Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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Forums - Bricks in Motion » General Film Discussion » 'Bricks in Motion' now available on Vimeo On Demand
Bricks in Motion, a feature length documentary about the world of LEGO animators, is now available for purchase on Vimeo On Demand.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this project and helped us make it a reality over the past three years!
Just bought mine. Gonna watch it tonight!
Just purchased it and thought it was great. Everything from the interview's to the stopmotion shorts were well done. The quality of this documentary is definitely a testament to how much work Smeagol, Zach, Nathan and the rest of the crew put into it.
Same here! I loved it. It was really nice to see all these filmmakers that I admire so much, and have helped me out in the past, and to hear them talk about how much the art of brickfilming means to them.
I remember seeing the live streams of Zack and Nathan animating the brickfilm segments. It was nice to finally see those in all their glory as well. I do, however, have just one criticism - only a minor nitpick: Really, no one went into much detail about Brickfilms.com's downfall. I'm pretty sure most of us know the full story ourselves, but I'm not sure if outsiders would really understand what they meant. I don't think it's a big problem like that, and I'm sure anyone who is interested can easily find out what happened, and I guess it is wise not to delve too deeply into discussing an individual in such a way. It's honestly not a problem - I was just trying to find something critical to say about this film, and honestly, there isn't much to criticise.
I hope this does well, and that a decent audience will come across it. Not only do you deserve the support, but also, I hope that this can help spread the word on what it really means to be a brickfilmer - That it's not just about making funny Lego videos, it's also an art form!
Spoiler (click to read)
I remember seeing the live streams of Zack and Nathan animating the brickfilm segments. It was nice to finally see those in all their glory as well. I do, however, have just one criticism - only a minor nitpick: Really, no one went into much detail about Brickfilms.com's downfall. I'm pretty sure most of us know the full story ourselves, but I'm not sure if outsiders would really understand what they meant. I don't think it's a big problem like that, and I'm sure anyone who is interested can easily find out what happened, and I guess it is wise not to delve too deeply into discussing an individual in such a way. It's honestly not a problem - I was just trying to find something critical to say about this film, and honestly, there isn't much to criticise.
I don't really wanna start a whole thing here, but
I don't really think the narrative of the film allowed the whole brickfilms.com history to fit. Sure, they mentioned it, but it was mainly the mention of the transitional period of the brickfilming community. The point of the film was to focus on the people behind the brickfilms, and why they do what they do, not to expose history of obsolete websites and stir up tiny niche forum drama.
Just bought the documentary and will watch it soon.
I'm glad I can support this project now as I wasn't really in the loop when the Kickstarter was running.
In case anyone wants to rate it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5433726/
After watching it, I headed straight to IMDb to rate it. I hope enough people will, in order to give it an average rating!
Are there enough differences, if any, in the released version from the one that was released to donators that make it worth watching the released version again?
Are there enough differences, if any, in the released version from the one that was released to donators that make it worth watching the released version again?
There are no differences! Although the screener provided to Kickstarter backers was updated 3 or 4 days after the original upload to fix a couple of glitches in the color correction and amend the credits.
Spoiler (click to read)
"tiny niche forum drama"
...is my new favorite phrase of all time.
I hope everyone new to the documentary enjoys it. I really loved watching it the first time, and have encouraged others to seek it out on Vimeo on demand. No complaints so far 
It really is a great documentary, Smeags... (And I don't say that often - documentaries aren't usually to my liking - BiM being one of a handful of exceptions)
A very good documentary indeed. Congrats to the makers of this film, that is quite the accomplishment. I'm sure this has been asked or answered somewhere else, but what camera and lenses where used for the interviews? They looked awesome! 
what camera and lenses where used for the interviews? They looked awesome!
I need to compile a proper Q&A about the film at some point soon. Will do that once life is a bit less hectic.
Most of the movie (all interviews, the majority of live action b-roll) was captured on a Panasonic GH4 with a Metabones EF speed booster on it. Some of the low-light live action b-roll was captured on a Sony A7S. The stop motion parts were shot with a t3i.
Most of the movie was shot on two lenses: Helios 44-2 58mm (including the interviews) and a Mir 1B 37mm. Some of the b-roll was filmed on a vintage Canon FD 35-105mm f/3.5 zoom lens that I customized to EF to work on the speed booster. We used Nikkors here or there on the stop motion parts since the focal ranges of some of my vintage lenses were too limiting for certain shots.
Wanted to use vintage lenses with a lot of character in general. The GH4 produces such pristine, sharp images, so using old lenses with some interesting texture and imperfections helped with that.
All in all, it was a pretty compact kit of equipment since we had to fit everything into a couple of suitcases for the film's small crew and extensive travel!
Ah, I had heard somewhere that a GH4 was used on this. I forgot to say, but the color grading and the music really impressed me in this documentary.
Now that the documentary is on IMDb (and now, by extension, LetterboxD), I decided to write an extended review of it: http://boxd.it/eC2c1
Wow! Looks like a great documentary. Finally, people that understand me!
Well I liked it. The cast is eloquent and the look and sound is polished.
I missed this original Kickstarter and looked forward to viewing the thing for a while now.
Loved that it acknowledged the early community on brickfilms.com
It's a definite boost to the hobby and a primer for outsiders.
★★★★★
Thanks to it being a reward for the "Spirit of Adventure" contest we were finally able to watch it, and ohh boy 
Where do I start with all the well-deserved praise??
We really REALLY enjoyed watching the documentary. The cinematography, interviews and especially their pacing was wonderful. Can't imagine how much footage you probably had to go through and somehow make a coherent documentary with it. The outdoor footage was just stunning, you made all the places look so beautiful (depth-of-field 
). You guys probably are well aware of how awsome and polished all the techinical aspects of the film are (the brickfilm segments you did for the documentary were just EPIC) so I'm just gonna stop here...
On a more personal note it was extremely fun and interesting to put voices and faces to some brickfilmers pseudonyms. The documentary's narration style did a good job capturing their stories, ideas and their (sometimes "weird") philosophies, which made it very engaging to watch. Plus you made us discover some brickfilm gems we somehow managed to miss!
So glad you guys took all the time and effort to produce this memorable snapshot of our brickfilming community, bravo!
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