The Factory Fix
a Protowrxs film

"Something is broken... and only one man can fix it..."

Our entry for the Brickfilms.com High Adventure Theater (HAT) contest of the summer of 2004, The Factory Fix plays with the concept of a Brick Factory (yes, THAT kind of brick) having problems. The notorious "MB" is creating havoc at the factory. It's up to Mr. Brock to make things right. We thought it would be fun to actually enter a contest for the first time. It was fun but it was quite a challenge just to get things done in time.
Watch It | Inside | Funnies | Behind the Scenes

Before the Factory Fix

As a simple one minute preview of the film, you really do not get the story line from this clip... on purpose :) A trailer or preview contest was originally proposed for the HAT contest but the competition part was scrapped. We threw together a preview anyhow just for the fun of it. Actually the preview was done long before the final film was completed and as such does not include some of the key scenes.

This is the PREVIEW - See the full movie below

THESE ARE THE PREVIEWS ONLY - SEE MOVIE BELOW
Real Media 2.6mb - Windows Media 2.6mb

Watch the Factory Fix

The story came about as we were trying to figure out some type of 'adventure' since the contest was a High 'Adventure' Theater one. However, adventure movies really weren't my thing and a story was hard to come up with. After listening to some of the AFOL (Adult Fan Of Legos) complain about changes happening at the LEGO corporation a seed of an idea for a story arose. Discussions with Rachel Dew of Dewfilms on the idea made it sound possible and Rachel and her husband Cameron came up with an idea for "MB". From there it was hit and miss and changes and fixes until the final script was done. The original script actually read "some type of chase ensues" without any idea of what type of chase it would be. Even then the script changed quite a bit during filming to make things work.

Real Media 20.6mb
Real Media Variable Bit 640 26mb
Windows Media 19.6mb

Inside the Factory Fix

There were quite a few sets used in the making of the movie of which the most complicated one is actually hardly seen in the end movie. The Factory Fix assembly line consisted of working 'presses' and gears all driven by a hand crank that was turned 1/4 turn for each frame taken. The actual assembly line shots were panned at one stud per frame which ended up being way too fast so the clips were slowed down in post for a slower move. (Yes they should have been re-shot but we just didn't get to it) One can see this as a somewhat blurred movement during those two clips.

Other Sets and Information 

Sets for the movie included backyard mowing the lawn set,  outside the house, inside the house, inside part of the factory, outside the factory, the factory break room, Bricko's office, several outside sets for the vehicles, the plane taking off and flying backgrounds, MB's headquarters outside, MB's headquarters inside. and the swimming pool.

The swimming pool was a very nice set. Unfortunately I 'sat' on it before we really got to use it so that scene was never shot with action.

Other Information

Remember that newspaper you saw that flew in BrickO's face. Ever wonder what it really looked like? Sure you did.. well here's the full size edition of the Brick Times from the Factory Fix
The Brick Times - PDF

Bloopers, Errors and Funnies

There are several bloopers and errors (intentional and unintentional) in the film that are listed here. Watch the film again to see if you can catch these little items.

1. Brock pulls up to the factory going the wrong way on a one way street.
2. The factory 'stops' for a moment after he pulls up
3. Which set never had a mini fig appear in it?
4. What's the deal with the lighting when we first see MB?
5. Notice MB's head changes when it's on the ground?
6. You can see the 'sticky tac' inside the cape in two frames.

1. Who is driving the red car at the beginning of the film?
2. How many days since an accident at the factory?
3. What was wrong with the guy on the safety poster?
4. Ever seen a mini fig with an afro? Cool...
5. Is that 'sticky tac' on the bottom of the owl or not?
6. Give me some more mess ups or funnies and I'll post them

Behind the Scenes

The Factory Fix was captured on an old NEC 450Mhz PC running Windows 98 using a Pinnacle PCTV capture card and Anasazi Stop Motion Animator for frame captures and WavTracker to sync voices to the animation. For this and the last few films we have used an old Sony camcorder. The good thing about the camera is it is a low light CCD unit providing easy lighting. The down side is the uncontrollable Auto Focus that you will notice in this film. In some scenes the camera is trying to re-focus on each frame making it difficult to view.

At the very end of the filming of the Factory Fix, I picked up an even older Sony camcorder of the same series that still had the manual focus override. Hopefully this will avoid the focus chaos of previous films.

From the original frame captures, the uncompressed AVI's were copied to the main PC and assembled in Pinnacle Studio 8. Windows Movie Maker 2 was used for some scenes for credits. Jasc Animation Shop 3 was used for the simple effects.

Individual 'scenes' were configured and rendered to an uncompressed AVI and all scenes were then compiled into the final project. This allows simple scene changes which for the most part are automatically updated in the master project when a new AVI is created for each scene.

Behind the Scene Sets
Click for full size pictures, i.e. Large

"MB"s Place

MB Waiting for me to continue filming

This shows more detail of MB's place.
On the far left is the 'interior' set.