Brickfilms Challenge Series

The Brickfilms Challenge Series, often referred to as BCS, was a recurring brickfilming contest hosted officially on Brickfilms.com. It was started by Saul Goode, the Minister of Film Contests at the time, and its aim was to inspire creativity and experimentation in certain aspects of brickfilming, with plans for a new challenge every two to three months. It ran three times, all within 2008, and with gaps of three and five months. It changed hosts often throughout its run, as it took place over the time when the community were leaving for the site that would become Bricks in Motion and staff of Brickfilms.com were stepping down, amid tensions with the new owners of Brickfilms.com.

BCS #1: The Ministry of Silly Walk Cycles
The first Brickfilms Challenge Series, "The Ministry of Silly Walk Cycles", was announced by Saul Goode on March 7, 2008. It was inspired by the Monty Python sketch "Ministry of Silly Walks" and challenged entrants to show a minifigure walking in an unusual way. Entries were required to be between 20 seconds and 2 minutes in length and the deadline was March 30. The contest was judged through a vote that was originally supposed to only be open to patrons of Brickfilms.com but was later decided to be open to all users due to lack of votes. The prize for the winner was a Brickfilms.com T-shirt. Saul Goode thanked Steve Collins, Stefan van Zwam, Kate Wardell, Jonathan Schlaepfer and Cynthia Price for assisting in the creation of the series.

When Saul Goode stepped down as Minister of Film Contests following the sudden removal of Jonathan Schlaepfer as admin of the site, control of the contest went to Steve Collins after he took over the contest ministry by being the only candidate. Only 2 entries were received, and the winning entry was Silly Walks Through the Ages by James "MiniMation" Harvey, with the other entry coming from Gregory Moore and Garry Moore.

BCS #2: Time Runs Backwards
The second BCS was announced by Steve Collins on June 2, 2008, with the theme "Time Runs Backwards". The challenge was conceived by Arend Hintze, and was to animate a film backwards, with reversed footage not allowed. Sound was also required to be backwards. The length requirements, judging and prize remained the same as the previous BCS, and Steve Collins thanked Arend Hintze, Bert Loos, Stijn Heirstrate, Kate Wardell, Adi "Numbuh23" Ramic, Richard Van De Steenoven, Zane Eastwood and Cynthia Price for assisting in the creation of the challenge.

Steve Collins stepped down as Minister of Film Contests after the owners of Brickfilms.com sent a Cease and Desist warning to Jonathan Schlaepfer over attempting to use the word "brickfilm" in his site name, and so the judging of the challenge was organised by Joseph Hayden. Four films were present in the poll, though there was also at least one other entry not included. The winning film was Goodbye by Harry Bossert.

BCS #3: Meaningful Animated GIF Challenge
The third BCS was hosted by Arend Hintze, the "Community Admin" of the site appointed since shortly after Jonathan Schlaepfer's removal as admin. It was announced on November 8, 2008, and the challenge was to create a brickfilm in animated GIF form that conveyed a meaning, message, mood or feeling. It had two categories for submission: The Avatar group, for GIFs of 81x81 pixels or less, and the Big-Ones group, for GIFs of 256x256 pixels or less. The contest idea was inspired by the small LEGO sets, and so the prizes were, for both categories, a choice between  and  for first place with second place receiving the remaining prize. The deadline was November 30, and the judging was done through a vote by the entrants and anyone else selected by Hintze.

The challenge received ten entries, two in the Avatar group and eight in the Big-Ones group, and with six of the ten entries coming from "France & Alex". The Avatar group was won by France & Alex by default, as they were the only entrant. The top three in the Big-Ones group were:


 * 1) Jumping Sheep by "France & Alex"
 * 2) The Kid With the Cape by Joseph Hayden
 * 3) Eek by "France & Alex"

BCS #3 was the final official contest hosted on the 2.0 version of Brickfilms.com, and was also the final installment of the Brickfilms Challenge Series. Two minor contests in a similar vein ran simultaneously in 2009 once Brickfilms 3.0 was launched, the Re-Creation Contest and The Monologue Contest, and these are currently the last successful contests officially hosted by the site.