Tearin’ Apart the Avant-Garde

The theme of this year’s Bricks In Motion LEGO film contest was “Avant-Garde,” and now that the contest is over we’ve started to see a lot of the entries start to show up on YouTube and elsewhere. From the site:

“We want you to reconsider the standard conventions of brickfilming as it is now and create a film that is unique and, on some level, does things that haven’t been done in a brickfilm before.  Your film can be experimental and surreal, or simply use new techniques and kinds of storytelling that we probably have not seen before… While this contest is about pushing the boundaries, we’re not asking entrants to create films so abstract and nonsensical that they are not enjoyable to watch.”

Many of the contest entry films are also being reviewed over at Brickspace.org. I’m usually a fan of Brickspace, because their coverage of LEGO animation is pretty well developed. But man, they are being brutal in their reviews of the Avant-Garde entries. A few excerpts:

• “Here’s an entry from Nick Durron (director of Picturesque, which I luckily didn’t review when it was released because I thought it was awful).”
• “It was only a matter of time before I saw David Boddy’s (pe668) entry into the Bricks in Motion Avant-Garde competition, and it is with sadness that I must report that it is nothing compared to last year’s entry.”
• “I must admit that when I first started watching it, and when I saw that he had made more than half of it hurriedly in under 48 hours, I was not impressed. Brickfilmers have had almost a year to get their films done, and the start of the film did not help.”
• “So, whilst Macias’ entry is a good film in its own right, I’d hope it’s not the kind of quality that will win such a challenging competition. I wonder what everyone else has been up to…”

Sheesh. I’m not saying I necessarily agree or disagree with these reactions, but one thing to keep in mind is this — these are not professional films. This isn’t Cannes or Sundance. They’re films, for the most part, made by young hobbyists in their spare time.

So one would expect reviews of these films to be crafted with a certain amount of tact. I’m not saying they need to be sugar-coated, but you can express an opinion in an honest way without having it sound like you’re writing an obituary for someone’s film career. But then, I guess if the films aren’t really professional, there’s no reason for the reviews to be professional, either.

Brickspace: Avant-Garde

Some things I forgot to mention

I’m always busy, aren’t I? Sorry. Here’s a recap of some things that have happened:

1) Episode 1 of Paganomation’s LEGO Toy Story series is online! You can check it out here.

2) Two new LEGO stores opened up in New York City!

One is in Rockefeller Center, the other is in the Queens Center Mall. I went and snapped some photos that you can find over on my Flickr page. My feeling was that the store in Queens Center is way better, as it’s more of an actual LEGO store and less of a tourist attraction. Though, they’re both young and I’ll give them time to grow.

3) A new episode of “Cool Creations with Flappy” came out, animated by Steve McGinnis!

4) I updated the look of this blog, along with the addition of a new Paganomation logo. Let me know what you guys think of it!