2021
Year
05:47 Min.
Runtime
16:9
Format
15 fps
FPS (frames per second)
Synopsis
A somewhat old-fashioned farmer tries to sell his corn on the cob at the market. He tries out a new idea to attract more customers. But this turns out to be more difficult than expected.
Film Facts
Awarded the prizes “Best Brickfilm with no Dialogue” and “Best Original Music Score” at the Brickfilmer’s Guild Film Festival.
The film was originally intended as a short film (approx. 1 minute) in which only the explosion occurs. But then more and more ideas, details and characters were added and finally a longer script was created.
Complete production phase (script, set construction, animation, post-production) took about a year. Especially time-consuming (besides the animation) was the construction of the sets and the composition of the music.
After some very effects-heavy films, visual effects were deliberately used as little as possible in this film to reduce the time needed for post-production. In the end, there were still between 10 and 20 shots that required visual effects, whether it was removing wires or adding fire and smoke.
With the exception of the buildings in the background, which are existing Lego sets, the whole set was completely designed and built by myself. The floor is made up of quite a few 2×2 pieces that create a pattern. The floor panels of the market were designed to be divided into 4 parts and assembled in different ways for maximum flexibility.
Very special focus was put on the lighting. The important figures in the picture each get a contour light to make them stand out better.
When the corn farmer wears his suit, he sways back and forth as he walks, and thus is the only one who does not have the same walking sequence as all the other characters. This was a deliberately characteristic walk that required special attention and extra effort in animation.
The music was composed with a lot of thought and fit to the picture. It contains 3 themes as well as several motifs, which develop in the course of the film, are used in different ways or underline very specific actions.
The first film in which I made re-shoots (additional shots after the film was actually finished animating).
Fun Facts
The three main actors are referred to in the script as Popman, Cocoalady and Toyboy.
The explosion was originally intended as a very short sequence: Bang and done. The other scenes with the popcorn flooding were added with re-shoots, because it was noticed during editing that the scene was simply too short.
The farmer in his corn suit is an official LEGO figure from LEGO Minifigure Series 17 and was the original inspiration for the idea of the film.
The dog that gets buried in the explosion is a nod to disaster movies, where a dog or other animal almost always gets into trouble, but ultimately always survives.
