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We hadn’t seen this newly released telling of the story of St. Patrick in time for the Irish holiday, but as we are still in close proximity to St. Patrick’s Day, we couldn’t let it pass by. The story is conveyed through the use of LEGO toys, and was completed by a trio of teen brothers.
This story of St. Patrick was released on the YouTube channel Fiontar Floinn, a page which is packed with LEGO animations. The videos range from a few seconds to a few minutes, but each one is presented in a professional fashion, with high quality images and animation. It all becomes even more impressive when considering that all the videos were created by three brothers, aged 12, 14, and 16.
Fiontar Floinn’s “The Story of St. Patrick” covers many of the major elements of St. Patrick’s life, from his abduction and enslavement and reuniting with his family to the saint’s return to the Emerald Isle and his ministry. Rather than voicing each character, the LEGO action is explained by a narrator who keeps the tale moving at a good pace to keep the viewer engaged.
While the story is faithful to the life of this storied Catholic saint, it was the production value that blew us away. All of Fiontar Floinn’s releases are filmed in stop-motion, a medium that creates the illusion of movement through a series of still images. This means every minor motion had to be slowly recorded by photographing the figures, moving them slightly, and photographing again.
While we are not sure just how many frames-per-second the video has, it looks like it's between 24 and 30. At 30 frames-per-second, this 2:35 video would require around 4,650 frames (individual pictures) to complete. Between the rigorous demands of stop motion and the efforts the boys took to create sceneries, produce lighting for both day and night, and write the script, it certainly feels like a labor of love.
There are dozens more stop-motion LEGO videos on Fiontar Floinn’s YouTube channel, including a five-part series on the story of Christmas, and even a few comical shorts featuring superheroes. Visit Fiontar Floinn to see more high quality LEGO animations from this talented and creative family.
