Scots teenager recreates historic scenes in Lego

The Apollo 11 Moon Landings in 1969. Picture: Hemedia

Talented Morgan Spence, 16, spent a month putting together the stop motion video using Lego models of major moments from history.

Featured in his video are prehistoric cave paintings from 17,000 years ago, the assassination of Caesar, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Morgan has been making stop motion Lego films for some time now, and gained over one million views on his YouTube channel last year for his Brick Flicks video - featuring scenes from classic Hollywood films.

The Suffragette scene from the Brick History video by Morgan Spence. Picture: Hemedia

For Brick History, Morgan once again used models made by Lego masterbuilder Warren Elsmore.

The youngster, from Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, said: “Warren contacted me saying he had history models and I jumped on the opportunity to be able to use them.

“After the success of Brick Flicks I wanted to stick to a formula that appealed to lots of people.

“I thought they would make a really nice film. I went over in October and picked up ones he had made and took them to my bedroom studio.

Scenes of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. Picture: Hemedia

“I chose the most iconic scenes and got to bring to life these incredible model once again.”

The Johnston High School pupil made each scene just 10 seconds long and added music and sound effects.

The video is just over two minutes long and features 14 historic moments from 15,000BC to 1989.

Morgan said: “All the models were quite challenging to start with. The Titanic was challenging because I couldn’t make the boat sink - I had to raise up the water.

“So I had thousands and thousands of little pieces pulling up on top of the model - it made an absolute mess but the effect seemed to work really well.

“The Martin Luther King ‘I Have A Dream’ speech is such an iconic moment and instantly recognisable. It was very difficult to change heads to get the speaking effect.

“Each one had to be individually changed. That worked particularly well.

“I really enjoyed shooting all the models. They were so colourful and such a broad range.”

Morgan is now planning to take some time off from his stop-motion videos, as he prepares to sit his Highers this year.

He said: “Film making is just like a hobby but I like to do it regularly. I’ll be glad to have a break - maybe in the summer I’ll pick it up again.”

The Lego fan got into stop motion movie making in 2011 after creating a film for a WWII project at school.

He then started combining filmmaking with Lego and soon branched into commercial work.

As well as his classic film scenes video, Morgan has also created clips of the seven wonders of the world, as well as a music video for DJ Paul Oakenfold.

His aim is to one day work in television or film, but says he is keeping “his options open”.

But he has already started a course in filmmaking at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow.

The iconic scenes of history featured in Morgan’s latest video are:

• Prehistoric cave paintings (15,000BC)

• Athenian democracy (500BC)

• The First Silk Road Bedouin Tribes (206BC)

• Assassination of Julius Caesar (44BC)

• Viking invasion (793AD)

• Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588)

• Brunel builds the Great Western Railway (1833)

• Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Gravity (1687)

• Suffragette movement (1903)

• Sinking of RMS Titanic (1912)

• First “Talkie” film (1927)

• Martin Luther King “I Have A Dream” speech (1963)

• Apollo 11 moon landings (1969)