Corey Johnson is an average high school sophomore from Scottsboro. He works at the local McDonald's, is the broadcast director for his yearbook staff and is excited about getting his driver's license this summer.
But Johnson has one not-so-typical hobby: "brickfilming," or making stop-motion movies using Legos.
Johnson made the three and a half hour drive to Auburn because one of his films made it to the final round of the 2010 Jay Sanders Film Festival last Thursday.
To his surprise, he won the first place prize of $500 for his film "Wellsburg, Parts I, II and III," described in the festival brochure as a "classic tale of lost love, told with Legos."
Johnson originally made the movie as a summer project.
"Wellsburg" is a silent film about love and loss, set in the early 20th century and inspired by the movie "Titanic."
The film was commended by the judges for its originality and technical prowess, putting it a leg above other films submitted by students from the Baltimore School of Fine Arts and high schools from New York and Texas.
"It's just beautiful techniques," said Michael Young, CEO of Michael Young Media and judge of the festival. "It advanced the story. It looked and sounded really professional."
Starring two Lego lovers named Nicolas and Alessandra, "Wellsburg" tells the story of Alessandra's father disapproval of their love, Nicolas' death by Model-T and Alessandra's eventual move onward.
"I like stories that make you think," Johnson said.
This theme is not new to Johnson, whose longest brickfilm is a modernization of Romeo and Juliet done during his freshman year of high school.
"If you're going to borrow from something that's come before, kind of give a new spin on it," said Michele Schreiber, judge of the Jay Sanders Film Festival and associate professor of film studies at Emory University. "Or do it differently--use Legos."
Johnson makes his films completely independently; he was the director, editor, producer and writer for his winning entry, and he works without a budget.
Johnson said he filmed the Legos from their position on top of his printer, edited frames with Windows Moviemaker and used a microphone he bought at Radio Shack to record quality audio.
Johnson has completed about 60 films, 15 of which he made in the summer of 2008 alone.
He is now working on what he said he hopes will be his masterpiece: a film called "Home" that uses a combination of Legos and 3D graphics to tell the story of an Earth-like planet at the far end of the galaxy.
"It's going to be 80 minutes," Johnson said. "I've got about 23 or 25 minutes done, and I'm only a quarter done."
He plans to have it finished by August, doing most of the work this summer, but will have to budget his time wisely.
"I'm going to try to balance spending time with my girlfriend, working on the movie and working on the yearbook," Johnson said.
"Wellsburg, Parts I, II and III" and "Romeo and Juliet: The Modern Version" are posted on his YouTube page, coreyteen13.
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