Topic: The Beauty of Grace

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The Beauty of Grace

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"The Beauty of Grace" tells the story of a man who struggles with fighting temptation and relies on his own will and understanding instead of his "Faith" and fears he has lost him. This allegorical telling of what occurs when faced with temptation shows the beauty of what grace is-that no matter how far we fall, there is always a chance for redemption.

Re: The Beauty of Grace

This film has me tied up in knots a bit, although perhaps not in the way intended. I'll tackle technical aspects first.

It starts off well. The framerate is a little slow, but the lighting in the beginning was interesting, and I found some of the animation techniques fairly inventive (particularly the covers on the bed). The animation itself could definitely use some work, even disregarding the low framerate. That said, it felt like you had a good sense of dynamic movement, and I think with practice you could easily bring your animation to a higher level. Sound was so-so. The voice acting was decent, although there were rough patches. Sometimes the music would overpower the speech (particularly with the Tempter character), to the point where I had to go back once or twice to figure out what he was saying.

To that point, I think one of the biggest problems with the film as a whole is that it is so dialog reliant. There is a ton of speaking going on, and I admittedly found it difficult to concentrate sometimes, which may explain why I didn't completely understand the message the film meant to convey. My best suggestion there would be to condense dialog so you can get the message across with less speaking. Being a film, you have a visual aid present through the whole thing, and a lot of the time it felt underutilized; maybe use that more to balance things out.

Story wise, I would say you chose a fairly abstract topic. However, as an allegory, I'm not sure it totally succeeded. Generally allegory implies that an easily understandable (on the surface, anyway) story is told as a parallel to more complex ideas. In this case though, with two of the characters being named Faith and Temptation, the connection felt a little forced, and the abstraction didn't really aid my understanding. I'll put my thoughts on the actual ideas in spoiler tags.

Spoiler (click to read)

What I gathered was that the man had the ability to make proverbs explaining God's word to the people. These proverbs would be a powerful tool for the cause, so Satan (or Temptation) wants to stop him before he starts using them. Then I got lost. He allows himself to listen to Temptation, rejects it, but his faith dies anyway (later revived by grace)? I feel like this is a strange ideology if I understand correctly, because it vilifies the acquisition of knowledge. Why should it be inherently bad for him to hear temptation out if he makes a morally sound decision in the end?

Overall, an ambitious project deserving of credit for trying something new, even if it wasn't flawless. I also am happy to see that, as opposed to just making a film, you made a film with a specific purpose. Regardless of whether I fully support that purpose, you have an edge up on a lot of films just by expressing one and it's nice to see. If you improve on the areas I mentioned, I think you have a great future in brickfilming. Keep practicing, you're off to a good start.

Re: The Beauty of Grace

This is a perfect example of story quality over technical quality. EXCELLENT work, I am determined to defend against any criticism this film may receive.

http://i.imgur.com/Q9NCUnx.png

Re: The Beauty of Grace

ok, so there are some technical flaws, like a little lighting mishap. But that was...... DEEP. One of the most profound brickfilms I have seen so far. I believe the story and the depth of the movie alone make up for whatever it may lack in cinematography prowess. (<-- is that grammatically correct?)

sigelrelster
Scripting: 100% Animation: 3% Post-Production: 0%

Re: The Beauty of Grace

the best film ever mini/eek

Re: The Beauty of Grace

Thanks for the critique(s). I will definitely keep all these things in mind as I go about future brickfilms. I know my film is not perfect in any means, so hearing specifics helps me practice what I need to to improve. Again, thank you.