Fright and Fear is OVER!

A huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who entered, we totaled 34 accepted entries! To watch all of the entries, please check out the official YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P … AdfAqG760b.

If you've entered your film, don't forget to publish it to the Films Directory as well!

Accepted entries:
Locker 74 Productions
CloudyVS
legobytes
Animationbase1982
Brickquarium Productions
Unity Productions
ZiltragProductions
Toad Productions
Knauser
Redbrickstudio
AwesomepantsFilms
BrickCraft Productions
JuiceBoxStudios
AoWGamer
AwestruckPajamaPeople
Legogif Productions
Kraken Films
Spudson
Yetgo
JO CO
Blandeer
DeMark
SurfSmurf778
Osomstudios
OneDouglas
Jedindy
Porg Studios
Joshua Nelson
Squidtastic videos
Darth Leeve
Wammy
Chaizin
BCstrike productions
Shane Studios

Contest

The theme of the 2020 BricksInMotion.com summer contest is Fright and Fear.

The contest will run from July 6th to August 31th . Once again, we have an exciting collection of prizes thanks to our contest sponsors: Dragonframe, Brickstuff and Minifigs.me.

Theme

For this year’s summer contest, we decided to continue with a concept based theme: Fright and Fear. Which means that you can either make a suspenseful film that builds up tension as the killer slowly approaches his unsuspecting victim, or a more supernatural oriented film that shows monsters, beasts, telepathy killers, possessed werewolves or anything that's “paranormal”. We also want to clarify that we're not looking for films based on real life tragedies and events, as the goal of the theme is to celebrate fantasy and suspense in fiction.

Sponsors

Prizes for this year's competition are generously provided by our sponsors: Dragonframe, Brickstuff, and Minifigs.me!

Also special thanks to LainieMaytions for designing the logo!

Prizes

Dragonframe 4 + Bluetooth Controller

Dragonframe is the premium stop motion animation software that captured Laika's ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Disney's Frankenweenie. This software is easy enough for a beginner to learn, but offers a wealth of advanced features sure to meet the needs of any stop motion animator. Software and controller included. For Mac OSX and Windows.

Brickstuff Pico LED Light Board Starter Kit

This versatile kit includes eight Brickstuff Pico LED light boards, perfect for fitting into small spaces. Based in Minnesota, Brickstuff custom manufactures a full line of lighting and automation products for LEGO builders. Brickstuff lights are the smallest commercially available lights for LEGO bricks, so you can put them right inside your bricks, and the wires are thin enough that  you can snap your bricks, plates, and tiles right on top of the wires-- no need to modify your bricks or builds!  Best of all, you don’t need to know electronics to use this system—everything fits together (just like LEGO bricks!), and you can start small and add lights and effects as your collection of creations and MOCs grows. The lights are perfect for use in brickfilms to create just the mood or effect you need.

Custom Printed Zombie Couple Minifigures

This undead duo was designed by minifigs.me and custom printed onto genuine LEGO pieces. The groom is missing an arm and they both have raggedy, bloodstained clothes. Both are great additions to any spooky film.

Judges

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 4 judges. Rather than judging on categories individually, judges will examine how all these elements work together to create a complete film. 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.

rioforce
rioforce is the administrator of Bricks in Motion and brickfilmer himself. He has ranked up a number of awards in Bricks in Motion contests, such as 2015's summer contest Sight & Sound with Sola Luna, and THAC XIII with MECH.

Harrison Allen
Aka, Squid, is a brickfilmer and prominent member of the community. He won BRAWL in 2013 with Odoriferous and is best known for creating Pirates Rule!, the Riigo-Faloo series, and most recently Welcome to Darkmoor.

Seán Willis
Aka, Penta is the former administrator of Bricks in Motion and longtime brickfilmer and community member. He manages the Brickfilms Wiki and is a co-host on World of Brickfilms Podcast.

Sebastian Segura
Sebastian is a long(ish)time community member with a love of brickfilms and the community. He’s currently working on a big project called Welcome to Darkwood.

Orion
Orion came on board as a guest judge this year. He is a friend to the brickfilming community and is a member of The BCC Crew YouTube channel. He is well known for his Cooking Hero Factory series.

Rules

•    All entries must be primarily composed of stop-motion animation. 3D, Flash, or other animation techniques may be used to in addition to stop-motion as long as the finished product is at least roughly 70% stop-motion animation.
•    Entries should use LEGO or similar building toys as primary elements.
•    No mature/explicit content is allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: swearing, excessive violence, overt sexual content, and blatant drug references.
•    Minimum runtime is 1 minute, including any titles and credits. There is no maximum runtime. Remember, it is better to focus on quality and attention to detail than to make a very long and ambitious film, but let the quality suffer. A highly-polished three-minute movie is better than a ten-minute movie that falls apart because the director ran out of time to do it the right way. The judging system won't favor a film for simply being longer, but low production values will hurt a longer film when competing against a shorter film that is better made.
•    Submitted films must be new films, created for this contest. Even if you did submit a film you began working on before this competition was announced, that would be fine as long as you haven't released it anywhere before this contest, and it fits the theme of this contest.
•    Films may not be posted publicly until after the contest deadline has passed.
•      The entry you submit to the judges must be the entry made publicly available to everyone else. This means you can't submit a rough version for judging then post a polished version you spent more time on as though it were your entry to the contest publicly. You may post reworked versions of your film once contest judging is completed and results have been announced.
•    Use of movie soundtracks is extremely discouraged, as it would take away from your film's originality, but songs, for example, could be used to enhance the experience, so use discretion in your use of copyrighted music. All music must be credited, even if you made it yourself.
•    Entries that use characters from trademarked properties as source material are allowed. However, entries that use old works that are now in the public domain or create their own characters will have a better reception.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions will be Monday, August 31th 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern daylight time.
Films may be submitted as early as the beginning of July 6th 2020, though they cannot be made public until after the deadline has passed.
To submit your film, send a link to your entry to: [email protected]
Our preferred method of submission is unlisted YouTube links. If you do not have a YouTube account, we also accept password-protected Vimeo uploads.

FAQ

Q: Are we allowed to use the contest logo in our entry? In the credits of our film, for example?
A: Yes, although this is not required. If you want a high-resolution version of the logo to use in the credits of your film, here's a high-res version of the poster: https://bricksinmotion.com/images/conte … o-Full.png

Q: May we ask contest judges to voice act for our entries?
A: Yes.

Q: Should entries focus on a particular genre?
A: Your film can fall into any story genre you like. The suspense can either lead up to a serious or comedic climax, while the monster can be either evil or friendly. It’s up to you!

Q: Can we collaborate with others to create an entry?
A: Yes! Collaboration is encouraged. However, we won't be able to divide up the prizes evenly for you, so you'll have to determine who receives the prizes in the case of a win. Entries may be submitted on the basis of one entry per director, so you can help with someone else's entry and still enter a film you've directed.

Q: May we post trailers, images, or other work-in-progress elements of our film publicly on the forum?
A: This is encouraged! Feel free to post about the progress on your film in the forums. You can even make a thread devoted to your progress on a film if you like.

Q: Can we use some non-LEGO elements in building our sets and characters?
A: Yes. The intention of the rule is to put the focus of films made for the competition on LEGO animation. Just remember that the name of the game here is creativity, so if you think you can achieve your shots using LEGO, you might be better off doing that.

Q: Are we allowed to release alternate versions of our films at the same time as the version submitted to the contest? (for instance, a version with profanity or other restricted content)
A: In order to maintain the integrity of the judging process, please only release the version you are submitting to the contest publicly at the time the deadline passes. Entrants who violate this rule may be disqualified. If you want to re-release a revised version of your film, you may do so after contest judging is completed and results have been announced.

Q: Are we required to include any "mod elements" like BiM's THAC contest?
A: No. Those are used in THAC to ensure films are created in the 24-hour period. You have two months this time. Even if you did submit a film you began working on before this competition was announced, that would be fine as long as you haven't released it anywhere before this contest, and it fits the theme of this contest.

Q: How fast and loose should I play with the content restriction rules?
A: Ultimately, we want winning entries that won't earn us angry emails from parents, or concern from contest sponsors (present and future) if they win and are celebrated throughout Bricksinmotion.com and our social media postings. This community has members of a diverse variety of ages and backgrounds in it, so for a competition we want to be respectful of that. These rules are undoubtedly going to be limitations for some filmmakers, but we believe it's still possible to make compelling, even dramatic stories within these limitations. Potentially, one could approach them as creative limitations that empower the filmmaker to find more original, inventive ways of conveying ideas in a story.

Q: When can we share our films publicly?
A: As soon as the contest deadline passes.

Q: Is this a horror movie contest?
A: NO! Don't let our contest logo influence your artistic vision. Your film can be in whatever style you like, whatever era, whatever genre... it's all up to you!
If you have further questions, feel free to reply in this thread.

Last edited by rioforce (September 1, 2020 (06:22am))