Jan 9, 2023
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Say hi to George 👋
LEGO Aesthetics
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Studios ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Analog horror looks like this
Why is a Powerful Word
A lawyer once taught me the power of the word: why. Discover why this word is so powerful.
In the Spring of 2012, I was taking a college class called Law and the Media. My professor was a prominent lawyer who taught evening classes in his spare time. I really enjoyed his class.
Why?
Because he taught me a valuable lesson. He said if he had to pick a favorite word from the dictionary, it would be the word: why.
I thought about that for a moment. At first, I didn’t recognize what was so…
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Today’s LaymanLegoProject selection is: Werewolf Ambush (Monsters/Lego Studios theme)
Nostalgic Story - Lego Studios
So yesterday I was chatting over skype with a friend, and for whatever reason the discussion became about old videos that we made as kids. I used to experiment a lot with windows movie maker when I was really young making silly little videos on my webcam, recreating various films I had seen. On a technical level they were terrible, just a single camera angle, from my computer desk. Bad video quality, terrible acting! But you know, it started me off, on my path to develop my skills as a film maker.
So why is this post called Lego Studios? Well, like most other guys and girls, I grew up on Lego, I LOVED the stuff, I remember I used to have Lego sets such as an alien train network and a space station amongst so many other themes and varieties. But there was one Lego set that just blew all the rest away.
I remember the whole story so well, I was 11 years old, I was in my local Tesco supermarket where I came across the latest issue of Lego magazine (I used to get it every month!) and behold to my eyes was an article. This article probably dramatically changed my life I didn't know it back then, but it really had an impact on my future.
The article introduced the brand new exciting product from Lego, Lego Studios. Now this wasn't like any other Lego set, this one was a film studio made out of Lego, with endorsing by Steven Spielberg (Who was my favourite film director of the time) there was actually a mini lego Steven Spielberg, I could not believe it! But the main thing that grasped my interest was that it came with a LEGO WEBCAM and movie editing software to make real films out of LEGO!
You know... for an eleven year old kid, this stuff was priceless, it's the sort of thing that allows your imagination to go really wild. I was literally obsessed with Lego Studios for months, I kept looking back at that article and occasionally the small section on the Lego website with my really fast 56k internet connection!
There was one problem, I didn't know when it was coming out. There was such little information back then, no such thing as Twitter or Facebook, heck, even Myspace was a good few years away! And my poor little soul just didn't know when this magical amazing Lego set would be unleashed upon the world!
Months went past, I kept checking my local Toy Shop whenever I went into town and nothing, it was not to be seen. Then one day, not expecting anything, I walked into the Toy Shop with my Dad. My jaw dropped, on the highest shelf right at the back of the store... there stood, glistening against the lights, next to the Lego Millenium Falcon, there stood what I had been searching for. My Holy Grail if you will, Lego Studios was right there on the top shelf. My jaw dropped I could hardly contain my excitement! My Dad saw the price which was £150 (or something) and well, he said "No!".... my heart sank, but then my Dad told me he was joking, so he bought it for me. I honestly don't think the staff could have seen a bigger grin on a child's face when I bought Lego Studios that day.
I was so excited, I could not wait to go open, rip open the packaging and start making movies. I had it all planned out, I was going to do an epic movie, where a Dinosaur unleashes havoc on the small lego town. There was no Youtube back then, so you couldn't even see what other people had created, it was all your own imagination. However, when we got home, my Dad said I couldn't open it. I was so annoyed, but the reason was because we were going on holiday to Belgium the next day (Actually the reason for going into town that day was to get some currency for the holiday). I was so close yet so far, It was sitting outside my bedroom on the landing, taunting me, I wanted to open it so bad.
That holiday all I spoke about was Lego Studios, how I was going to make films, how my brother would help me make some more films, what I would do... EVERYTHING! My parents must have been going crazy at the slightest mention of Lego Studios, I think they even said something that if I mentioned it again on that holiday I wouldn't get it. But I was young, I couldn't stop myself!
Anyway, the holiday was pretty good, went to Bruges, got some nice chocolate. Of course seeing chocolate boobs in the shops was highly amusing to me and all the typical stuff a tourist would do in Belgium.
We arrived home pretty late, I of course wanted to open Lego Studios right away. But my Dad said I had to wait until the morning. This was so agonising, I needed to make movies, so badly, It was so frustrating! I honestly didn't get any sleep that night, was really annoying. I was awake at 6am from what I remember, I didn't know what to do, it was technically the morning, the box was sat right outside my bedroom. I had to open it, but should I have? I don't know, I didn't spend too long thinking about it, before I was outside of my bedroom grabbing the huge box and dragging it into my bedroom. Placed in on the floor, right in the middle, this huge box sitting there. This was what I had been excited about for the past 4 months or so, right before my eyes. I think I starred at it in awe.
Before I knew it, I was ripping the packaging open, reading all the instruction manuals, seeing everything in the box for the first time. Everything I had read about, the T-Rex head, the lego webcam, the lego Steven Spielberg, even the scared lego cat, everything was there. It was such an exciting time for me.
I must have spent all day playing with it, making films, living out what had been plaguing my mind for so long. It was a glorious time. I ended up collecting the entire set of the Lego Studios franchise and some pretty good films. Some of the films I made consisted of the opening from James Bond, the scene in Harry Potter where they encounter the three headed dog (Using the Lego Harry Potter collection) but my most ambitious project was to film all three books of Lord of the Rings in Lego (mainly because I couldn't wait to see the Two Towers and Return of the King in the cinema) I started it, filmed the first scene from Fellowship of the Ring, where it is explained where the ring came from. I gave up after that one scene, it took so long (and I was pretty young still) but I made a lot of smaller films.
The sad thing was that I was too young to know how to backup files, I consequently lost some of these precious films, it is a real shame, I'll always have the memories of them, but wish I had them to share. However I have the Lord of the Ring's intro somewhere, I have no idea where, all I know is several years later I came across it again. I needed to find it. This search in turn lead me to making this post because I found another of my old webcam videos (which is now on my Facebook for your amusement (and my embarrassment). I still haven't found it, I hope one day I will and it will be backed up before you know it!
As for my Lego Studios, well I moved house a few months after I got it. I remember I boxed the sets up very carefully making sure they wouldn't break. But in my new house I started off sharing a room with my brother (which didn't last long) so there was no room for me to play with it anywhere, so it ended up gathering dust, I made some films when I could but I really didn't have the space. Currently it is sitting right at the back of my loft, the sets still built, waiting there to be played with again. Maybe they have made 3 films of their own and released them to commercial success in the cinema, I will never know, but one day I will take them down and make a small video.
This has been a long story, thanks if you stuck it through, until the next time...
Ant x
