The Classical Movie Contest was a brickfilming contest hosted by Jason Rowoldt in 2001. It was the first successful contest ever hosted on Brickfilms.com and is the earliest known example of a brickfilming contest with no involvement from The LEGO Group. The aim of the contest was to produce a brickfilm set to a piece of classical music.
The Classical Movie Contest was followed by the Historical Fiction Contest later in the same year.
History[]
Jason Rowoldt first mentioned planning a contest on Brickfilms.com in January 2001, referring to it only as a "Shorts" film contest. On March 4, 2001, Rowoldt announced what was supposed to be the first official Brickfilms.com, named "Based on a True Story".[1] This was a contest for films based on historical events, either told accurately or fictionalised. Rowoldt later edited the announcement to say that this contest had been postponed,[2] and by May, he said it had been cancelled due to a lack of directors wishing to participate.[3] This contest idea would later be used for the second successful Brickfilms.com contest, the Historical Fiction Contest, in December 2001.
The idea for the Classical Movie Contest emerged from a discussion between Thomas Foote and Jason Rowoldt at BrickFest 2001.[4] In July, Jason urged filmers to begin thinking about classical music pieces they might like to use in a film. On July 30th, in celebration of the hundredth brickfilm posted to the site's directory, Jason launched The Brickfilms.com Classical Movie Contest.[5] The theme of this contest was to create a film that primarily featured a piece of classical music as its soundtrack and did not include spoken dialogue, in over 2 and under 5 minutes.[6] The original deadline for the contest was the 15th of September but this was later extended to September 30th.[7]
The Classical Movie Contest received 10 accepted entries,[8] and at least 2 more which were disqualified for not meeting the minimum length requirement.[9] A winning entry from each of the three categories Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Animation would be chosen from judging by the Brickfilms.com staff combined with results from a public user poll. The winner of Best Film would receive a LEGO Legends series re-issue of the 1986 set Guarded Inn while the winner of Best Cinematography would have a choice between LEGO sets 5920 Island Racer and 6711 Ogel Command Striker, with the winner of Best Animation receiving the remaining prize.[10]
List of all entries:
| Film Name | Director |
|---|---|
| The Barber of Seville | Stefan van Zwam and Marcel van Zwam |
| The Briefcase X | Stephen Lord |
| Bush: The Musical | Brian Gould |
| Dance Lesson | "Valtsu" |
| The Evolution of Creation | Greg Perry |
| A Grand and Merry Chase | Doug James |
| Haunting Gibberish | Russ Jensen |
| Labor Union Riot | Jonathan Neary |
| Lega Wars | Ben Brenninkmeyer |
| Military Tattoo at Brickingham Palace | Fredrik Christiansen |
Winners[]
Listed here are the winning films in each category along with the other nominees.
| Best Film | |
|---|---|
| |
| Best Cinematography | Best Animation |
| |
Another notable film originally intended for entry to this contest is The Gauntlet by Jay Silver, which ultimately was not finished in time for the deadline.[11]
References[]
- ↑ "Based on a True Story" announcement
- ↑ Archive of the Brickfilms.com news section from April 2001
- ↑ Rowoldt speaks of the cancellation of "Based on a True Story"
- ↑ Thomas Foote's Requiem page archive
- ↑ Archive of the Brickfilms.com news section from August 2001
- ↑ Announcment of the Classical Movie Contest on Brickfilms.com
- ↑ Archive of the Brickfilms.com news section from October 2001
- ↑ List of all entries to the Classical Movie Contest
- ↑ Brickfilms.com Directory Shorts archive
- ↑ All later updates regarding the Classical Movie Contest
- ↑ Archive of Jay Silver's website's Films page