Lee Hardcastle
Lee Hardcastle (born January 21, 1985;) is a British animator who specialises in stop-motion techniques. He is famous for his handmade independent animations. His work includes original remakes of emblematic 1980s action and horror films, as well as parodies of animated series and video clips. His work is known for its violent and gory content.[1]
Biography
Lee Hardcastle was born in Leeds, United Kingdom. His love of cinema began when he was a teenager, and when he was eighteen years old he decided to study cinema in the Northern Film School of Leeds Beckett University. After graduating in 2006, he began his artistic work.[1]
At first, he worked with action figures instead of clay. He also combined stop-motion with live-action in the 2014 video Game Boy: The Movie.[3] Usually, he uses clay for his works.
Hardcastle founded Missing Head Limited, and on July 13, 2006, started a YouTube channel with the Dead Corps series of videos. His popularity increased in 2011, when T is for Toilet was selected to be in the film The ABCs of Death. He has worked with many companies including Momentum Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Adult Swim, and has also worked with notable artists such as Sufjan Stevens. In 2014, he published the project Spook Train in the crowdfunding portal Kickstarter. It was declared "the first claysploitation movie in the world". He did not reach his objective of £40,000 and left the project,[4] but IMDB claims it is being filmed in 2016.[5]
Hardcastle played drums in the hardcore-punk band Shit the Bed, and made music videos for the band.[6]
Influences
Hardcastle enjoys the works of filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Sam Raimi, and animated series The Simpsons and Family Guy.[6] He affirms that he decided to create animations using clay after he watched Comet Quest, Wallace and Gromit and Celebrity Deathmatch. He has sometimes cited John Carpenter's The Thing as his favourite horror film, and as one of the most important inspirations for his works.[4]
Filmography
Short films
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Stories from the Hotel Next to the Haunted Hospital | |
| 2010 | Chainsaw Maid 2 | |
| 2010 | Une de Perdue, Dix de Retrouvees | |
| 2011 | Nightmare | Music video for Love Automatic's "Nightmare" |
| 2011 | Postman Pat's Pet Sematary | Parody of the British series Postman Pat |
| 2011 | A Zombie Claymation | |
| 2012 | T is for Toilet | Inside the anthology The ABCs of Death |
| 2012 | Worm Farm | |
| 2012 | Pingu's The Thing | Crossover of the animated series Pingu and the film The Thing |
| 2012 | Hamster Hell | |
| 2012 | Claycat's The Thing | Version of the film The Thing |
| 2012 | Claycat's The Raid | Version of the film The Raid |
| 2012 | Claycat's Evil Dead II | Version of the film Evil Dead 2 |
| 2012 | Chainsaw Babe 3D | |
| 2013 | Drug Bust Doody | |
| 2013 | An Alien Claymation | |
| 2013 | Ghost Burger | |
| 2013 | NinPlay-Doh Entertainment System | |
| 2013 | A Good Clay to Die Hard | Version of the film of A Good Day to Die Hard |
| 2014 | There's Something in the Attic | |
| 2015 | Frozen Blood Test | Parody with the characters from Disney's Frozen |
| 2015 | Minion Ways to Die | Parody with the characters from Illumination Entertainment's Minions |
| 2015 | GUNSHIP - Tech Noir | |
| 2016 | Spook Train | In process of production |
Awards and nominations
- His short film was chosen as the best short film inside the anthology The ABC'S of death.
- Nominated (together with all the other directors who made The ABC's of death) in Chicago International film Festival with the Gold Hugo in 2012
- Clubland Video of the year (A MTV award) for Kill the Noise PT.2 (Blvck Mvgic) a videoclip made with the music of Kill The Noise.[7]
- Nominated inside the top 5 of Done in 60 seconds award of the 2010 Empire Magazine awards because of his version of Evil Dead
References
- 1 2 «Lee gets animated with clay» (en angles).
- ↑ "Instagram photo by Lee Hardcastle • Dec 18, 2015 at 1:19pm UTC". Instagram. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
- ↑ «An Appreciation of Claymation Horror Expert Lee Hardcastle» (en anglès).
- 1 2 «Lee Hardcastle defines the claymation horror movie genre» (en anglès).
- ↑ «Ficha de Lee Hardcastle» (en anglès).
- 1 2 «La animación gore con encanto 'lo-fi' del británico Lee Hardcastle» (en español).
- ↑ "Kill The Noise Is MTV Clubland's Pick Of The Year... Again". MTV News. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
External links
- Lee Hardcastle in Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lee Hardcastle to YouTube (English)
- Lee Hardcastle to Twiiter (English)