Brickfilmers that want to make money on their videos, using a platform such as youtube, generally have to pander to current trends for clicks. And 2007 or so is when youtube really started to kick off.

Brickfilmers like Michael Hickox and Forrest Whaley (Forrestfire101), both of whom started between 2007 and 2009, popularized short, simple subject and license themed films respectively, although both genres existed beforehand.

This, in turn, created a load of copycats, most of whom eventually inspired newer generations of brickfilmers. This, along with the subject matter and presentation of The LEGO Movie (which included a lot of licenses), and LEGO's continued additions of acquired licenses, has led to an increase in licensed themed brickfilms.

I mean, back in the brickfilms.com days, you only really had LEGO Star Wars, and perhaps LEGO Spiderman. That's it. Now you've got both DC and Marvel, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Adventure Time, Minecraft... etc.

But original brickfilms are still being made (perhaps even in similar numbers). Perusing through Bricks in Motion's film directory will yield a great many results of non licensed brickfilms. And, since BiM contests (official or non) tend to discourage IP characters and stories, you'll generally find a lot of great original brickfilms in their entries.

I think the real issue is original content being undermined by the overwhelming popularity of licensed films. I mean, would you click on this over this if both were in the sidebar?

Making a licensed theme fanfilm is so much easier than original content, since the characters, and often times music, have already been created for you. That, and characters everybody knows (Batman, Darth Vader, Sherlock Holmes...) bring with them audience appreciation. If I made a Star Wars brickfilm, everybody watching will already be hooked on the setting and characters from the first frame. Whereas if I make an original brickfilm, I've got to sell everybody on my characters and story over the entire course of the film.

Just don't put any stock in YouTube views; disregard the concept entirely. If you are primarily learning of new brickfilms through community involvement, it appears much more evenly balanced. I probably see the most new brickfilms through Discord and Twitter.

I think original films are more valued when it comes to contests, but overall there seem to be a lot of IP films out there.

I think most non brickfilmers I think tend to associate lego animations with IP films. For example, my choir director at church (A man who is probably in his 60s) asks me every few months "How are the Lego Star Wars videos going?" I keep telling him, "you know, Pat, I've never actually made a Star Wars video." This usually surprises him, as I guess he imagined that they must be about Star Wars if they're done with Lego.

This is such a tricky topic, as the landscape of video sharing and monetization seem to be an ever-evolving entity, especially on YouTube. I'm less and less inclined to shame IP-based brickfilms because, in my adult years, I can't exactly fault people for wanting to earn a few bucks off of something they've poured a lot of time and passion into, and for better or worse, that's the best way to get attention and viewership. To echo what Aqua said, LEGO has also leaned pretty heavily into their licensed product lines in the last few years, so access to making videos around Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, etc. is easier than ever.

That said...I think the one thing that I would fault IP-based brickfilms for is the oversaturation of them - when it seems like EVERYONE is out there making Star Wars/Marvel/DC/etc. films, they run the risk of becoming a dime-a-dozen enterprise, especially if most of them, sadly, have little to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack. That's not true of all of them, though - just take one look at a film like Forrest Whaley's Captain America: Nazi Zombies and you'll see just how much care and attention goes into every frame. I may be biased because I was a small part of that project myself, but for my money, it's one of the best-designed brickfilms ever made. That is an IP brickfilm that feels like there's a true director with a vision behind it.

All that to say, though, if I were to rattle off a list of brickfilms over the years I'd consider the very best and the most influential, I'm not sure if a single one based on a popular IP (outside of Star Wars, which has been around the longest) would make my shortlist. I grew up in the era of brickfilming before the IPs really became a thing, and I watched a number of independent animators flourish and grow as storytellers, and craft some truly stunning and beautiful stories often of their own creation. There's always going to be something particularly special about that to me. Like I said before, with a few exceptions, the swath of IP-based brickfilms on YouTube can all tend to feel a little dime-a-dozen, but its the original films that I believe will have the lasting legacy, if they're lucky enough to find their audience.

Finding an audience was less of a concern back in the day when YouTube was still this fledgling little website as opposed to the behemoth it is now, and for most of us, we were just a bunch of kids and young adults hanging out on a little online forum making films for one another. There was no real pretense of "viewership" on a large scale outside of the friends and other regulars we had on the site, and I think that's what granted us the ability to take greater risks or stretch ourselves creatively. The rise of YouTube and the advent of monetization has changed that forever, and again, I don't fault anyone for wanting to build an audience for something they're passionate about, but I think the unfortunate side-effect of that evolution is that "original" brickfilms can now seen more as a risk or a liability than an asset, at least to those for whom viewership and viral potential are the higher priority.

Personally, I'd love to see original brickfilms make a boom again, especially now. YouTube is definitely no longer the haven it used to be for animators, but I observe that more and more young brickfilmers having greater access to professional-grade equipment, heads and shoulders above the webcameras and Windows Movie Maker-driven films that a lot of us grew up watching and making ourselves years ago. I think if people could put those resources and evolved filming/editing techniques to good use, we could see some truly special original films start to be put out again.

Last edited by MindGame (June 9, 2018 (10:56am))

mindgamestudios.com | YouTube | Twitter

Or maybe some people make IP brickfilms because they just want to make fanfiction. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Some people just want to use their hobby as a way of having fun, with things they enjoy, and engaging with other fans of the same material. It's why I keep making Marvel brickfilms; they don't get very many more views than my original content, it's just about what I personally enjoy doing in the very little time that I have to make brickfilms. Plus, most of my best friends in the community are people I met through working on the Marvel Brickfilm Universe.

Quality issues aside, not everyone who makes IP brickfilms is out to "pander" to a mass audience.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein

Something I just noticed about the BFG festival 2017 Best Film nominees is that they are half non-IP and half IP-based. A nice balance there, in a determination of quality rather than visibility.

A lot of it might come down to people having trouble finding inspiration for more original ideas. Some might just really want to animate but don’t know WHAT to animate. As many users have already stated, IPs have the characters, locations etc already laid out for you.

Yeah, the DC/Marvel/Star Wars brickfilm market is so oversaturated, it's mind boggling. There are the select few who actually do good work, such as AFewGoodFilms, AubreyStudios82, Brick FORCE Studios, Huxley Berg Studios, Lisaisanut, etc., but there are so many others who make all these super hero brickfilms, and a lot of them time, they kinda suck. We actually started out with some IP films, and they're all bad. We were one of those AubreyStudios82/AkashLegoProductions copycats you see almost EVERYWHERE nowadays.

It is definitely more challenging to make an original brickfilm, but we contend that the payoff is better, and you'd likely be more proud of the finished product than, say, an Infinity War trailer recreation. There are definitely some IP brickfilms worth checking out though, like Gamerzone1500's LEGO Batman and Indiana Jones: The Movie, and Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Eye films. And, though it's mentioned a lot, we still feel that Star Wars: The Great Disturbance should get props for being truly spectacular, even though it is an IP film.

Not that IP films are bad, it's just that, as everyone else has said, there are WAY too many of them. MindGame and Penta are still putting out quality original brickfilms though. We actually have several original ideas in the works.

Some great original brickfilms:

The Nattodesu series (Lisaisanut)

The Enforcer and Beyond Recall (supercoolclark)

The LEGO Hot Fuzz (TheRisingFreak)

It's easy too when the characters are already created. Put character x in situation y and it's easy to come up with how they might react. What if the batmobile broke down and Wolverine was the tow truck driver? What if Luke Skywalker had met Dumbledore instead of Obi Wan? What if minecraft were made of bricks instead of blocks? Lol, I still don't quite get the concept of Minecraft Lego sets. It seems like sort of a strange moire pattern to me.