xmas Artwork for Tim Atkins.

I made this today for Tim Atkins who makes a xmas radio play every year and they're bloody good too. This illustration is for this years play, hope you like it Tim.

Winner

The news is, I won the MakeAStar.com November Music Video competition! A big thank you goes out to every one of you that voted. Monday morning and the weather is a black horrible mess.

Last chance to vote & another new camera

Less than 8 hours until voting is closed. My video for Heavy Rotation by The Disablists ft. Foreign Beggars is in the final round of the makeastar.com November Music Video competition and it's all down to the people's vote. How exciting! Much massive thanks goes out to those of you who have already voted. Thank you!
http://www.makeastar.com/contestant.asp?rContestid=7746&rContestantid=80155&rMatchType=Final&rMatchName=Match

To much of everyones supprise I have been keeping up to date on twitter.com/leehardcastle.

And; I have a new camera, a super 8 which I have bought to take part in an unusual film-making event called Straight 8. They give you the cartridge & deadline, you film everything on camera and send the exposed reel back to them. No post-prod, no nothing, point & shoot, the exciting part is that you don't actually get to see the finished film you made until they screen it in front of an audience! Amazing!

This is the camera I picked up off eBay for £6. Hah!

Final round - music video competition

I am in the final of the makeastar.com music video competition with 'Disablists feat. Foreign Beggars' and it all counts on your vote to decide who wins.

http://www.makeastar.com/contestant.asp?rContestid=7746&rContestantid=80155&rMatchType=Final&rMatchName=Match

thank you very much if you've been voting for me in the previous rounds, I couldn't have done it with out you.

Twitter

I signed up for a twitter, I've heard a lot about it over the year and honestly I don't completely get it. It's a micro-blog site? But people also talk to each other on it? I went onto Roger Avary's twitter and he's posting daily snippets of a prision story which I understand he's actually behind bars right now serving a year for manslaughter and I found it strangely interesting and I felt like doing the same thing. So I'm using it to post daily micro-stories.
http://twitter.com/leehardcastle

Semi-Finals, music video competition

I got an e-mail to say I'm in the semi finals and you know what? I am a little excited about this because it's one of the first competitions I've put a video into that I've felt slightly confident about. The prize is a hundred bucks but it would be good to just win a competition. Win win win. Support me, voting for this semi final round ends in 6 days http://www.makeastar.com/rounds.asp?rContestId=7746

Keyboard Cat - the claymation

This is what I spent all day yesterday doing, my neck is killing from the animating

Competition & Clayboard Cat

I have a music video in an online competition, I think the idea is that I ask all my friends to vote for mine, so if you fancy helping me win $100 dollas then go here and vote for 'Heavy Rotation' by The Disablists, the thumbnail picture is a goofy clay face http://makeastar.com/contest.asp?rContestId=7746

And I'm trying to attempt something really epic this weekend, I got a new camera and havn't used it yet, so I'm putting it to greatest use ever-
A recreatation of one of my favorate and the best internet fads ever. Check back here in a week.

Bigger & Better videos

Eventually, every video on this website will be a lot better in quality & size. Already, I've started, re-uploaded the classic video content. Go check out the likes of Ricky's Battle Shock and Dead Corps 2. They're looking completely crisp and clean.
As for the big long script which is my 'current project': I am still writing, currently re-writting it for the 5th time, it's nuts, I feel like I know what I'm doing but not really. It's me, writing.

The CD Album I did art work for-

The Display Team's "Drones" is up for pre-ordering from the record label's website. http://www.genin.co.uk listen to bits of the album on their myspace page here http://www.myspace.com/thedisplayteam

Website changed

The website has changed layout/design, just done it today, I felt like a change.

Writing fullstop .

I took a photograph of myself with the self timer to show what I am doing and how I am living this week. I've took this week off work to nail a first draft of a feature screenplay that I may or may not do anything with. This is the 2nd feature I've written, and I am on fire it's ridiculous, getting through 20 pages a day, waking up at 12 going to bed after 13 hours and doing the same again. A binge delight.

Screenwriting and a new Camera.

I am writing, it's official. I've spent the last two months humming and arr-ing and reading tips and tricks and advice on writing for the screen. I've written one feature length screenplay before and it was hard work and even worse, it was terrible, a horrible piece of work. That was three years ago. Back to face my demons, I'm trying to tackle this as slowly as possible and preparing my self the best I can and this is one my first steps I've taken, 'index cards'. At the moment, written on these cards are scenes summed up in one sentence, technically I've sort of written the story already. Here they are all colour co-ordinated ready to be ripped apart and re-organised.

Also, I am now the proud owner of this Panasonic Lumix FZ50 pushing me into the Hi-Def age of stop-motion animation. I like it alot, I'll try and put it to use asap!

GI JOE Fest - FINALS

Ricky's Battle Shock is 1 in 4 among the Finalists for the 2009/2010 Joe Fest http://www.gijoefest.com/

misc. New short video.

Not really a piece of work, I was goofing about and made a time lapse of the London Eye which you can see from my apartment. I've uploaded it to YouTube, nothing epic.

e4 eSting update!

I didn't get picked, rejected. I've uploaded it to youtube.

New art work

Here's fresh work I've done for the The Display Team's new album that's out in October.

vBlog & Ricky @ AdultSwim-athon!!

Today I uploaded a new video to youtube, nothing really special, just me showing off my 'twin peak' trainers >click here<.
Tonight I went to the Curzon, Soho cinema for their midnight showing of the AdultSwim-athon Robot Chicken preview and my short Ricky's Battle Shock was screened which was a little bit of a suprise. Amazing, I was in a mid-night screening of Ricky sat with a cinema audience and I was biting my finger nails to shit for the whole 6 minutes. Watch Ricky's Battle Shock in the 'short films' section on here.

New animation! 2 posts in one day?

Another post today, I made this e4 Ident animation for a competition here in the UK. I Just found it on their website.
"Vac Attack" - E4 eSting

Album Art Work: The Display Team

Here's an album cover I made art work for, for the The Display Team's debute.

Reading a book.

I did something out of character this week, I bought a book and read it. The last time I read a book was 2 years ago and even then it was probably high school before that. It's about screenwriting which I'm getting a tiny bit more serious about day by day and I've had a little thought and maybe I'll post some of my past screenplays up in it's own section on this site. Last weekend I actually sat down and wrote a couple of pages, it had me feeling excited.
This is a picture I drew on the whiteboard at work, i'm in the bottom right.

New Comic added and bugging Quentin Tarantino

A high school friend recently sent me the comic strips we drew together during lessions at high school, scanned in from the pages of the school organiser he kept all these years, and they have made me laugh alot this last 24 hours, I couldn't even remember what we did 'til I saw them again yesterday. I've put them up in the Comic Books section for the world to see after sitting in my friends attic all these years. FYI: Matty Man was based on our VERY GOOD friend who was an avid Evil Dead fan just like myself at the time.

Today I tried to give Quentin Tarantino a copy of Ricky's Battle Shock on DVD at the 'Inglourious Basterds' UK Premiere at Leicester Square but he very kindly told me he couldn't take it because he'd have to carry it all night. Fair enough but he also says, 'you'll have to give it to me another time'... another time?! Like, next week down at the pub? I dunno but it was really cool to have that short exchange of words with one of my very few all time heros.

Music Video added // Site revised

I have added a new music video for the Forgein Beggars & Disabilsts, it doesn't have the final mix on it but when I get it, I will replace the current video with the new one. The website has changed ever so slightly, I plan to write a little bit about each video which you'll find at the top of the page when you go to watch it. I've done one for Ricky's Battle Shock so far if you want to take a look.

Ricky reviewed @ Rogue Cinema (July 2009)

http://www.roguecinema.com/article-1762--0-0.html

New Blogging?

This page you are looking at now is a new blog page I set up. What does this mean? You can subscribe to it and also leave comments! I mean anyone can leave comments, you don't even need sign in! Try it now, leave some abuse or anything.

Ricky's Battle Shock - Screening @bfi IMAX

Ricky's Battle Shock will be showing at London's bfi IMAX, here's the details:
DROP SHOT 2 at bfi IMAX
FREE short film screenings
1st floor foyer, bfi IMAX
Wednesday 24th June 7pm
Q& A with BAFTA nominated film maker Janis Pugh
Student and Independent films from around the world networking.
beer (25% off at the bar for attendees)
more info contact: dropshot451@googlemail.com

ON ANOTHER NOTE: Ricky will also be screening at the 2009 GI Joe Film Festival in the USA in September, details to follow as soon as I find out.
The 'GI Tubby Tommy' video on here has been down for a while, anyone notice? Oh well, it's back up and newly encoded with correct ratio & improved quality! It's a proud bit of animation by myself, check it out.
Oh! Happy Solstice! Enjoy that daylight today because it's all down hill after!

Ricky's Battle Shock - Online

I have added the "Ricky's Battle Shock" GI Joe stop-motion animation to the Shorts section. And currently working a new music video for the 'Foreign Beggars'. Enjoy!

Update to the website: A fantastic Desktop wallpaper for your computer and a never heard before Shit The Bed demo track 'Krakatoa' recorded in 2004 have both been added to the download section. Again if you'd like a different size Desktop Wallpaper, let me know and I'll sort it out, promise!
Ricky's Battle Shock Update: I've been into the sound studios today to preview Tim & Daff's efforts and to be quite frank, it's fantastic. The plan is to hold a Cinema screening in a few weeks on Dean Street, Soho (mail me if you want to come) and on the 21st of July the short will be on here to watch!
Thing's in the Pipeline Update: I am being asked to make a Music Promo for London rappers 'Foreign Beggars' and this happens to poke missinghead.co.uk into opening up for business to the public in the near future!

Time Travel & Me on Ricky

The clock went from 00:59 to 02:00 last night, time traveling. I've finished animating, that is official! For my GI Joe Fest '09 entry "Ricky's Battle Shock". I can tell you it's 6 minutes in length, I built sets using cardboard & paints and I've been animating the Joes to hell! Over the next couple of months, it will be in Post-Production hell, I have my friend Tim working on sound and the usual visual effects work to do.

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YouTube hates

Big News! Not really, youtube banned the Mario Paint music video I made for Shit The Bed's Monolith. I think they did it because one or two shots has some sneaky 'nudity' in it. Anyway, I've uploaded it again to myspace and got it working again on here. Youtube hates me.

Studio time for Ricky

2009 G.I Joe project: "Ricky's Battle Shock"
Production is well under way for my entry on the '3rd GI Joe Stop Motion film festival 2009'. With a final draft of the script and an animatic complete, I'm still coming out of the shadows of pre-production and started voice talent today at De Lanely, Soho (a post sound house that has served many feature films most recently, Hellboy 2 & Sweeny Todd). Starring my good old university friend Stephen Ross (Who I've worked with on 'Beautiful Billy' & 'Nuclear Experiment') myself and the talented Tim Atkins (Tim, the guy with a mop in the Archeo Price music video); Brilliantly enough, Tim is doing all the sound on 'Ricky Rumsfield'.