Children of Stone
Full Screen Recommended
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OR you can watch it HERE on YouTube.
This was my senior film project for college (I majored in film production and minored in animation.) This film was completed in the fall of 2007. I hope you will leave a comment, letting me know what you think. Positive or negative, excited or uncertain. ANY feedback is of value and interest to me. Thanks for watching.
Concept Sketches:
Behind The Scenes:
Most of the film was shot on a soundstage where we built a big platform, dressed it like a demolished city, and had rock monsters battle on top of it. My friend Will Hyler headed the building of the platform. In the process he also took the initiative to make this awesome time lapse of the whole four days of production on the soundstage:
Back then, the working title of the film was “Dawn of The Monoliths.” I later changed the title because that title makes no sense when you consider that this movie is really more about the end (or dusk) of the stone giants, and that those giants are made out of more than one stone (mono+lith meaning ‘single stone.’)
Production photos:
Pictures taken by JJ Conway, Katie Bode, Andrew Doman and Brian Engh
BONUS MOVIES!!!
ROCK MONSTER DANCE PARTY
The Metamorpholith costume was pretty brutal. It was heavy, hot, ungainly, and hard to see out of. It was built hastily, and as a result was a generally cumbersome and uncomfortable thing. Needless to say, we were elated when we wrapped principal photography on Metamorpholith. Will Hyler was standing in at that point and the smooth dance stylings you see in the above video are willhundredpercent his.
Here is quick video JJ Conway shot of Josh Goldman trying out the Metamorpholith costume for the first time:
“How did you come up with the idea for this movie?”
The answer:
This movie, and my short documentary “Moss: A Tribute” will be playing on a TV channel called Mhz Worldview. if you don’t get Mhz Worldview you should check out their website:
http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhzworldview/
My thanks go out to Jessica Frederick of Mhz Worldview, who discovered my animated intro to “Children of Stone” on YouTube. She apparently liked it, and she asked if they could play it during their block of kids and youth oriented programming. My reaction was something along the lines of “YEAAAAH!!! YOu can show the WHOLE movie!!!”
I was (am) excited for several reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, people outside my circle of family and friends enjoyed my work enough to want to share it with lots of other people. That’s really encouraging to me as an artist, and it gives me hope that all the time and effort put in by everyone who helped make this movie wasn’t a complete waste. Secondly, putting it on TV meant it would get good exposure without costing me additional time and money to submit it to film festivals which might reject it anyway. Film festivals are also the reason I didn’t put it up online in its entirety until now. Most film festivals wont accept your film if it has been put up online because they want to be the first ones to “premiere” new films. Now that my movie will be “premiering” on TV, it will (hopefully) be seen by more people than at a film festival, AND I can share it on the web because Mhz Networks is cooler than any film festival in that they are willing to show my work without imposing any restrictions on me. The economics on my end go something like this: I can either PAY my hard earned money to some film snobs to just CONSIDER showing my film to a crowd of other film snobs – or – LET a unique forward thinking television channel play two of my films (that I’ve already spent a bunch of money on) as many times as they want for a larger and more diverse audience of real people who’s perception of movies isn’t as likely to be completely tainted by their own intellectual and/or financial investment in the art form.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the movie. Again, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Criticism is welcome. Thanks for stopping by and watching, and super awesome power-up thanks to everyone who helped make this movie possible.
-Brian Engh
chanKyweLdlin on 23 Sep 2009 at 4:12 am #
your children of stone series were good. a little slow for me, but im picky.lol. i wouldve given you an a…-.ha
Chad on 24 Sep 2009 at 6:05 pm #
Came across your site through Amazing Super Powers. I saw that you didn’t have any comments on your wonderful film, so I thought I’d help out. I thought it was a great. Great concept, good execution, and a subtle moral at the end. Overall, very very good job for a ‘final project’ film. Only one major criticism, and that’s the scene where the rocks morph into there (volcanic?) true forms. I felt that the visuals got a bit confusing there and I wasn’t sure what was going on, especially with the cuts to the fire-breather. Did one come back? Was it a flashback? Symbolism for returning to their roots?
Anyway, kudos! Good job on the interesting universe you’ve created.
Historian on 27 Sep 2009 at 6:09 pm #
It was supposed to be a flashback – Volciathan remembering his final battle with the ancient reptiles to save the people of the trees.
I agree, that whole sequence is unclear. Partially because I wanted it to to be kind of alien and confusing, but mostly because I rushed and did it poorly.
Thanks for the feedback!
Mark Fischer on 09 Oct 2009 at 5:23 am #
Dear Brian,
I enjoyed several things about “Children of Stone,” but the opening sequence — what I call the animated cave-painting — was my favorite. It had beauty and grace. It foreshadowed the actual movie but kept things “primitive.”
The next scene about the older man with the walking staff and the boy was refreshing. It also seemed to harmonize with the earlier cave painting. Then, when the boy and the man pause to overlook the ruined city, it is a surprise. We realize that we are not watching the past but the future.
The rock monsters were believable, and their vocals were especially good.
Naturally, I was looking forward to your dad’s “stealth bomber” (which was terrific) and the missile contrails were convincing. I think I also caught sight of your Jurassic monster at some point in the evolution tableau.
It was a little hard to follow the scene in which the one rock monster destroys the technological city. By that time, the viewer “knows” that the dark colored rock monster is morally good and sympathetic, even to those humans who did not reverence “Their Mother.” I guess the monster had made the moral distinction between the evil humans below and the good humans (the man and the boy) above,
Thanks for creating such a thought-provoking film with such expertise. It was a pleasure to watch.
Mark Fischer
Chris on 02 Nov 2009 at 6:54 pm #
Hey Brian,
I came across this website through your songs on Youtube which give off an intelligent, refreshing, unique style. This finished project of Children of Stone is of the same stock. I loved it from beginning to end. Im afraid I don’t have the experience in Film making to make any helpful critical comments but I dont really need to. It was great.
-Chris
Mark on 13 Nov 2009 at 11:31 pm #
To the Brian Engh,
Finally got to watch this and I really enjoyed it.
It’s good to see Kaiju is still alive and well. The design of the rock beings was great and their sound design was expertly composed. They sounded like two rocks being rubbed together combined with a loud growl. As expected the music was great and I agree that for a final, this was a great film with much care to it.
Bravo
-Mark
coleoptera on 20 Nov 2009 at 2:20 am #
slashing mouthparts rule.
Sean on 08 Jan 2010 at 4:00 am #
I liked the ideas, and the designs but the whole thing seemed raw and the visuals were rough around the edges. I’m trying to finish my senior film this semester and I’m running into major quality issues. Seems no matter how much I planned and how well initial photography went, I’m finding the final product a bit of a muddle. Filmmaking is hard!
Undead Backbrain » Blog Archive » Weekend Fright Flick: Children of Stone on 06 Feb 2010 at 10:24 pm #
[...] can see many more images and read about the film’s background on the director’s Don’t Mess With Dinosaurs website. A high-res version of the film that can be viewed full-screen is also available [...]
Ethazoid on 13 Feb 2010 at 11:32 am #
watz da movie????