This featured brickfilmer post is part of a series of articles highlighting animators who supported the Bricks in Motion Documentary project on Kickstarter.

Ben Young, known on BiM as Sonjira, is a 17 year old animator whose began making brickfilms in the summer of 2011. Having drawn inspiration from Robinson Wood, Captain Bulldog, and Doug Vandegrift, he decided to get into the hobby after deciding that "it couldn't be THAT hard."

His first film that he got a lot of response for was BIRDFaCE, which inspired him to pursue the hobby more seriously. His latest project, A Fresh Start'N, has been celebrated by the community for its absurd humor, which drew inspiration from local advertising for grocery chains and other stores. It's an especially impressive project considering he made it for the BricksInMotion Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest.

Another recent project for Young was his largest film, BIRDFaCE Origins, which has met with polarized opinions on the BricksInMotion forum for its unique style. One of his biggest takeaways from the project was the process of casting local voice actors:

"I put together the largest cast of any of my films, with a large amount of being people who I knew from school. I'd meet up with them with my microphone and get to play director, telling them exactly how to deliver their lines. As one may imagine, it's a lot easier to do that in person than over email. I also got them involved in the scripting and editing of the piece. I know a lot of people in the brickfilming community tend to shy away from getting people near to them involved in their process, but I think they should really give it a try. It makes it all a whole lot more enjoyable, having people near you to bounce things off of."

Collaboration and working with people in person is certainly something that can benefit a brickfilm, and something that would be good to see more of in this community! Ben drew on his experiences in his school's journalism program, The Sycamore Leaf: "Naturally, being in a large group like that, you kind of get forced to collaborate with others on your project, in more ways than just getting voices from some guy 4,205 miles away in Sweden."