SlothPaladin = wise. I would also like to add that aside from the inherent difficulty in taking LEGOs seriously, young/unprofessional voice acting also goes a long way toward sinking 'serious brickfilms.' My brother Jason (aka Captain Bulldog) made a very dark film that was helped a lot, in my opinion, by its dialogue-free presentation. Of course, he still couldn't make LEGO sex not completely hilarious.

I saw someone mention Stranger Than Fishin' earlier, and I actually think that is very much the sort of brickfilm I would to see being made more. The animation made the concept come alive perfectly, and it just had that classic 'short film' feeling that so many brickfilms lack.

Also, while I would agree with SlothPaladin that there are no truly original stories, I have thought in the past that the brickfilm community being such an insular one, certain types of stories or elements have become staples that get boring after a while. Even looking back over my own films, I can see that had I not frequented brickfilms.com, their content might have been vastly different.

So I would suggest coming up with something off the wall, and then execute/present it to the max.

Last edited by Shale (November 8, 2010 (03:22am))

Not really. As I said in my first post, and as SlothPaladin said, what count the most on a brickfilm isn't the story, it's the direction. That's what you call execution. It doesn't mean amazing visual effects, great animation, outstanding cinematography. It means what the viewer will see. If you have a good idea, or you think you have (well, all the ideas can be good, even batman parodies), you have to discover what's the best way to tell it. If you take the story too seriously, it will be boring, and if you make it like a pointless comedy, it will be hated. You have to discover what's the right way to make it. Imagine the same story of "Ham on Set" made like a drama: it wouldn't work. Of course there might be brickfilms that look good as dramas, but you have to understand how to deliver the final product to the audience in a way everybody (or the majority) will enjoy. What I would like to see more often, is an enjoyable brickfilm with a simple story, I don't care if original or not, I care about how they make it, direction.

I suppose I worded my criticism wrong. The plot was weak, and had holes - but then again I was nitpicking, which I REALLY shouldn't do, since the whole movie is the effort of one guy in a dark room. But by plot, I should have referred to the concept and execution. I share your view - I never like it when something takes itself so seriously and tries to persuade me it is serious when I cannot take it seriously (like 'Avatar'). I suppose the seriousness lead me to nitpick - since it treated itself like a masterpiece, so I tried to watch it in that perspective, but was disappointed.

And I often abuse the formula of taking a weak idea and then making it funny because it is so weak and the movie therefore is self-parodying. None of my movies present ethical issues, or deep character driven dramas because I as a single human being aged 16-and-three-quarters am not capable of it. Maybe in a few years I will be educated enough to delve more deeply (which I tried to do in 'SILENCE', but judging by the extreme lack of criticism and views I assume it failed).

In fact, I dont enjoy making 'serious' films. Its all so serious sitting alone in the dark animating a skeleton - it kind of sucks the enjoyment out. And at the end when they dont receive nearly as many views and reviews it just doesn't feel worth it. Maybe this is just happening with me, but comedies are fun to make - and I reckon this fun does show through more easily. The same with some other comedies here. This is part of the reason why I love 'Zombie Attack 2'. In NO WAY would you consider it a masterpiece both technically and plot wise, but you can tell that Darkman and Jimmybob had such a hoot making it, and it never takes itself seriously. That fun shows through, and makes it a blast to watch.

And I agree with what someone else said that making a mindless 30 sec short is much quicker and easier than making a 10min drama - and is far likely to be over-analysed and criticised. Simply - Drama is HARD unless you happen to be a person who has studied film and literature all their life, in which case you are definitely too mature to still be making Youtube movies with LEGO....

Danimation had the colloquialism correct.

Reading all of these makes me feel sad. I hardly ever think about the story or how it is presented. Makes me almost not want to finish the film I'm doing right now.

BRAWL 2013 ENTRY Quack In Time
"Why in the world did you do a weird language if you know English?" - tenny1028

Some interesting points in this thread but I'm going to take issue with this one, and I think it's kind of key to the whole argument. The story in Out of Time is: 2 guys go for a walk, meet some time travellers, watch them get eaten by monkeys and inherit a time machine. It's a rubbish story.

People enjoy the film (I think) because the other elements are right - the jokes work and are delivered fairly well, it's filmed with an eye for cinematography, the sets are nicely detailed, the animation is technically ok, and the characterisation is established early and stays consistent. These are all things that I learned by watching professionally made films and animation and thinking about how to translate that into an amateur lego movie. If you can make the film fun to watch, you don't necessarily need to be telling much of a story at all.

I guess my point is that you can't say that brickfilms are missing a mysterious element X. If we're missing anything, I think it's the combination of all the elements in the right measure.

Well, 0ldScratch, jokes and characterization are both part of the story, or "concept". The idea was also a good one, and it was executed well. Perhaps "story" isn't the correct term to be using, though, since most brickfilms aren't long enough to merit one.

I beg to differ, I have watched plenty of animations with good VFX and gone, meh. Unlike things like "The Pilgrims Son" series which has a great plot. And even Avatar which had amazing effects, still had an O.K. story line, not great but O.K.

You can't get away from no storyline.

One of the things I think are missing from many brickfilms is a direction. Even if it is just a short action scene it needs some kind of, not really meaning but a purpose. Many "brickfilms" I see are just completely random with no plot at all.