High Adventure Theatre Contest

The High Adventure Theatre Contest was a brickfilming contest hosted by Joshua Leasure and Todd Thuma in 2004. The aim of the contest was to make a brickfilm featuring an adventure of any kind. It was the fifth official Brickfilms.com contest and the first of three to be hosted in conjunction with BrickFest. It was preceded by the A Peculiar Event Contest and followed by the Heroes and Villains Contest.

History
In March 2004, Joshua Leasure was contacted by the organiser of BrickFest, Christina Hitchcock, about taking over the animation festival portion of the convention. The animation festival had been hosted by BrickFest employee Todd Thuma starting in 2002, but he had decided to step down from hosting after the BrickFest PDX convention, which took place in February 2004. Leasure took this opportunity to combine BrickFest's animation festival with the official Brickfilms.com contests, to give BrickFest more entries and to provide a live and different audience to the members of Brickfilms.com. Leasure had already been planning a contest with an adventure theme after noticing how few adventure brickfilms were in the Brickfilms.com directory, and so the High Adventure Theatre Contest became his first contest hosted in conjunction with BrickFest.

High Adventure Theatre was the fifth official Brickfilms.com contest and was announced by Joshua Leasure on April 15 2004, two months after the end of the A Peculiar Event Contest. Entries had a maximum time limit of 10 minutes and were required to be suitable for a general audience so they could be screened at BrickFest. Copyrighted material was not allowed because, in a first for the Brickfilms.com contests, all entries would be compiled onto a DVD to be sold on Brickfilms.com. The deadline of the contest was August 2, 2004. Based on a suggestion from David West, a small sub-competition for trailers for the entries was considered, though it ultimately did not occur (but trailers for entries were still encouraged). The trailer sub-competition idea would be fully realised for the Heroes and Villains Contest the next year.

The High Adventure Theatre Contest received 20 entries. Although it was originally intended that all entries would be screened at BrickFest 2004, the BrickFest organisers imposed a 60-minute time limit on the animation screening. Leasure and a team of Brickfilms.com staff members voted on a selection of films to show within the time limit, and came to a selection of eight, with the order being decided through the use of a randomiser. However, the total was later brought to nine as one entrant, Curt "YelloWink" Werline, attended the festival and asked about the absence of his film, leading to it being added.

BrickFest 2004 took place on the weekend of August 13-15, 2004. Joshua Leasure was originally supposed to run the animation screening, but a family function prevented him from attending the convention, so Todd Thuma volunteered to take over. It was planned that on the Saturday there would be one scheduled screening of the chosen films followed by the public vote, but various events ran over time, and this screening had to be cancelled. As the films were scheduled to loop for four repeat screenings on the Sunday, it was decided that the Audience Choice ballots would be left in the screening room to be filled out throughout the day, so that the award would not have to be scrapped.

Judging and Prizes
Judging was handled in much the same way as the A Peculiar Event Contest, with a committee narrowing down the selection to ten films before passing it over to a public vote. Anybody who was a Patron 24fps or higher, a member of the review panel, or an entrant who had not been nominated was allowed to submit a ballot ranking the ten films in the categories of Story and Presentation, with each category counting towards 50% of a film's final score.

In a first for the Brickfilms.com contests, the prizes were offered in a prize pool format rather than tying a specific prize to each place. The prize pool consisted of a copy of the animation software Stop-Motion Pro, the LEGO set 9293 Community Workers, and an AKG D60S microphone. Also, the sisters Kim and Esmerelda would once again award a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 to who they chose as a promising young director. The winner of the BrickFest Audience Choice Award would receive a copy of the High Adventure Theatre DVD and one Brickfilms 'film strip' t-shirt, and Todd Thuma also mentioned a set of engraved bricks as a prize for this award.

Top 10

 * 1. || Aladibababad || Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin
 * 2. || Daedalus and Icarus || Stefan van Zwam
 * 3. || Imagine That! || Rachel Dew
 * 4. || Fred's Day || Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin
 * 5. (Tied) || The Factory Fix || Stephen Nolen and Austin Nolen
 * 5. (Tied) || Sai the Magic Word || Nate Burr
 * 6. || Seeing Red || Brendan Henry
 * 7. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 8. || Eye of Aphrodite || Mark Wanninger
 * 9. || Lost || Cornelius Koch
 * 5. (Tied) || Sai the Magic Word || Nate Burr
 * 6. || Seeing Red || Brendan Henry
 * 7. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 8. || Eye of Aphrodite || Mark Wanninger
 * 9. || Lost || Cornelius Koch
 * 7. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 8. || Eye of Aphrodite || Mark Wanninger
 * 9. || Lost || Cornelius Koch
 * 9. || Lost || Cornelius Koch
 * 9. || Lost || Cornelius Koch

BrickFest Audience Choice Award
Joshua Leasure had sent 30 ballot sheets to BrickFest for the Audience Choice vote (a rather small number when compared to the overall audience), and all 30 were filled in. The winner of the vote was Aladibababad by Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin.

Listed here are the entries that were screened during the festival, in the order they were sent in:


 * 1. || Daedalus and Icarus || Stefan van Zwam
 * 2. || Fred's Day || Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin
 * 3. || The Factory Fix || Stephen Nolen and Austin Nolen
 * 4. || Imagine That! || Rachel Dew
 * 5. || Sai the Magic Word || Nate Burr
 * 6. || Eye of Aphrodite || Mark Wanninger
 * 7. || Aladibababad || Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin
 * 8. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 9. || Alabama Jones and the Lost Topping of Doom || Curt Werline
 * 5. || Sai the Magic Word || Nate Burr
 * 6. || Eye of Aphrodite || Mark Wanninger
 * 7. || Aladibababad || Jonathan Hellerman, Nathanael Hellerman and Billy Gribbin
 * 8. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 9. || Alabama Jones and the Lost Topping of Doom || Curt Werline
 * 8. || The Green Dragon || Nathan Dunlap
 * 9. || Alabama Jones and the Lost Topping of Doom || Curt Werline
 * 9. || Alabama Jones and the Lost Topping of Doom || Curt Werline
 * 9. || Alabama Jones and the Lost Topping of Doom || Curt Werline

The Sisters' Awards
'The Sisters Award' for promising young director went to The Star of Five Treasures by Nathaniel Hendricks. Additionally, although not mentioned in the contest announcement, they presented 'The Mr. Rogers Award' to their favourite voice actor, with a LEGO set as the prize. This award went to Nathaniel Hendricks' sister, Mary Eliza Hendricks, for her role in The Star of Five Treasures.