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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Ashes, Ashes
As lawlessness becomes widespread, a man loses focus on reality and reflects on his troubled past.
Last edited by LiamG (July 25, 2015 (04:14pm))
Wow. Just, wow. A very interesting film. I find it a bit violent for my taste, but still good all the same. Fall Below Films did an excellent job with the voice, as well as did every person in this film. The emotion was really felt. The animation was also smooth, and the lighting was great. I really like the bird animation, it was unfortunate that there was a lot of sticky tac, but I know you couldn't change that. Keep up the good work. 
This film was very... Intereesting? I feel I will need watch it some more to fully understand it. Good job with the set design, the voice acting was pretty good as well. Although you were lacking a bit in the animation department. Overall pretty good though.
The story was a good, the animation was better than you said it would be. 
I liked the set design, the sounds, overall this is a nice film!
Good luck in the contest!
To sum up the film, it's very pretty visually, but kinda odd story-wise.
I really like the plain and simple gray tree trunks, they instantly give the sense of destruction and ruin.
The bird animation was very well done, but the sticky-tac did stick out a bit much. Perhaps you should consider using stuff that is the same color as the bricks next time. (Actually, do they make different colored sticky-tac?)
I really feel as if this needed a lot more time to show the full story. Yes, we feel the right emotions, but the reasons why we should feel them just don't seem quite well enough developed. That, or I'm terrible at catching symbolism, and may just be missing it.
To sum up the film, it's very pretty visually, but kinda odd story-wise.
I really like the plain and simple gray tree trunks, they instantly give the sense of destruction and ruin.
The bird animation was very well done, but the sticky-tac did stick out a bit much. Perhaps you should consider using stuff that is the same color as the bricks next time. (Actually, do they make different colored sticky-tac?)
I really feel as if this needed a lot more time to show the full story. Yes, we feel the right emotions, but the reasons why we should feel them just don't seem quite well enough developed. That, or I'm terrible at catching symbolism, and may just be missing it.
This definitely would have been a bit better with a bit more time, but I think I got the arc I was looking for. I'd recommend a rewatch and looking at every detail because everything is there for a reason. Yes, even the bird. 
Thank you for your comments and viewing regardless.
I really liked this. It had some great animation and some great actors. I wish there wasn't as much visible sticky tac, I also think the clay blood kinda ruined it.
The scene where the guys are around the woman, I felt the supsense and when they shot her I was like Holy Crap. I was just watching it in awe and a brickfilm has never done that to me before. Like I said though, the clay blood kinda ruined it. I liked the ending but I don't think it was excuted as well as it could have been.
Other then that though, good job. I really liked it.
Interesting film, I think you were certainly on the right track. It's well animated, for the most part, but I think you may have bitten off a little bit more than you could chew with the bird, even if it does boost the atmosphere. The flying animation was really jittery, and this along with the excessive amounts of sticky-tac degraded the realistic imagery you were going for, and made it somewhat difficult to get into the film from the get-go. I agree with Pritchard in that I think a film like this needs to be longer. At the end of the film I still didn't know much about the character, so I didn't really care what decision he made. The middle of the film was quite good, with well built suspense, appropriate atmosphere, and good animation, I just think the film was a bit too ambitious for an event such as BRAWL.
I was impressed with the feeling of atmosphere, the voice acting, and the music in this film! It works pretty well for the simple, short idea that it conveys.
While technically there are some places that could use some polish, there's a wonderful sense of atmosphere that you managed to convey. The voice acting, in particular, is this film's main highlight. The story itself is pretty minimal, perhaps to a fault, but there is at least a very palpable "feeling" to it, if that makes any sense, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.
I've seen this about three or four times before making up my mind. There are some nice shots, true, and you managed to build some kind of atmosphere, but It didn't affect me the slightest. Maybe I'm insensitive, but I think it's mainly because I felt you achieved it the cheap way (whether that's good or not, you decide... in this case, for me, it's not).
It takes itself too seriously (which isn't in itself something wrong, every movie should) and desperately wants us to notice how serious it is.
example, the troubled past of the man solely consists in the loss of his, I suppose, son. The emotional punch consists in showing us a woman get killed. The man attempts suicide because he didn't do anything (and actually I don't think he could've done anything).
Yes, all of this makes an impression on the viewer because it's strong imagery, but it feels cheap: I don't know her nor him or the boy, so just showing us that won't be effective, in fiction. It tries too hard and is too ambitious to work on such small scale. If ambition becomes pretentious, that's not good for a movie.
Putting some simbolism to make things appear "deeper" won't help either if you don't give the viewer enough elements to decipher some of it, and one shouldn't rely too much on it to tell more of a story.
I gave it 3/5 anyway, because I can't really complain for a movie that's well done, even if it doesn't work.
I've seen this about three or four times before making up my mind. There are some nice shots, true, and you managed to build some kind of atmosphere, but It didn't affect me the slightest. Maybe I'm insensitive, but I think it's mainly because I felt you achieved it the cheap way (whether that's good or not, you decide... in this case, for me, it's not).
It takes itself too seriously (which isn't in itself something wrong, every movie should) and desperately wants us to notice how serious it is.
Spoiler (click to read)
example, the troubled past of the man solely consists in the loss of his, I suppose, son. The emotional punch consists in showing us a woman get killed. The man attempts suicide because he didn't do anything (and actually I don't think he could've done anything).
Yes, all of this makes an impression on the viewer because it's strong imagery, but it feels cheap: I don't know her nor him or the boy, so just showing us that won't be effective, in fiction. It tries too hard and is too ambitious to work on such small scale. If ambition becomes pretentious, that's not good for a movie.
Putting some simbolism to make things appear "deeper" won't help either if you don't give the viewer enough elements to decipher some of it, and one shouldn't rely too much on it to tell more of a story.
I gave it 3/5 anyway, because I can't really complain for a movie that's well done, even if it doesn't work.
First off, I just want to thank you for watching three or four times. I'm glad you went through with doing so and it would please me to know that others did as well. Second off, I also want to thank you for saying that it "tries too hard", because I've always felt that I haven't tried hard enough, so I guess this is a step forward. And lastly, thank you for the criticism, it's always good to hear the opinions of everyone. Now, in terms of its ambition, I was actually looking for a BRAWL idea that wasn't quite as ambitious after making the mistake of building about 16 sets for THAC, almost none being detailed in the slightest. Were you expecting a longer runtime or did something else regarding its ambition fall short? I didn't really seek to characterize the boy or the man on higher levels in this film, I wanted to make it so that many people could put their selves in the shoes of the man.
But the main reason this takes place after the boy's presumed death is because after reading Cormac Mccarthy's The Road and playing all of Telltale's The Walking Dead and a bit of The Last of Us the last thing that I wanted was another post-apocalyptic child and their man mentor story. I wanted to know what happened AFTER if the boy died, what the man would do without the boy. At least in popular fiction I've read/played/watched I haven't seen that explored.
When I talked about ambition I was not referring to sets or to plot, but to emotions. What you want us to feel may be too much for what the movie actually has to offer, and that's where it becomes pretentious: to feel for the man without characterizing him or letting us know anything about him.
Also, I'm not complaining that all of it happens after the death of the boy, but that I feel you did not explore enough in that direction, even if the need to do that is evident (that's why I said it is ambitious and tries too hard on a small scale). The cause is probably because there was no time to further develop such themes.
Lastly, I said it "tries too hard", but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try harder next time, as that's entirely up to you, and anyway there are some cases when it's better that way.
P.S.: I guess you might be happy to know that I watched it again . I always do that when I'm writing about something to get as much insight as possible.
I like basically everything about the film. After multiple viewings, and review reading, I have very little to say.
The technical construction of the film is solid. The idea behind the story is good. But I do agree with MPfist0's comment that "It tries too hard and is too ambitious on a small scale." Key phrase being small scale. I would suggest (And this is me speaking out of ignorance) taking some time and producing a more lengthy version of this film. With all of the people saying how emotionally provocative it is (a pretty rare thing in brickfilms), I wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity to flesh out this story; make it earn the drama it so boldly flaunts!
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Last edited by Noah (May 27, 2017 (12:02pm))
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Last edited by Noah (May 27, 2017 (12:02pm))
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