Picturesque

Picturesque is a 2008 sci-fi action brickfilm directed by Jonathan Vaughan and written by Jonathan Vaughan and Mathew Buck. It is about a future in which a controversial new invention, picture portals, allows people to teleport to a location painted on them, and which are posing a threat to the country.

Plot
In the near future, there is a new mode of transport known as a Picture Portal, a painting that allows its user to travel to whatever location the painting depicts. Picture Portals are the invention of the Portal Painter, the only individual who knows the secret ingredient necessary in the production of the Portals.

However, these portals can be exploited for evil means, an observation that has been noticed by Mr. Glacialis, a member of the Government Management Board. Captain John West, head of the Police Division, along with his partner Roger, meet with Glacialis to explain the plans for security regarding the Picture Portals, something requested by the President. Although there are trackers installed on the Portals, roughly 200 of them are currently missing, and this is something that Mr. Glacialis says that the President will be "very concerned" with.

Meanwhile, a mercenary (known as Carl) is in contact with an unknown individual. The mercenary breaks into the Portal Painter's residence and threatens him in an attempt to get him to create a portal to the Oval Office, which he begins to do.

Glacialis meets with the President, where he informs him of Captain West's report. Glacialis makes it clear that he strongly dislikes Picture Portals as a whole, wanting to "...do away with them entirely", as he sees them as a societal risk. The President has a much more nuanced view, wanting to simply regulate their use as opposed to completely banning their use.

Back at the Portal Painter's home, he has finished the portal requested by the mercenary. The mercenary then knocks him unconscious, and, before jumping through the portal, drops a lit match to destroy the portal and cover his tracks. A portal opens right above the President's head in the Oval Office, and the mercenary falls right on top of him. Shoving the President into a different Picture Portal that he carried with him, he then escapes through a secret exit.

Cast

 * Jonathan Vaughan as John
 * Derek Cassel as Portal Painter
 * Rob Kleffner as Roger, The president
 * Mathew Buck as Glacialis
 * Jason Lavorante as John's boss
 * Philip Heinrich as Carl
 * Melinda Cassel as News reporter

Crew

 * Jonathan Vaughan - Director, Writer
 * Mathew Buck - Writer
 * Joseph Frank - Music

Production
The Pictureseque title and concept originated in 2006, and an early version of the film was originally slated for a Fall 2006 release. After the announcement of the Masterpieces of Brickfilming contest in September 2006, Picturesque was planned to be an entered into it, and so planned to be released in December 2007. Test footage for Picturesque and the title of the film appeared as part of a cinema screening in Vaughan's film The Tompa City Menace, released in January 2007.

By June 2007, with a 30+ page script that was still being written, Vaughan announced that the film would likely not be created in time for Masterpieces of Brickfilming. In Fall 2007, Vaughan restarted the scriptwriting in collaboration with Mathew Buck, now planned for a Fall 2008 release. Picturesque was pushed back further to make room for multiple other films for contests, and it was eventually released on the final day of 2009. It contains over 300 visual effect shots.

Awards

 * colspan="1" rowspan="1"|2009
 * colspan="1" rowspan="1"|Bricks in Motion Awards
 * Best Visual Effects
 * Won
 * Won