Topic: BRAWL 2018
Oh hey, it’s me, Chris W. This year, I am taking over as host of BRAWL from the host from the past few previous years, Fun Sucker. He was a fantastic host and friend and I’m honored that he would pass on the responsibilities as host to me.
What is BRAWL?
Brickfilm Rapidly All Week Long or BRAWL is a contest in which you have exactly one week to write, animate, edit, and submit a brickfilm. You can watch a quick overview of the contest HERE.
This is a particularly special year, as this is the TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY and TENTH BRAWL. Ten years ago, back even before the creation of Bricks in Motion, all the users were stuck in the refugee camp. Led by user Munzapoppa, the first BRAWL had only 11 entries. We’ve come a long way since then, and I’m excited for what this year has to offer.
When Does BRAWL Start?
The contest will start July 8th, 2018 (00:00) BST (British Standard Time), and will end July 15th, 2018 (00:00) BST (British Standard Time). You will have exactly one week to finish and submit a film. Any entries not received by the end of one week time period will be disqualified.
A thread titled "BRAWL 2018 Starts NOW!" will be posted in the Contest & Festivals forum. The thread will contain the theme, MOD elements, and submission information.
The Rules
The entry must be entirely made and submitted in one week’s time. To prove this, one or both of the MOD elements must be present in every shot of your entry. (more information below).
Your entry must consist primarily of LEGO (or similar building-block toy) stop-motion animation. Live-action, CGI, hand-drawn, or other forms of film or animation may be used to supplement your entry, but stop-motion animation must be the primary focus.
Your entry must consist of at least 30 seconds of stop-motion animation. There is no maximum time limit.
No mature/explicit content is allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: swearing, excessive/gory violence, overt sexual content, and blatant drug references.
You must not make your entry public until the deadline has passed.
The entry you submit to the judges must be the entry made publicly available to everyone else. You cannot create a version of your film that includes the mod element to send to the judges, and then publicly release a second version of your film that has the mod element removed.Use of copyrighted material (including music) is allowed, though discouraged. Use of copyrighted material will not affect the judging of your entry.
Entries based off of previous copyrighted material (Star Wars, Marvel, Batman, etc.) are allowed, but discouraged. It could affect the judging of your film due to unoriginality.
Because of the limited time frame and because this isn’t a music contest, you are allowed to use music created before the contest, either original music created beforehand or copyrighted music.
Entries must clearly show the BRAWL 2018 logo for three uninterrupted seconds. High quality versions of the logo will be posted by the start of the contest. The logo may be inserted digitally.
Theme & MOD Elements
To ensure the BRAWL 2018 entries were made within the week-long time frame, the theme and mod elements (both color and letter mods) will be announced at the very start of the contest. The first mod element is a color mod. This will be a combination of two random brick colors connected together or touching (for example, a white brick connected to a grey brick). The second mod element is a letter mod. This could be any of the 26 letters of the modern English alphabet. You may use the uppercase or lowercase version of the letter, but the letter must be recognizable as that letter. Feel free to contact myself (e-mail, PM, and the BiM Discord are the best way to reach me) or one of the judges with a frame to verify that the mod (letter or color) is recognizable and will not disqualify your entry. However, try to ask other users first and contact one of the judges as a last resort, as we may not may be able to respond immediately.
To prove that you made your film within the time limit, at least one of the mod elements must appear in every shot of your animation. You do not need to use both mod elements. You can combine these mod elements in any way that you see fit, so long as at least one is present at all times. You could choose to use just the color mod or just the letter mod, you could choose to use both, you could alternate between scenes, or any combination of the above. All that is important is that at least one of the mod elements be visible in every shot.
The letter may be upper or lower case, but it still must be clearly that letter. The letter can be rotated but not mirrored. Again, it must be clearly identifiable as that letter. It may be written or printed on a piece of paper or sticker, drawn directly onto a brick, printed on a piece, or built from pieces and even integrated into the set. As long as the mod is intentional and recognizable.
The letter mod element may exist on a printed LEGO piece, but it must clearly be that letter. An eyebrow or wrinkle on a minifig’s face, or a fold in the shirt on the minifig's torso are not letters.All mod elements must be physically present in each shot of your entry. You cannot digitally insert the mod element after you have animated the shot.
Minifig parts (for example a red torso attached to grey legs) can count as the color mod, but bricks connected to or touching baseplates do not.You do not need to include either mod element in the titles or credits.
If a shot must be clarified by changing the shot in anyway (changing brightness, black and white to color, etc) to be able to identify the mod element, the shot will be not counted as containing the mod element and the entry will most likely be disqualified. See next rule for one exception regarding the cropping of the image.
For particular shots where including the mod element would be disruptive to your artistic vision (such as extreme close-ups and shots with very low depth of field), you may include a legal mod element in the shot and then crop the mod element out in post-production. You then must provide an uncropped frame from that shot and explain in detail the cropped shot in the submission email. You will have to provide separate proof for each shot.
Judging & Prizes
The judges for BRAWL 2018 are:
Chris W.
AquaMorph
Lucas
MindGame
Mighty Wanderer
Entries will be judged on criteria including originality, production values (animation, set design, cinematography, sound, etc.), story, and creative interpretation of the theme by the 5 judges. Films will be discussed and ranked collectively by the judges until a consensus is reached. The top 3 films will eligible for the prize pool. Entries below 10th place will not be publicly ranked.
Prizes
We have a prize pool this year, with three LEGO prizes! They are:
Two Series 18 Minifigures
LEGO Creative Supplement Set
And a Go Brick Me Set
First place gets first pick, second place gets second pick, and third place gets the prize that’s left.
Changes for 2018
Other than the host, nothing’s different!
Spread The Word!
Use #BRAWL2018 on social media to let others know about the contest and get others hype about it!
Get Connected!
The BiM Discord is always open, and feel free to talk to others in the #brickfilming-lego topic. I’ll be hanging out there for a good amount of the week if you ever need to shoot me a question (and I’ll try my best to answer in a timely manner)! Join the voice call, post frames, ask questions, find voice actors, and have fun!
See you then!
Last edited by Chris W. (June 30, 2018 (07:59pm))
