• Joined: January 21, 2022

Topic: Classic Space Film

Hello everyone

My name is Ben Smith and I am a filmmaker from Bristol in the UK. In my day job I am the creative director of animation studio Red Star www.redstar3D.com. We're currently working on an animated movie based on the Terry Pratchett novel THE AMAZING MAURICE and I am also the writer/director of the studio's first movie STARDOG AND TURBOCAT.

I am also a LEGO fan and build my own MOCs which you can see at flickr.com/threeDadventures. As a child of the 80s I am also a huge fan of the Classic Space theme and some time I have been thinking of making a film which is "a love letter to classic space" However, my assumption is that I would aim to raise the budget via crowdfunding on e.g. Kickstarter, and I am imagining this will probably be several tens of thousands of dollars.

Given this, I was hoping people on this forum could advise me on dealing with the LEGO group on projects like this. The internet is awash with brickfilms; but it seems like when you aim to raise money to finance them and intend to use LEGO's trademarks (e.g. the classic space logo) you must have to be diligent about that or risk LEGO shutting the project down or worse.

Does anyone here have experience of these issues?

Many thanks

/ben

  • Penta
  • Admin Team
  • Offline
  • Location: Ireland
  • Joined: December 27, 2008

Re: Classic Space Film

I have never heard of The LEGO Group taking issue with Kickstarter projects for brickfilms, and there have been a handful of successful ones in the past. There was a brickfilm called Bound that was Kickstarted for something like $14,000, and they attempted to have it sold in stores on DVD, but that was blocked by The LEGO Group, I believe. If you just want to Kickstart a brickfilm and then release it online for free or else sell it on a private website online, then LEGO shouldn't take issue. I would advise that releasing the finished product for free is the better option; people aren't usually willing to pay to see brickfilms. I would also actually advise you against contacting LEGO; they might feel obliged to say no if contacted, but wouldn't care if you had just gone ahead and made a Kickstarter (just make sure to write somewhere that it is not affiliated with The LEGO Group).

The History of THAC video | YouTube | Letterboxd | Twitter

Penta's Website

  • Location: Roman Catholic Church
  • Joined: May 17, 2020

Re: Classic Space Film

Penta wrote:

I have never heard of The LEGO Group taking issue with Kickstarter projects for brickfilms, and there have been a handful of successful ones in the past. There was a brickfilm called Bound that was Kickstarted for something like $14,000, and they attempted to have it sold in stores on DVD, but that was blocked by The LEGO Group, I believe. If you just want to Kickstart a brickfilm and then release it online for free or else sell it on a private website online, then LEGO shouldn't take issue. I would advise that releasing the finished product for free is the better option; people aren't usually willing to pay to see brickfilms. I would also actually advise you against contacting LEGO; they might feel obliged to say no if contacted, but wouldn't care if you had just gone ahead and made a Kickstarter (just make sure to write somewhere that it is not affiliated with The LEGO Group).

There’s some great points here, I did want to point out that with Bound what they did was they digitally removed the LEGO logo in every frame from all the studs, and still LEGO only allowed them to do it privately. On the flip side, with Jonathan Vaughan’s Melting Point Kickstarter, not only was LEGO chill with the project, they endorsed it in their documentary “The Brickumentary”. Just a few more things to think about, but Pentagon covered most of it.

"Whatever that thing AquaMorph said about french kissing that's always in people's signature"
Married? Solder you balls now.