Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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Handgun for Hire
My first "professional" film. A significant quality increase indicates the transition from my Kodak EasyShare Z7590 to my Logitech Webcam Pro 9000. I also stopped editing with mspaint once and for all (I now use Gimp). It's riddled with technical flaws that drive me up the wall, but it is a milestone in my movie-making career nonetheless. Credits are in my YouTube link.
Not too bad overall, but I think the biggest technical flaw in this is that the framerate was a wee bit low, I'd guess you're filming at 10-12 fps? Either way, bumping the framerate up just a little would really help. There were moments of light flicker, but either it wasn't enough to distract me except in the beginning, or it disappeared completely. The set was decent, but I would've preferred at least a little bit of a story, you'll find that that's a commonly sought-after thing here. A little music would go a long way, especially in the beginning before any fighting happens. For the fight itself:
he appeared in front of a small column and an even smaller wall right in front of a heavily guarded compound, and no one noticed? Considering that there were 4 guards, that seems a bit unlikely. The man who sneaked behind the wall when the protagonist wasn't looking wouldn't have hesitated, he would've had his gun at the ready, so that part didn't make very much sense. The man probably wouldn't shoot at the dead guy for so long, he would've shot at him enough to kill him if he were alive, assuming he didn't recognize his friend, but he wouldn't have shot at him for that long. Also I think he would've noticed the protagonist sneaking around from the column, even if he was still shooting his dead buddy. The final guard of the compound would've seen the guy's head and been able to kill him with a headshot very easily, considering the amount of time he took before shooting, and the fact that he had a rifle. The dodging of bullets, both the protagonist dodging the gunshot from the car and the car guy dodging the protagonists bullet, was a little too unrealistic IMO. Bullets aren't that easy to dodge, and considering that the protagonist has had better than perfect aim so far, I can't imagine he'd miss. The car guys would have been all over him once he jumped out, that part didn't make much sense, and (this is my least favorite part) all the car guys look at their dead buddy, then the protagonist walks up, and THE CAR GUYS JUST STAND THERE LOOKING AT HIM. Their guns aren't up, they're just standing there, in essence waiting to be shot! Then, after our perfect-aim protagonist aims at them, they scatter like flies and he misses them all, then stops shooting so that the old guy can trip over his dead car guy friend, look at the blood, then promptly get shot himself. Then our protagonist AGAIN has less than perfect aim, but only until he loses ammo from his tommy gun and has to switch back to his pistol; then he starts getting PERFECT SHOTS again. He should've stuck with his pistol, he can barely hit anything with anything else. Another perfect headshot to a guy who didn't think to aim and fire while his friend was getting shot, then a man drops out of nowhere, and the two of them decide to deal with it old west style; the protagonist has a less-than-perfect shot to the guys hand, but when the protagonists gun runs out of bullets, it turns into a knife-throwing competition? It all seemed a little unrealistic. Then our protagonist walks off, gets on a motorcycle, and promptly rides off. Was he there to shoot at guys guarding a compound for no reason? The lack of purpose here kinda kills the entire thing.
Yes, if movies with gunfights like these were realistic, the good guys would always lose, but there's a fine line between skill and luck, and the impossible. And unfortunately, you have crossed it.
In conclusion, however, it's not a bad little fight scene. The animation was fine, and most of my person dislikes about the film would probably (possibly) have been fixed with a higher framerate. The fight itself wasn't very well choreographed, but for a first professional film, it's very very good. You have the basics of brickfilming down, which is why I didn't comment very much on the animation. I give this film a 3.5/5, but I'm going to round down to 3 because of a lack of story (if someone else wants to rate it a 4 to even it out, it would be greatly appreciated). I know I rate harshly, but believe me when I say that this is overall very good, and was certainly worth the time spent watching it 3 times 
Keep practicing, you're certainly a good animator!
Last edited by kcirbfilms (March 20, 2012 (06:40pm))
WOW...I didn't think anyone would pay that much attention to detail (especially story detail) on one of my films. You've really thought the whole fight scene through; I'm impressed. I actually found your attack of my unrealistic fighting quite humorous. 
I should tell you that this film is very outdated in my mind (I made it like 10 months ago for crying out loud!), and was mostly a test of my skills at the time and not a testament to my care in creating an animation. The change halfway through indicated a camera upgrade. I was actually quite hesitant about uploading this one to YouTube. Plus, I'm not really into the "plot" phase of my animating career yet and prefer to make films to entertain myself and friends.
But seriously, thanks for recognizing my potential! I've stepped it up in 2 more recent videos in quality, videography, audio, and editing (I added music on my last one). Check those out if you feel like posting more of your awesome criticism essays.
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