Click here to view the video on YouTube.

We’re very proud to introduce A Merry Christmas You Must Have, a short Christmas film like no other.

When we left them in Attack of The Blocks, the hapless Nervous Looking Man and Lead Woman were battling the odds to survive, while Lead Woman carried on an illicit affair with the unlikely Frankie. Fast forward 5 years, and the two have settled down in a quaint semi-detached somewhere near you, with their young boy Barry (paternity to be confirmed). It is here, on Christmas eve that we join the young family.

What ensues is a visit from Santa that Barry will never, ever forget.

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To celebrate Halloween, we decided to make use of our supply of Lego and make a short film. Originally it was to be a narrative but we found it quite difficult to find a story that worked and made use of our wide range of Lego Minifigs. During our research we thought it would be a great idea to spoof a 1930s Horror Film trailer which would enable us to not have to worry about a narrative and concentrate on making fun scenes and loosely tie them together. The video took about 2 weeks to put together, only working on it about 1-2 hours a day around other bits of work which required more of our time.

There wasn’t really a storyboard, we just looked at our Lego Minifigs and watched many trailers on Youtube to work out scenarios to feature the characters in. Unfortunately some characters and ideas didn’t make it into the film mostly due to time constraints. One of these ideas was to feature a Minifig fighting with an Octopus to pay homage to Ed Woods ‘Bride of the Monster’.

With 2 weeks to go till our Halloween deadline, we had to keep the film simple. The benefit of the style we were looking to achieve meant we could take some short cuts and get away with using a black backdrop. The rig we used was a Canon 450D on a Glidetrack dolly, which gave the flexibility to move the camera into the set and keep it secure. To imitate the old film effect from 1930s-50s, we studied the old trailers and looked at the techniques of the time. For example we included a driving scene which was the only scene shot on film instead of being animated.

The car was placed in front of a Galaxy Tablet which played some driving stock footage. One of the fun elements of animating was that unless a big mistake was made that ruined a scene and forced a reshoot, small mistakes were kept in as a homage to Ed Wood (voted the worst director of all time) whose films were done in single takes with mistakes like moving set pieces kept in. One of my favourite scenes and one that was done early on was the Godzilla vs King Kong scene. We couldn’t imagine how it would turn out, but once I made up a demo set of a cityscape and placed the characters in, we knew we were on to something. What makes that scene funny for me is Godzilla, that you can blatantly see its a Lego man in costume, keeping in the theme of making a low budget looking film.

The text used in the film was both taken from and inspired by actual text used in the old horror trailers. The language used in these old trailers was both shocking and amazing, but unfortunately we couldn’t get all the ones in that we loved. But we put in as many as we could that would work with this film. The one line I wanted to keep but couldn’t get to fit properly was: ‘it will make you fall flat on your face with horror’.

The sound was the most challenging to sort out in a short space of time. It relied on finding as many free sound effects which I was fortunate to find so many that worked with the film, and the backing track was taken from Incompetch - a free royalty-free music database. The sound and final edit of the final was rushed and put together in one day, which I think adds to the charm of the film and the styling of the period it’s inspired by. So we hope you enjoy this Halloween treat. Let us know what you think and how many references can you spot?

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Photo Tour

Our pink door!

Sarah's desk

Matt's desk

Paddy's desk (with substitute Paddy)

This is our meeting/break/tea/gaming room

Ambient lighting

Always a supply of biscuits to hand

TV, Wii, N64, PS2 and a toaster... all essential in a studio, we say!

                              \

We are still adding character to the place by adding artwork, posters, drawings and stickers to the walls, as well as filling every spare space we have with Lego.

Pacman

Sarah's Lego Minifigures

Matt's retro Lego

Our extensive library

So if you’re ever in the area, please drop in for a visit; have a tea/coffee, some biscuits and challenge us to Super Smash Bros or Goldeneye (both Wii and N64 versions available upon request!) We look forward to seeing you here soon.

A Photomarathon is a photograph competition with a twist: Over 12 hours you have to take 12 pictures on 12 given topics. It’s not your physical condition, but your sense of improvisation, fun and creativity that is stressed throughout the Photomarathon.

And when they say marathon, they’re not joking!

Matt and Sarah were there amoung the masses of photographers wandering the streets of Cardiff. Here’s how the day went for them…

9:00 – Registration at the Wales Millennium Centre

Matt posing for the Echo Newspaper

With registration complete and everyone sporting a rather fetching Photomarathon wrist band (entitling us to free rail travel), everyone waited patiently for the opening speech, group photo and first set of topics. That’s when the Echo photographer began to prowl…

Matt: This set things in motion for the day as it got me straight into the mood of making a fool of myself for the camera.

Sarah: Unfortunately, having photographed Matt and a couple of our friends, he didn’t need a photo of me after all. What a shame!

10:00 Topics 1-4

1. My Entry Number & Work of Art // 2. Inside Out // 3. Community // 4. Super Powers

Matt: This was my second photomarathon and knew that 12 hours isn’t as long as it sounds. So working with my sister, we knew we had to nail the first set as quickly as possible to give room for the later topics. We had the first 3 topics done by 2pm with ideas ready to jump into Super Powers – This was the hardest topic of the first set which held me up when the next set of topics were released. Originally I had wanted to play with light art and have light come from my hands, but due to time and lack of finding a dark enough location, I had to quickly move on.

Sarah: Having never even heard of photomarathon before this year, let alone taken part, I was pretty excited and eager to get going. I’d decided to take Stormy, my trusty Stormtrooper along with me, and set myself the challenge of featuring him in each and every photograph. Maybe adding to the challenge wasn’t such a good idea, but it definitely helped me focus. I spent the day with my Dad, who is experienced at these sort of things, so we set straight off into the town centre to get started. The first 3 photos were taken in the Old Library, and Super Powers, which I also struggled with, was taken in Costa, where we rested with a big cup of camomile tea. In hindsight I have lots of ideas for that last topic, but hindsight is useless. And evil.

14:00 Topics 5-8

5. Drama // 6. The Great Outdoors // 7. Double // 8. My Secret

Matt: I had to get through this set quickly as I spent too long scouting for Super Powers. I copped out for Drama and took a shot of the New Theatre, and quickly went to Bute Park for the Great Outdoors where I found a bike positioned nicely against a tree. It was time to collect the next set of topics, but luckily I had Double planned which was executed straight away, which left My Secret. For this one, I interpreted it as My Secret Obsession, so we went to Wetherspoons and ordered a Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake which was dripping in chocolate sauce and Ice Cream. The Bar Man looked on with confusion as he watched me taking a photo of my sister holding the cake dripping through her fingers.

Sarah: Having copped out a little on Super Powers, leaving time for tea and a trip to the Lego shop, we were first in line for the second set of topics at 2pm. Which meant it took us 15 minutes to get out of the door as people in the queue accosted us for a sneaky look at the list. Drama was sorted with a shot of the Stage Door behind New Theatre, and The Great Outdoors ended up as a sort of ‘holiday snap’ for old Stormy outside an equipment shop. The next two; Double and My Secret, work best as a pair. Stormy has a big secret – he likes to wear women’s clothes. This shot required yet another trip to the Lego shop. For shame.

18:00 Topics 9-12

9. Element // 10. Movement // 11. Obstacle // 12. I Have a Dream

Matt: Time was against me now. I scribbled down an action plan with ideas for each topic and ideas for possible locations. I had 2 and a half hours to go, and I was only allowing 30mins for each photo, with 30mins breathing space to travel back to the Wales Millennium Centre to finish. This had to be the hardest set yet.

Sarah: Things were going rather well time-wise, so we went back to the Cardiff Arts Institute early for some food and a sneaky beer. And for me to play with my Lego. At 6, we were ready and waiting and raring to go … well, actually, I was lagging a bit. Elements sent us across the road to the fountain, for another Stormy holiday snap, followed by Movement, which was taken in the ditch next to the fountain. I got a bit damp, but it was worth it – this is definitely my favourite shot of the day. Obstacle was taken in Queen Street, after many failed attempts to get a shot of him climbing the stairs. By this point the shops were closed and Cardiff was filling up with more Hen Nights than I thought possible at any one time. A gang of superhero costumed people, who would have been perfect for Super Powers earlier in the day, gathered around to point and stare as I blue-tacked a Lego Stormtrooper to a bollard. It was time to wrap it up. So, on to the final shot, which didn’t quite go to plan. I was hoping for a shot of Stormy gazing wistfully into an estate agents window at a rather large mansion, but having set the shot up perfectly, the reflection in the glass foiled my plan. So, Stormy ended up with simple aspirations.

Conclusion

Once we crossed the line and handed in our final photos, we were left broken, exhausted and in dire need of permanent rest. But through all the struggles and challenges, we can’t wait for next year!

I’m sure others would agree that the inclusion of the Cardiff Arts Institute as a second base to collect topics this year was a great addition, which saved a lot of time that otherwise would’ve been spent traveling back and forth from the Wales Millennium Centre.

The exhibition, which will feature photographs from all 400 entrants, will be held over July/August in the Old Library on the Hayes. We await the judge’s results!

Links

• Matt’s Flickr
• Sarah’s Flickr
• Cardiff Photomarathon 2011 Flickr Group
• Cardiff Photomarathon Website