Brickfilme
von Mathias Mertens
Einleitung
Lego-Figuren in Lego-Welten, die sich über Star Wars unterhalten, Besuch von transdimensionalen Schotten oder Zeitreisenden aus den Achtzigern bekommen, die Bürgerkriege wegen verschlossener Türen anzetteln oder die Legende des australischen Nationalheldens Ned Kelly nachstellen - so sehen Animationsfilme aus, die in den letzten Jahren entstanden sind und zur Bildung einer internationalen Gemeinschaft geführt haben. Entscheidend waren zwei Computer-Phänomene: Erstens die massenhafte Verbreitung von immer leistungsfähigerer PC-Technik, die das Aufnehmen und Bearbeiten von Filmen für jedermann äußerst einfach gemacht hat. Und zweitens das Internet, das die Distribution und Rezeption jenseits kapitalabhängiger Mediensysteme ermöglicht hat. Informationen und Stimmen zu dieser interaktiven Kunstform sind in diesem Dossier gesammelt.
Foren
http://www.brickfilms.com Die Hauptseite der internationalen Brickfilmer-Gemeinschaft. Hier werden Filme vorgestellt, diskutiert und peer-reviewed, Wettbewerbe veranstaltet und Anleitungen zum Brickfilmen erstellt.
http://forum.brixhouse.de/index.php (offline) Das noch kleine, aber stetig wachsende Forum deutscher Brickfilmer.
Initialzündung
Jan Wieczorek: "Sind wir nicht alle ein bisschen LEGO..." (offline)
"Der LEGOstein war das erste Spielzeug, welches durch Material, Farbe und den schier unendlichen Möglichkeiten, die es durch seine Kombinationsfähigkeit mit sich brachte, Bestandteil der modernen Popkultur wurde. Zum ersten Mal konnten sich die Eltern im Wohnzimmer beruhigt zurücklehnen. Die Kinder spielten ja mit LEGO-Bausteinen, die sind ungiftig und die Baukästen und Stecksysteme forderten die Fantasie der "kleinen Bauherren". Die Idee mit den Knopfsteinen kam dem dänischen Tischler Ole Kirk Christiansen in den Vierzigerjahren. Das Konzept wurde begeistert angenommen und im Laufe der Jahre entstand eine richtige 'Ideenfabrik'. Das Wort LEGO setzt sich aus "leg godt" zusammen, was so viel wie "spiel gut" bedeutet. Im Jahr 1995 sanken die Verkaufszahlen im LEGO-Konzern und der Vorstand beschloss, den Computern in den Kinderzimmern den Kampf anzusagen. Mit Wissenschaftlern aus Boston entwickelte man eine Kombination aus LEGO-Bausteinen und einem programmierbarem Computer. 1998 kam das "Mindstorm", eine Art Miniroboter, in die Läden."
Lego's online dream
A Microsoft alliance is one way to regain the interest of tech-savvy kids, says Chloe Veltman
"The Lego Company now ranks among the top five makers of children's products worldwide, its empire spreading beyond colourful kits to clothes, Harry Potter and three theme parks. "There are 52 Lego bricks to every person in the world," says Danielle Hainauer, head of public relations for Lego Europe north."
"Lego has become a staple in the creative process for artists and scientists alike. "Lego produces great raw materials and the fans constantly create new ways of using the bricks," says Lehman. Larry Page, the 28-year-old boss of Google, the search engine, built himself an inkjet printer out of Lego, while Yali Friedman, a Canadian biochemistry PhD student, used a Lego model to explain on television the structure of DNA. Eric Harshbarger, a 30-year-old computer programmer and Lego sculptor from Alabama, has created life-sized sculptures out of Lego, from a full-length desk for a corporate client to a Lego version of Bart Simpson, while computer consultant Jason Rowoldt makes hour-long movies using Lego with his company BrickFilms."
""Technology has created a huge paradigm shift for the traditional, family owned company that had been manufacturing plastics for 50 years," says Knudsen. Yet according to Douglas Coupland, Lego may have a great deal further to go before it realises even a modicum of its potential: "In a thousand years from now, Lego will have done more to influence the thinking of a lot of people and the look of the physical world than pretty well any other invention," said the Microserfs author in an interview for Danish national television."
Terror im Legoland Actionkult und Schmuddeltrash - Brickfilme boomen im Internet
"Verursacher dieses Booms ist der dänische Spielzeughersteller Lego. In Zusammenarbeit mit Steven Spielberg hat er einen Moviemaker-Set auf den Markt gebracht, mit dem solche Animationen kinderleicht erstellt werden können. So will Lego die "Gier nach Kreativität" bei den Kindern befriedigen, wie Steen Reves, der Gobal Brand Director, sagt, allerdings nur solange klar erkennbar ist, dass es kein Film von Lego, sondern eben nur ein mit Legosteinen gemachter ist. Da sind die Grenzen des guten Geschmacks allerdings rasch überschritten. Denn wie bei allen Medien ist auch hier der Schritt ins Schmuddelige schnell getan, und so musste der Konzern gegen "Lego Pornos", die inzwischen gleichfalls zuhauf im Internet zu finden sind, juristische Schritte einleiten."
LEGO Studios - Das Movie Maker Set
"Die ersten Resultate sind dank der einfachen Bedienung der Kamera und der Software auch schnell erzielt, doch wird man schnell merken, dass sich ein abendfüllender Spielfilm mit diesem Equipment nicht realisieren lässt - es bleibt der (LEGO-typische) Touch einer Trickfilm-Produktion.
In der Presseinformation zu LEGO-Studios legt Steven Spielberg allen zukünftigen Jungregisseuren folgendes ans Herz: "Alle Anleitungen, die Digitalkamera, die Bausteine und Requisiten und der PC sind nur Werkzeuge. Die wichtigsten Bausteine liegen in deiner Vorstellungskraft. Dort beginnen alle Ideen." Das mag stimmen, doch Fantasie und Vorstellung funktionieren oft schneller, als deren Realisierung."
Urväter
WDLN.TV Artikel
Although it has now been made popular by recently released special Lego sets which include a camera and editing software, Andy Boyer and I have been making animated LegoMation movies since 1989. Similar to ClayMation (but a little easier), LegoMation involves stop-frame type animation.
Frank Weilman for Animation Magazin
"FW: The animation in "Oh Well" is very choppy.
Dave: This was in the days before we could edit on computers, so everything was done in camera. We would press the record button, wait a second, the press it again. We had to guess at how long they would be speaking. Thats why sometimes a character finishes speaking and then just stands there for a few beats.
Andy: We used the gimmick of having the person who was speaking lift their arm. We figured this would help the audience know who was talking.
FW: Music plays a big part in all of your films. Do you have music in mind when youre creating the stories, or do you wait to see how something turns out and add music then?
Andy: It depends. The earlier films were more plot-driven and we added music that seemed to fit the story. But in several of our recent films, I was inspired by a piece of music to write a story. I got the idea to have a violent fight scene set to "Take Five" one day, and wrote a story to go around that. I think music can really intensify the emotions on the screen, and since the minifigs are basically incapable of expressing emotion on their own, music is really important. One of our upcoming projects will have virtually no dialogue; music will be used to set the emotional mood."
Das Brickfilmen
Karin Wehn: "Brickfilms: Lego in Bewegung"
"Vermutlich machen sowohl die vielfältige Verwendbarkeit der Steine, die kreativfördernde Reputation des Spielzeugs als auch die persönliche Vertrautheit und nostalgische Erinnerungen an die eigene Kindheit Lego zu solch einem beliebten Material für die Filmproduktion - denn welcher Haushalt in der westlichen Welt hat keine Kiste voll bunter Rechtecke, Quadraten und Platten zuhause stehen?"
Legos, Camera, Action!
"Sometimes Chris Salt's girlfriend gets sick of Legos. "I'll be sitting at the computer and tell her I've got just half an hour to go," admits Salt, who spends his free time making stop-motion movies with plastic bricks, a digicam, and a PC. "Then at 3 am she'll come down, and I'm still there working." At least his peers appreciate him."
Brickfilms History
"The BrickFilms grand opening was celebrated on December 16th, 2000. It started out as a small site with 3 or 4 pages, hosted on TopCities. The directory contained a few films that Jason, the founder of BrickFilms, had seen on the internet. The original film directory was one page, sorted by film length. It had few films, even though Jason was very diligent about adding animations whenever a director submitted one. Every few days, you could pop in and see a new flick. BrickFilms was just getting started, however... there was much, much more to come."
John Mitchell: "For short films, times are changing (offline)
Times have changed when it comes to short films. Digital has certainly brought filmmaking into the hands of the people more than Super 8mm ever did -- and it actually adds some legitimacy to the efforts. I was a film student in the 1980s and I can remember dealing with film in all aspects of 16mm production, secretive arts that made filmmaking similar to becoming a freemason. Once you knew how to spool a projector and an editing machine, you were blessed with this secret that outsiders were not privy to, and you did it in a very dark mysterious room. It was cool, it was romantic, it was . . . exclusionary.
Back then, the only short films that were readily accessible to the general public were the ones that were available in the little seedy pay booths in establishments with names like "Show World."
Not that I know about that sort of thing.
We're still stricken with amateurish skin flicks but thankfully that's not all. With readily available digital video cameras and computer editing software, shot film is no longer merely the providence of smut peddlers. The Internet has done its part by opening up the opportunity to view the work of small experimental or localized filmmakers far outside of their bubble
[...]
One quirky movement in the world of online film is the Brickfilm -- stop motion animation using Legos as the medium. There are so many that they run the gamut of quality, but you do run into some that are the product of someone with obvious talent. "Totentanz" (www.brickfilms.com/filmview.php?filmID=1609) is one of those, an adaptation of a poem by Goethe. This horror tale is boasts gorgeous black and white photography and amazing use of a panning camera combined with animated Lego figures. A Legoland populated with skeletons and ghosts accompanies an intense narration (an appropriately grim German accented gentleman reading an English translation of Goethe's poem) and a great electronic and keyboard score that evokes the meticulous mood of the film. This is great filmmaking and it is done with children's building toys - consider the dreck that is made with real people and it's not hard to see how miraculous this short is. And not only does it star toy figures, but it brings out the inherent gruesomeness through the choices of figures that the filmmakers make. Furthermore, the color epilogue is a brilliant capper to a macabre joke.
One movie from the Brickfilm movement takes something very mainstream and manages to twist to new heights. "Star Wars Episode 5 and 1/2" ( www.spiteyourface.com/hansolo/index.html) is miraculous - a parody film that might be better than the films it parodies. The movie fabricates a lost scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" suggesting that while Han Solo is frozen in carbon, his still figure became the focus of a madcap chase where all his friends try to except with the body -- passing it from one character to another -- resulting in one of the most amusing -- and gorgeously shot -- short films you could possibly ever see.
The digital revolution will certainly be changing film in years to come, affecting what kinds of movies we watch by allowing more people to make movies and present them. This can only raise the bar in the world of "professional" film, allowing people with talent to be as visible as those with drive, money, or the desire to schmooze with obnoxious executive types.