The Brick Thief is a 2010[1] short film directed by Leigh Marling for Blue Source, commissioned by The LEGO Group. It is about a man who steals LEGO bricks to build a band, and it combines manimation and CG LEGO animation resembling stop-motion.[2] It was part of the promotion for LEGOClick.com, a now-defunct LEGO community social media website. It is a semi-sequel to CL!CK from earlier in the same year.
Plot
A man is building with LEGO when bricks arrange themselves into musical notes and fly over his head. This gives him an idea, and he takes some bricks and builds a drumming cow. He is disappointed to find that he has run out of bricks, so he goes to a wall with many small doors. He reaches through the doors which act as portals to other peoples' houses, and he steals small piles of bricks through them. He uses the stolen bricks to create more musical instruments and dancers, before stealing some bricks to build a singer. Everything he has built disassembles and combines to make a boombox, which the man turns on. He dances to the music, and hands reach through his wall of door to clap to the beat.
It is revealed that a child has been imagining this scenario while playing with LEGO.[2]
Crew
- Leigh Marling - Director[3]
Agency: Pereira & O'Dell[4]
- PJ Pereira - Chief creative officer
- Kash Sree - Executive creative director
- Jason Apaliski - ACD/Art director
- Jaime Robinson - ACD/Writer
- Sara Krider - Producer
- Jeff Ferro - Director of production
- Gary Theut - Director of client services
- Skylar Fogel - Account executive
Production company: MJZ
- Blue Source - Director
- Betsy Oliver - Line producer
- Eric Stern - Executive producer
- David Zander - Excutive producer
- Eduardo Martinez - Director of photography
- Veronica Falcon - Choreographer
- Nicolas Scabini - Art director
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
- Damion Clayton - Editor
- Carol Lynn Weaver - Executive producer
- Aaron Morris - Assistant editors
- Justin Kumpata - Producer
VFX: a52
- Andy Hall - VFX supervisor
- Andy McKenna - VFX supervisor, 2D VFX artist
- Chris Janney - CG lead
- Erin Clark - CG artist
- Joe Chiechi - CG artist
- Abel Salazar - CG artist
- Steven Baker - CG artist
- John Cherniack - CG artist
- Kirk Shintani - CG artist
- Adam Newman - CG artist
- Brendan Crockett - 2D VFX artist
- Andy Barrios - 2D VFX artist
- Pete King - VFX producer
- Jennifer Sofio Hall - VFX executive producer
Music: Stimmung
- David Winer - Composer
- Ceinwyn Clark - Executive producer
Sound Design:
- Damion Clayton - Sound designer
- David Winer - Sound designer
- Peter Rincon - Sound designer
Mix: POP Sound
- Peter Rincon- Sound mixer
- Susie Boyajan - Executive producer
Awards
| Year | Competition | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011[5] | Tomorrow Awards | Online Film | Finalist |
| D&AD | Web Films | Winner | |
| One Show | Online Film | Finalist | |
| Clio Awards | Animation | Bronze | |
| Online Film | Silver | ||
| Best Director | Silver | ||
| London International Awards | TV/Cinema/Online Film | Silver |
