuna (the voice of Mary) did a great job like I knew she would. This was her first experience with voice acting and she was shy about it at first, but I knew she could do it and I helped her along the whole way. Her line "You did this to me, even if you didn't!" was actually improvised. I had not written that in the script and when I was having her practice her in-labor screams before recording, she had thought of that line, so I decided to add that to the scene.
Having her do a voice in HOO #4 would probably be a long shot since she's usually busy with school, but I could ask her and let you know and also let her know that you really liked her performance in this movie.

I can understand why you don't like the mouth animations. That's still something I'm trying to get the hang of and I want to get to a point to where I can have the characters moving and gesturing more while their lips are moving. I'm also in the process of searching for anti-flicker software to correct that for future projects as well.

Again, I am really glad you enjoyed it. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing the next episode of your series.

~Christian Joseph Allbee

Last edited by CJAproductionsINC (December 25, 2015 (10:20am))

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

I'm with HOO on the mouth movements. The pixelated look was jarring, and it felt unfinished and unrefined.
There are great ways of keeping visual interest in dialog scenes without mouth movements, and I'd suggest working on those rather than this kind of mouth animation. More arm, hand, and body movement really does make a difference.

What I do like is that you used your talents to make a longer and more involved film that portrays the Christmas story.
I also love that the whole youth group got involved, and that you were able to show it off to the church. Film is a great way of conveying messages, and it's always a delight to see Biblical films that share the truths of Scripture. Getting others on board not only extends that influence, but it also helps to open people up to other ways of witnessing.

The more playful music during the massacre scene seemed out of place. Although I think it was trying to highlight Herod's madness, the music destroyed the tragic tone of the event. Other than that, the dialog scenes could have used more body language, and I think a horse would have worked better than the Tauntaun. I appreciate the little details, like the Hebrew writing above the door. Things like that are pretty cool. And the Vitruvius torso on the angels was an amusingly brilliant choice.

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

Pritchard Studios wrote:

I'm with HOO on the mouth movements. The pixelated look was jarring, and it felt unfinished and unrefined.
There are great ways of keeping visual interest in dialog scenes without mouth movements, and I'd suggest working on those rather than this kind of mouth animation. More arm, hand, and body movement really does make a difference.

So, the message I'm getting from both your comment and HOO's is that I would be best off leaving the lip movements off altogether. I'll have to take some time to digest this before I begin my next project.

What I do like is that you used your talents to make a longer and more involved film that portrays the Christmas story.
I also love that the whole youth group got involved, and that you were able to show it off to the church. Film is a great way of conveying messages, and it's always a delight to see Biblical films that share the truths of Scripture. Getting others on board not only extends that influence, but it also helps to open people up to other ways of witnessing.

Very well put. That is exactly what my intentions were and everybody involved was very supportive of it.

...and I think a horse would have worked better than the Tauntaun.

Like I told HOO, part of the reason I used a Tauntaun was because I thought it would be funny. The lack of LEGO donkeys was only a secondary reason.

I appreciate the little details, like the Hebrew writing above the door.

That was a fairly last minute addition. In Hebrew, it says "No Vacancy".

And the Vitruvius torso on the angels was an amusingly brilliant choice.

Thank you. I thought it would be better than using a Jedi torso as far as making him stand out goes.

I really appreciate your thoughts on it. It's been over a year since I made these and I'm always willing to hear advice on how they could be better as I get my chops back. Merry Christmas and God bless.

~Christian Joseph Allbee

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

CJ A Studios,

I persoanlly don't like mouth movements in Lego.  That's a personal bias.  But Pritchard's criticism is the same as mine: they were indiscreet needed improvement.  Instead of abandoning doing mouth movements entirely, I recommend that you continue to do them and  practice making them more subtle.  It's with practice that this techinique, which is new to you still, will be perfected.  Don't let my personal bias stand in the way of making the brickfilm the way you want!

The character I had in mind for "Mary" is one of Missy's 6 friends, who would only have a few lines to do per episode, and not in every episode, so she'd have at least a year in most cases to record.  If you can give her my email, let her know how impressed I was and that I'd love her to lend her talents.  holdingourown "at" ymail "dot" com.

And that story about her improv was nice to learn, as was other backstory on the "making of".  Thanks again for the good work.

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Re: Birth O' Jesus: The LEGO Nativity

HoldingOurOwn wrote:

CJ A Studios,

I persoanlly don't like mouth movements in Lego.  That's a personal bias.  But Pritchard's criticism is the same as mine: they were indiscreet needed improvement.  Instead of abandoning doing mouth movements entirely, I recommend that you continue to do them and  practice making them more subtle.  It's with practice that this techinique, which is new to you still, will be perfected.  Don't let my personal bias stand in the way of making the brickfilm the way you want!

Like I said, I'm only thinking it over. I haven't made a decision yet. However, I will say right now that the video I'm working on at the moment will not have lip movements (I'm working on it as a New Year's Day video, so I don't have time to do the lips)

The instances where I do agree with you on the lip movements are shots where the characters are at a far distance. My preview screen has a small resolution, which makes it impossible for me to tell whether I have made the mouth big or small enough until I actually render the video.

If I do decide to continue on with the lip movements (and that's a big if at the moment), I might have to try a different technique from what I did in this movie. I would have to anyway because I will be moving from Windows 7 to a MacBook really soon.

The character I had in mind for "Mary" is one of Missy's 6 friends, who would only have a few lines to do per episode, and not in every episode, so she'd have at least a year in most cases to record.  If you can give her my email, let her know how impressed I was and that I'd love her to lend her talents.  holdingourown "at" ymail "dot" com.

And that story about her improv was nice to learn, as was other backstory on the "making of".  Thanks again for the good work.

I actually plan on making a "behind the scenes" documentary for the movie soon. I filmed everything that we all did from the recording sessions onward and I plan to interview everybody to get their thoughts on the movie. If everybody has time to do these interviews within the next month, I should have it out by mid-January.

Again, I really appreciate your guys' feedback. Even though I've been at this for over 11 years now (except for my semi-hiatus between 2012 and 2015), I'm always willing to hear advice and constructive criticism from other Brickfilmers on how these could be better.

~Christian Joseph Allbee

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