What happens when seven outstanding builders bring their LEGO skills to bear on one of the most beloved films of the modern era? You get a LEGO collaboration that is nothing short of cinematic. Now screening on The Brothers Brick: RebelLUG’s Dark Knight collaboration, with behind-the-scenes commentary from organizer Tom Studs and builder Eli Willsea!
But before we jump to the interview, let’s review the series of images, starting with the film’s iconic poster, recreated by collab organizer Tom Studs. At a glance, you might think the only thing LEGO about this pic is the minifigure, but every building and the fiery bat logo are all brick-built.
Eli Willsea is no stranger to this site, having earned our Builder of the Year award in 2020. For the Dark Knight collab, Eli recreates this IMAX ready shot of Alfred and the tumbler in Bruce Wayne’s makeshift garage.
Ryan McBryde picked the scene of Harvey Dent tied up as part of the Joker’s mind game. The builder is an incredible Star Wars MOC creator and role-player (we loved his Jedha temple diorama).
Jimmy (j2_bricks) captures Harvey in the hospital. The brick-built furniture is wonderful, especially the monitors with rubber bands forming the slim frames. In addition to RebelLUG, Jimmy is also member of the LOTRLug.
Micah Beideman captures the chilling interrogation scene between Batman and the Joker. The lighting would do Wally Pfister proud. Micah has collaborated with Eli and others multiple times, including one of the most beautiful MOCs to ever be featured on this site.
Max (eisenbart_) recreates Batman brooding in the aftermath of destruction. Before you think Max had it easy with a pile of unconnected bricks, know that every building in the soft focus background is a physical model built by Max. Amongst various smaller collabs, Max also contributed to the massive New Hashima.
Finally, we have this moody shot of Batman’s fiery escape on the Bat Pod, recreated by Joe Minieri. In addition to epic fantasy and sci-fi builds, Joe is also an Iron Builder alum.
How did this cinematic collaboration come together? We spoke with organizer Tom Studs and fellow builder Eli Willsea on the process.
TBB: What was the inspiration for the collaboration? What drew you to the Dark Knight in particular?
Tom Studs: It all began with a Dune collab RebelLUG did. I wasn’t a member at the time, but as a big RebelLUG fan, it inspired me to do something similar myself. I applied to the LUG and after a second time, I got accepted! This was my chance: I organized our first Batman collaboration, the Batman Begins Collab. The Dark Knight trilogy is in my opinion one of the best trilogies I’ve ever seen, so it deserved a collab. I was honored to organize it and it was super fun seeing the contributions grow into a series of awesome builds. No wonder I decided to do another! It was time for the second movie, arguably the best of three: The Dark Knight.
TBB: How long did it take for the idea to come to fruition? Some of these scene have pretty elaborate backgrounds or complicated staging that must have taken some time to pull off. Were there any logistical challenges in pulling together these 7 scenes from such busy builders?
Tom: There was quite some time between me offering the idea of the Dark Knight collab and me beginning to prepare it, but luckily there were some people who reminded me to do so! Picking the scenes was pretty easy- I just watched the movie and screenshotted every scene that cinematically looked awesome- I had a total of 31 scenes worthy of being built, as I didn’t know how many people would join and I thought it’s better to have too many than too few. It was time for the collaborators to pick a scene, which they had two weeks for. A total of 7 builders, including myself, ended up having two months to build their scene and edit it.
In the end we extended the deadline for just a week, just to make sure everybody had the time to finish everything without having to rush (which ended up pretty useful for myself). The editing process was new to some, so I tried my best to help them with it- I love how these guys are open to new things and are ready to extend their range within their hobby.
TBB: How did you all decide on which scenes to build?
Eli Willsea: I picked the garage scene because I liked the challenge of recreating the iconic ceiling of white lights. That scene has always been visually striking to me.
Tom: The poster of The Dark Knight always has been the definition of epicness to me. As both a movie fan and the organizer of the collab, the choice was quickly made!
TBB: So much of The Dark Knight’s impact, as with all Christopher Nolan films, comes from the incredible cinematography. How did shooting these scenes differ from your usual works? Were there any particular challenges you can share, or things you learned during the project about photographing LEGO in such a cinematic way?
Tom: It was certainly different from anything I’ve done before. I do usually build for the picture, without finishing up the back of the build. I used to do a quick color grade, add a background and remove some dust, but that was about it. But, building something that just relies on resemblance to the source material (the actual poster), is something else entirely. It needs proper lighting and a specific camera angle. The setup was nothing close to a final build, but it made sense in the picture. Editing the picture afterwards was as important for the the result as the build itself.
Eli [from the builder’s Flickr]: This was a fun challenge of a build. Figuring out how to keep the roof from caving in while properly lighting the whole build was really tricky since I wanted to keep the half plate gaps that form the grid pattern with the tiles. I ended up making the whole thing vertical in two halves so that gravity was on my side and I was able to light to floor and ceiling separately before combining the whole scene. That probably doesn’t make much sense in words, but trust me this was one of my most technical moc photographs to date. …The camera was pointing downwards with everything secured to the floor, and I shot the floor and ceiling separately combining afterwards.
TBB: For your brick-built poster background, how much digital processing was involved? How did you go about capturing the specific perspective? The resemblance to the source is uncanny!
Tom: First of all: thanks! The editing in my build was essential. I had to take the photo with my phone as my camera lens wouldn’t go as wide as the source material. First I photographed the buildings without the figure, and then the figure without the buildings. I didn’t own any official Dark Knight figure, so I had to fake the torso and legs with editing. I also used a very minor warp to make the main building line up like it does on the poster. After that, much time was spent on making the flames and the overall colors look good, which was quite a challenge because I had to find a balance between making it look similar to the poster, and keeping it LEGO.
TBB: Batman’s Tumbler has to be up there with the X-Wing as one of the most recreated vehicles in official sets and fan models. How did you land on this version to feature? What makes for an essential Tumbler design?
Eli: The real focus of this build for me was the garage itself and the lighting, so when it came down to fleshing out the scene all I had left was the tumbler. After a few attempts at versions I just couldn’t get the scale right. I remembered seeing some amazing minifig scaled tumbler designs over a decade ago, so I looked them up. After looking over these designs I determined I wasn’t going to make a better tumbler, so instead I pivoted to recreating and featuring a version by Calin (with a few updated part swaps). Calin’s model is the perfect scale for the garage I built and has beautiful angles that capture the complexity of the real machine.
TBB: Were there any scenes from the film that you wanted to create but didn’t have the time, people, or resources to include?
Tom: As I mentioned earlier, I had a total of 31 scenes ready. I knew most of them wouldn’t be chosen, but there were a few scenes, like the hospital blowing up, I’d love to see built in LEGO! So, for anyone reading this, this is your chance. There were simply not enough people to rebuild all of them, and that’s fine.
TBB: Do you have a favorite official Batman LEGO set? Is there something from The Dark Knight or Batman media in general that you would like to see LEGO turn into an official set?
Tom: 7621 Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City Skyline is, although not from The Dark Knight, my favorite Batman set. It might even be my favorite set of all time. I usually buy sets because of the parts, and the Skyline does not disappoint; Browns and sand colors are my favorite ones, so this set was a must have! Besides that, it still looks awesome as display. I still have to take it apart, but for now it’s just being pretty. I don’t really have a set I’d absolutely love to see, as I buy sets for the parts- BUT, if I had to choose, a set related to the Batman: Arkham videogames would be awesome. Would be nice to have more figs than just Batman and Joker for once too.
TBB: Now that you’ve wrapped this cinematic Dark Knight tribute, are you thinking about doing another collaboration in this style? Is there another film you’d love to see get the LEGO cinematic treatment?
Tom: This is a tricky question to ask a movie fan. There’s just too many movies that deserve their own collabs, especially in the cinematic style we went with. For example, I’m thinking of movies directed by Denis Villeneuve like Arrival, Dune (Part II this time) and Blade Runner 2049. They’d certainly be cool, since the cinematography is always interesting and they’re famous enough for people to know them. Of course I’m thinking of The Dark Knight Rises, but we’ll see what we end up doing next!
TBB: The collaborators are all part of RebelLUG. RebelLUG isn’t like most LUGs in that it is an international and online community. Can you speak a bit about how you came to the group, how you interact and coordinate, if you meet up in person at all, and what makes RebelLUG special?
Tom: RebelLUG is, as you mentioned, not like most LUGs. And that isn’t just because we’re international and an online community. RebelLUG is unique because it’s a team of high-leveled builders with different minds, and yet similar creative mindsets. Mindsets that just want to hang out and do stuff with people sharing the same hobby. Even though I’m not taking part in any leading roles within the LUG, I feel responsibility. The second I saw I was accepted, I felt like that.
Every member adds something to RL. You’re not just a member when you join RebelLUG: you’re part of it. Every now and then we have online meetings, challenges, collabs and contests. Even though I haven’t been able to attend any official RL stands, I have met a few members and I know many meet each other in real life quite often- I might add that’s not just at conventions. I hope to meet a lot more of them someday!
TBB: A big thanks to Tom and Eli for speaking to us about this cool cinematic collab!
