Topic: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

Directory Link

Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

YouTube

Three-and-a-half years after I took the first frame, here it is. Bomb the Music Industry!'s story of a weekend that could have gone better.

This is an incredibly personal film. The years during which I thought about and worked on this film were incredibly turbulent. Due to the stresses of life, university work and the general state of the world, I became trapped in a whirl of anxiety, anger and depression, feeling hopeless and directionless and upset with myself for not achieving all that I knew I could. So when I was at my lowest, I challenged myself to channel these horrible emotions into something constructive the only way I know how: LEGO animation. This is the result.

Because of this, many of the images you see here are visual expressions of how I felt at the time of animating them. It's kind of a video diary, documenting my state of mind over the course of production. As you watch, you're not just travelling through the story of the film, but through four years of time too.

Thank you for watching, and I hope you find something to take with you.

'Campaign For A Better Next Weekend' was released on the album Vacation (2011) by Bomb the Music Industry!. You can download the album (for free/pay-what-you-want) from Quote Unquote Records:
http://quoteunquoterecords.com/qur051.htm

https://i.imgur.com/1JxY79v.png

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

For what it's worth, I feel ya. When I was in college, everything felt that way. Anxiety, escapism, anger, depression in a constant spin cycle. I'm glad to see you managed to put those feelings into something productive. I wish I could say the same for myself.

Nice work.
mini/smile

http://orig13.deviantart.net/3968/f/2017/197/d/c/faaf_logo_4_1_by_orignl_ninja_knight-dbglsld.png

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

This is fantastic! I'm rarely glued to my screen by a brickfilm as I was here. I love the closeups especially. I'm really glad you stuck with this through everything - you should be proud of that. mini/smile

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

While watching I was confused why you didn't re-shoot the early parts that were originally done with the lower resolution camera, but after reading your description, I get it. Really nice film, I need to re-watch it now that I know the backstory. Even so, the emotion really comes through, like a super well animated stream of consciousness for the 4 years you spent on it. Very unique and very amazing. mini/yes

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

This is genuinely what life feels like. So rarely is that captured on film, and even more rare that it's even tried in animation. To paraphrase Milt Kahl, you've done justice to yourself and to the medium.

https://bricksafe.com/files/thistof/hillbillyheist/TofAnimation.png

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

Thank you so much for the kind responses, everyone. Before releasing this, I was really unsure about how it would be received, so I am delighted and grateful to have received so much positive feedback. I'd like to draw attention to the Innocuous Reviews review, which I think is insightful and wonderfully written.

I want to talk about some of the influences that played a part in shaping my vision of this film. Not that I had a particularly concrete vision as the whole thing was improvised without any planning (which is one of the reasons it took so long to make), but I drew as much as possible on experiences I was either living through or could remember.

Some of these were real. After finishing school without any plans for what to do next, I watched a summer roll by almost without leaving my bedroom, with only the warm orange light through the blinds reminding me of the outside world. On a trip to the US, I spent a day wandering alone around Baltimore, enjoying the sense of freedom and feeling the city melt away into brightness. When I was lacking all self-confidence, I would just stare at myself in the bathroom mirror, watching it all come out.
Some of them were in my head. I wanted to leap out of the window and fly away above it all, but I knew I would fall. I felt like my head was full of black goop, preventing me from thinking or changing my ways. My mind was being tossed back and forth by invisible forces and I battled with myself in an effort to regain control of my mental state. These all became images in the film, and by harnessing them I felt I was able to overcome them.

It's probably necessary to give a shout-out to the most influential piece of media that inspired me during production: the final episodes of the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and its follow-up movie End of Evangelion. This show deals with the same psychological issues I was desperately trying to understand at the time in a way that I deeply empathised with. If you watch some clips, you'll probably see the resemblance to Campaign:

It helped me to realise what animation really is capable of, and I wanted to try it myself using all the new film knowledge I was picking up while studying animation at university. I probably wouldn't have finished this film had I not discovered Eva at just the right time, because it gave me the tools I needed to say what I wanted to say.


I graduated from university this year with a graduation film to be proud of, but as it wasn't a particularly meaningful work it didn't feel like the culmination of anything. Looking into the future with the prospects of having to get a job and a life and stuff, I don't know how where I'm going to be or how many more brickfilms I'll be able to make. I can feel happy knowing that with Campaign, I have graduated from this era of my life, and I can move on without regrets. (That's not to say this is my last brickfilm, as I've just been commissioned to make another. mini/tongue )

Finally, I know I've talked about some very dark emotions and states of mind while discussing this film, but please don't worry because I'm feeling much better now. Dealing with those emotions by turning them into something I can be proud of has taught me so much about myself, the value of creativity and the attitude necessary to achieve things while avoiding slipping back into the darkness. The wonderful reception the film has received is part of that story, and it's something I will remember forever. Once again, thank you.

https://i.imgur.com/1JxY79v.png

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

Dude, this film is some ridiculously next level stuff, both in terms of animation and in terms of the raw emotion you were able to impart onto it through the animation, cinematography, and editing. Like, I really FELT what you were feeling through the film, which is, I'd think, exactly what you were going for when you made it, so really it's an unmitigated success. I can highly identify with a huge amount of the feelings and things you talked about in that last post, so it really makes sense that I see a lot of myself in this film.

On top of that, it was very cool to see the progression of production throughout the running of the film, starting out with a webcam or something and ending with some super slick shots and awesome animation, yet the same raw emotion still maintains through and through

I don't have any real grand point that I'm trying to reach with this review, but I just wanted to let you know that you really struck something special with this brickfilm. It's probably the best one I've personally seen all year, and it definitely inspires me to really dig some deeper ditchers with my animation and film. Good job, Haz, you've got this film stuff on lock.

https://i.imgur.com/gGaR9Oz.png
Youtube @TheRealSonjira I consider it a personal defeat if my pee is not perfectly clear every time.]

Re: Campaign For A Better Next Weekend

Compelling and impressive.

You've not only captured some very raw emotions (which is always an achievement for a brickfilm), but you've successfully depicted the struggle to understand/deal with these feelings in the midst of world that keeps moving on regardless. The imagery works hand-in-hand with the song to create a frenetic, stream of consciousness-style narrative that feels incredibly personal and like it couldn't have been realized in this way by anyone else.

Congratulations on creating something very special.

Last edited by Jargon (September 23, 2017 (10:45am))