Topic: What brickfilms got you into brickfilming?
This thread has probably been done in the past, but I'm interested to see what the answers will look like nowadays. I'm curious to get an idea for what's getting people into brickfilming recently, as well as seeing any answers from long-time members, too. It could be just one film, or you could mention if you saw any before properly starting, or multiple films you saw early on that influenced your early work. Hopefully I get some responses, and don't feel obliged to write a mini-essay like I seem to have.
I think I've said all this before across various threads (or in chat), but here is my timeline:
2002-3: I would have first become aware of the concept thanks to LEGO Studios. I could only dream of having the big set with the camera, but I did have the set Scary Laboratory which included a CD with, among other things, three animations by Spite Your Face: Scary Thriller and these two Spider-man clips. I also first encountered Brickfilms.com in 2002 and had trouble getting most files to play, but do particularly remember watching Train Wreck by David Clough and Taxi by Flash1015. I returned a couple of times until I found the site down in '02 or '03, so I stopped visiting, thinking it was gone forever.
.]2004/5: I made an attempt at a brickfilm by pointing a camcorder at the characters and talking as it recorded, also with some very basic and slow stop-motion where each frame was a brief video recording. This is lost.
.]2006: On the official website of Weird Al Yankovic, I found a link to a Hardware Store brickfilm music video. At this time I was experimenting with rudimentary filmaking using MS Paint and Movie Maker, so I swapped out MS Paint drawings for photographs of LEGO and made a slideshow music video to the Weird Al song, Trash Day. I still have the photos.
.]2007: Circle Circle Dot Dot by Blunty was featured on the front page of YouTube, back when that was actually a big deal. From there I got to Blunty's Stop-mo 101 where I learned the basics, and found the Steve and Dave films, which were a huge influence on Benny n' Lee. The one I remember making the biggest impression on me is Mystery of the BoB, and The Skelly is basically a rip-off of the 'weirder third guy' idea. I found my way back to Brickfilms.com and the first animation I posted there was this test, which includes Benny and Lee and is also a rip-off of the Hardware Store brickfilm, and I remember Littlebrick commenting that Blunty would sue (I think this was mainly aimed at the head in a jar).