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The Dictionary Series is a series of brickfilms that visually describe an unusual word. It was a participatory fad in brickfilming that grew out of a 2006 short film by Nathan Wells.

History[]

In January 2006, Nathan Wells released his short film Stoic, a film about a man who stoically ignores the events around him. While it was never intended to be a part of a series, Stoic eventually established the hallmarks of a Dictionary Series film: white expanse background, single-word title, no dialog, ending film with word definition.

Only a day later, Brickfilms.com member Daniel Holmes released Aleatory, directly inspired by Stoic. In the release thread, Nathan suggested starting a "Dictionary Series." Zach Macias, Daniel Holmes and Judah Frank responded positively to the suggestion, saying they would create entries.[1] Frank released the third Dictionary Series film, Chary, in April, and Macias released Billingsgate later in 2006, after a handful of others had created entries.

Nathan released guidelines on how to make a Dictionary Series film:[2]

  1. The film must be in widescreen.
  2. The film must be set in a White Expanse.
  3. The title of the film must be the word used.
  4. There must be no dialogue. Music lyrics are fine.
  5. There must be a definition of the word at the end of the film. 

Most of the early Dictionary Series films were first uploaded to YouTube in 2007 (along with further new entries), expanding the visibility of the series. Nathan Wells and Zach Macias co-produced a Dictionary Series double feature, Diatribe/Malapropos. By 2008, many more Dictionary Series films were appearing on YouTube by brickfilmers who were not as closely aligned with the Brickfilms.com (and soon to be Bricks in Motion) community. The series received its peak number of entries in 2008, after which the format became much less commonly used.

Films[]

This list should not be considered exhaustive. Some films may not meet all of the official criteria.

References[]

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