Brick Tale, I really appreciate your article. Even if we disagree at points, we are all simply trying to build up the community together, each in our own way. Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts.
Also, Rio, great response. I was mostly through writing my own when I saw your post, so there may be some redundancy.
Here's what I wrote on Twitter:
It's more an initial impression than a response, but here it is anyway.
An interesting article. I'll have to mull this over a while.
Right off the bat, I'd argue that it seems like brickfilming is more popular than ever before, with The LEGO Group promoting it with apps and contests, equipment being easier and cheaper to get, and The LEGO Movie giving the hobby more mainstream exposure.
HOWEVER, I'd also it seems you may be correct in the community side of it, as BricksInMotion.com doesn't seem quite as active and enthusiastic as it once was. (again, I use "seems" intentionally.) As for solutions, I absolutely agree that connecting with the greater Lego community could help. However, if you look at the Eurobricks.com brickfilming sub-forum, it's dead. I tried helping out there once upon a time but the greater community didn't seem to give it any attention.
But, you're right, we are very fractured. Now, brickfilmers connect on Facebook, Twitter, BrickABrack, Youtube, BiM, Brickfilms.com (maybe?) and others. Drawing us all back together would help. My last film got a more attention elsewhere than on BiM, when that wasn't true before.
Here's some more of my thoughts: Maybe they're worth something, maybe not.
Now, I'm interested, but not convinced, by his theory that we (I say we, because I joined in 2011, shortly before his"Golden Age" ended, and by doing so, it seems I'm partly to blame for this suicide.) died because we rejected Lego fans. Now, I don't exactly recall my early ventures here that clearly, but looking at us now, we do have a very cinematic focus. We actively try to learn how to include new camera angles, how to tell better stories, have better effects, how to imitate the tones of our favorite films, in addition to technical aspects like reducing light-flicker, set bumps, and rough animation. But like you, I don't see that as a bad thing, I LOVE learning all of that myself, but I, well, we, may be the exception. It's true, we do tend to focus on those things when critiquing films, by both "pros" and "beginners." Perhaps, we come off as elitist and drive away more casual brickfilmers that only want to watch their Lego come alive.
Perhaps.
But my thought is, wouldn't better films actually attract more people? I've got a friend that posts Lego comics online. I checked them out the other day, and honestly, wasn't that impressed with the presentation. (Sorry friend!) so I wasn't drawn to making my own. However, elsewhere, I've seen really, really well done Lego comics that sparked a desire for me to try my hand at that too. (though I never did.) Wouldn't a better presentation, a spirit of excellence, actually attract more people, rather than drive them away?
I also want to note, and again, this is a VERY subjective, VERY small sample size study, but my latest film got one comment here, three days after it was posted. (and six ratings) On Eurobricks, it has already gotten two responses in 11 hours. It's gotten quite a few comments on Youtube (for my channel, at least) most of which are from community members.
So...I wonder if another question we need to ask is "Why would we, as the BiM community, tend to engage with films and creators on Youtube (or anywhere else) instead of BiM?" I've always made a habit of commenting here, but how could we make it more attractive for our own members to use our own forum?
While these last few paragraphs seem awfully selfish and self-centered on my part, and I ask for forgiveness for that, I wonder if other members here have experienced/noticed the same thing.
Also, as much as I do like the idea of connecting with LUGs and other Lego groups, brickfilming alone takes an enormous amount of time and effort. It's hard enough for many of us to find the time just for that. Connecting with the "broader Lego community" may be a good idea but it's simply often not practical. Also, do we have evidence that older brickfilmers actually did that? I never recall much cross-over from my time here, nor do I remember hearing of that.