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!
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Not entirely sure. Do you have any ideas for a Space or City themed video? We could do with one of them.
Awesome - can you message me the story in-depth? Just so we can work out inter-referency-type-stuff.
Here're some story ideas I had:
Ninjago: Warriors Past
I'll start with the Ninjago one to get that out of the way. It's about four of Sensei Wu's previous students, who were all much more experienced than Kai and the recent ninja, but also very arrogant, and that causes their downfall. Their elements would be different: Wood (as in plantlife, not literally wood as a material) as a brown or green ninja; a wind ninja, who would be grey; a white ice ninja, just to keep one of the elements the same and link it back to the current ninjas; and a shadow ninja, in black, who would be good but his use of darkness would lead the others to mistrust him.
The villain wouldn't need to be a big one, and the plot wouldn't need to involve them saving the world, as the main focus is on them causing their own downfall.
The link to the BFCU comes in how the world in this is developed - my thinking is that Ninjago is a region of Japan that was rocky and uninhabitable for humans, until the First Spinjitzu Master used the gold weapons to give it life. That means the rest of Japan can be explored, and since we've now given it a link to the rest of the world, the villain can be from anywhere. It could be anything, from aliens to evil spies, and if the villain tied directly into another contributor's film, then so much the better.
This could even involve the four ninjas visiting a foreign land, somewhere in another BFCU animation.
Galaxy Patrol: Day Off
On an alien beach, a Galaxy Patrol officer is having a day off. Then there's some kind of criminal activity at the space beach resort, and he's forced to go and save the day. A very basic, skeleton of an idea, but one that could be quite fun. I think this would be like those Space Police animations in terms of tone - light, fun, and full of silly references to modern culture (the cape washing line, the diner, the ice cream stand etc).
Untitled genie series
If anyone else has the official LEGO genie and wants to collab, this could be a series of animations following the same genie (with the same voice actor throughout) being conjured up for three wishes by a different person in each animation. The wisher could be wildly different in every episode, from a pauper/peasant to a billionaire tycoon who already has everything they want, even to the swamp monster or an alien. I think this would be hugely fun, especially if other BFCU characters could be the wisher for an episode.
For the sake of ease, we could slim it down so each person only gets one wish.
Also, the genie needs to have a cracking personality.
Untitled Gingerbread Man video
I had this idea that the Gingerbread Man, in his gingerbread house, is one of Blot's enemies. Since Blot is completely black, the Gingerbread Man might think that Blot is made of licorice, and so calls him the Licorice Man. The idea would be to have them have some kind of encounter in which the Gingerbread Man comes out on top, and gives Blot a reason to hate him.
There might need to be another Blot video before this in order to establish his character and uber-villain status, though.
That's all I have for now. I mean, I do have some other ideas, but they're only half-baked at the moment. I'll post them when I've developed them a bit more.
Last edited by jampot (November 13, 2013 (11:13am))
Hey, I can't remember, but are we placing Chima thousands of years before City in the timeline?
Because that would be great for me and my plans.... 
@Jampot
The first two maybe not so much, but Gingerbread man concept sounds interesting and unique enough to be a good short. The genie idea could be a good way for a lot of people to promote the BFCU via short videos on their respective channels, but I have a feeling that there aren't too many people with the figure.
EDIT: Did we ever have any progress on a logo?
Last edited by Pritchard Studios (November 13, 2013 (11:59am))
No logo as yet. I myself haven't had chance to make one, but it'd be awesome if someone could whip one up out of CG bricks. Unfortunately, I don't know who to ask for that.
And as for Chima, I always imagined it being alongside City, but hidden, so you've effectively got these two times sitting right next to each other, and it works well for some plans of my own. 
What are your plans, if I may ask? If I knew more I think we could work something out, like separate timestreams or something (hardcore, Narnia-style space-time physics!).
I do have the genie minifigure, and I'd love to help out with that miniseries. The only problem is that awhile back I had a small blue smoke bomb incident, leaving one side of the genie's smoke slightly charred. The other side is fine, though, and came out with this cool smoky look half-way down. I don't know if this is going to be bad or something, because it won't be all that consistent to others' videos.
Also, what kind of a logo are you looking for?
Don't worry about smoky-charred-ness - be clever and right some funny reason into the script of why he has it only in that video! I think that'd be hilarious.
For a logo, something brick-built would be nice. Maybe BFCU in big, with BrickFilm Cinematic Universe in small text underneath (like the layout of the new Marvel Studios logo). Maybe each letter of BFCU could be built in a different style, out of different types of pieces, to reflect that we're doing loads of different genres. Let me know if I'm getting carried away with this.
Also, do you want to start collabing on the genie thing? If we each do one to get the ball rolling…does that sound cool to you, man?
Starting on the genie series would work perfectly for me, I've been looking for a project to work on for awhile now. How about having the genie's personality be similar to the over-the-top roles that Martin Short plays (like Ooblar from Jimmy Neutron, B.E.N. from Treasure Planet, etc.)?
Ooblar sounds good.
Well, really there's not a way to explain it well without spoilers, but I have thought of a decent solution, so it's not a bit deal. I'm just going to assume that Chima has existed for at least a hundred years, which isn't that much of a stretch. (I can easily show them with more primitive tech to cement the idea that they weren't fully developed at the time.)
@Mighty, as Jampot said, smokiness is great. Go for it.
That sounds like it'll work. Incidentally, d'you wanna' co-ordinate on voice actors between our Chimanimations?
So I'm just curious, but were you planning on having the universe "universally" accept that everyone and everything is made of plastic bricks? Or is it going to be more like real life? Or will it vary (I don't really think it should, that would not be very fluent).
It can't vary - we have to decide.
I personally think it would be great to acknowledge it on one level, so that we could have characters easily build stuff like in the video games, but it presents all kinds of story problems. Because of that, I would say no.
However, I'm willing to go with plastic if people think it'd work better. It'd definitely be more in the spirit of LEGO. Thoughts?
I like the idea of everything being made of plastic, like you said it would be more in the spirit of LEGO. But I don't really see how the plastic option would put barriers around story problems, what kind of a problem were you thinking it would present?
I also like the idea because there really aren't enough films that use this, so I think it would be nice to go with that option.
No. I wouldn't want to have the minifigures be fourth-wall breakers like that.
There's no reason one or two special cases couldn't, (Think Deadpool) but as a whole I'd much rather have fixed
building physics, and the in-universe mindsets that come with them, somewhat resemble our own world.
I'm very much of the opinion that Lego is a film medium in the sense that things that are built to resemble wood or stone are to be treated like those materials. Yes, having everything be plastic could be neat, but to me it sounds more like a gimmick to obtain originality than anything. It'll also hard to implement in more serious films where the environment is needed to be what it really is, rather than just a bunch of silly plastic. IMHO things should be kept on more of a real-world plain. (At least in that respect.) This allows the tone and feel of the shorts to blend easier and to be accepted as more grounded and 'real'.
I know that may not be the best defense of my view, but there it is.
As you can tell I much rather realism over cartoon-y-ness, but also do believe that a decent balance can be struck. (Bringing large hand accessories up out of nowhere isn't realistic, but still seems to 'fit'.)
I think I have to agree with The Pritchmeister. Any other arguments for or against?
As far as story problems go, how can a character die if you can just put their head back on? And the thought of taking your hair on and off every day makes me a little uncomfortable (don't even get me started on how minifigs change clothes *shudders in abject horror*).
Also, if everything's plastic bricks, how does water work? And clouds? I think I'm leaning further towards the semi-realism approach.
Last edited by jampot (November 14, 2013 (02:44pm))
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