• Penta
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  • Location: Ireland
  • Joined: December 27, 2008

Topic: The History of THAC: Brickfilming's annual 24-hour Animation Contest

Depending on the time zone you were in, the "finished" version of the Bricks in Motion website launched on either the 26th or 27th of December, 2008. The site existed in an unfinished state for a number of months beforehand, but it has now “officially” been around for 15 years, and still with numerous regulars who have been around since day 1 (well, regulars on Discord now rather than the site lol), and members from multiple subsequent generations of the community. You know I couldn't let this milestone pass without something major to mark it, and so I now present my latest History of Brickfilms video, which chronicles the history of THAC as well as touching on the evolution of the community and some general history of BiM, as this is probably the closest thing I will ever make to a BiM history video. This video includes appearances from RealBrick, Filip, Brian "B-Squared" Bridges, SlothPaladin, Max Butcher, AquaMorph, Steve Collins, LegoShark, dewfilms, Edbound, ForlornCreature, katwfisch (f.k.a. quakefilms), mrgraff, Sméagol, Darkman, Ladon, BertL, MindGame, Willow Tree, twickabrick, Tiny Angry Dog Studios (f.k.a. KG or Chuwawa), Mighty Wanderer, LOTW Studios, Jonni Peppers (f.k.a. Just Kidden), Fun Sucker, Daragh Twomey, Brickhead, Nathan Wells, Nosniborus, Chris Wynn, and Sonjira.

This project actually started life around this time last year, and initially the idea was that I would make a shorter and less meticulously edited history video for the Bricks in Motion YouTube channel (which is why I am doing the voiceover, rather than Blue Ghost like in my previous History of Brickfilms videos), to be released while the twentieth THAC was still in recent enough memory. However, I basically couldn't stop myself from editing it like my other History of Brickfilms videos and expanding the scope to the point that it became my biggest project yet. After a while, I decided that I should release it on my own channel in the established History of Brickfilms series, and we decided that we should wait to release it for the 15-year anniversary of BiM, which would also be good timing to help promote the next THAC, and so I wasn't really working on it for a while until recently. (There are more people I would have tried to get on the Skype group era group call, but that one was recorded when I still thought I could get the video done quickly, so it was very impromptu.)

This was a major labour of love, and I hope people feel that. I also hope that people will watch it in full (even if across multiple days) and that some might find it to be worth sharing. I feel like this one is pretty special, and it's nice to make a history video that actually has an eye for the past, present, and future, with a through line that makes the past feel not so disconnected and distant. I don't think I will ever top this one, but I did already write the script for the 2002 and 2003 history video before this, so maybe I will still make that eventually. Thank you everyone, and I hope you enjoy.

List of links to films and other videos which appear in this video (films that get specific attention are in bold):

INTRO (first minute and a half)

GENESIS OF THAC/BEFORE THAC 1 (minutes 1 to 5)

THAC 1 (minutes 5 to 15)

THAC 2 & THEME DROPS (minutes 15 to 19)

THAC 3 (minutes 19 to 26)

THAC 4 (minutes 26 to 28)

COMMUNITY MIGRATION TO WHAT WOULD BECOME BIM (minutes 28 to 32)

THAC 5 (minutes 32 to 36)

CREATION OF BRAWL AND LAUNCH OF BIM (minutes 36 to 38)

THAC 6 (minutes 38 to 41)

THAC 7 (minutes 41 to 43)

THACs 8 & 9 (minutes 43 to 50)

SKYPE GROUP, MIGHTY WANDERER (minutes 50 to 54)

THAC X & 11 (minutes 54 to 57)

THAC XII - XV (minutes 57 to 65)

THE SENTINEL, MAX BUTCHER, SKYPE GROUP PT. 2, FRAME100 LIVESTREAMS (minutes 65 to 68)

THAC XVI - XVIII (minutes 68 to 71)

THAC 2022 & 2023 (minutes 71 to 75)

WRAP-UP (minutes 75 to 81)

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