Chainsaw Maid 2 - Competiton

I am giving away the little girl with a chainsaw and zombie, all which was used in the claymation short. To be in with a chance to win, Retweet this twitpic
http://www.twitpic.com/30yrey

Winner announced on 15th November, two runner up prizes include Zombie remains! From the zombies used in this film. Good luck, happy halloween.

CHAINSAW MAID 2

Interview here,
http://blog.wooshii.com/2010/10/member-spotlight-lee-hardcastles-chainsaw-maid-2-interview/

Secret Halloween Project

Shooting/animating 7 days a week at the moment, since mid Septemeber I've wrapped up a couple of projects and now 5 days in shooting a Short film that I'm making just for you! It's gonna be roughly 3 mintutes long and availible online on 25th of October. Be excited, cause it's gonna be a blast.

Pepsi commercial - on the set

I have been working hard this last 4 days, just finished a shoot for a 30" Pepsi commercial to be entered into Mofilm's current competition. I've had a lot of fun working on this one, it's going well so far. I got to use my brand new armatures that I recently paid a small fortune for and shot it in HD with my Panasonic Lumix FZ50 which I'm getting more comfortable with using. Currently in the editing stages. I'll show and tell later in the future.

Basque Country & UFOs

"Hit the road" with my girlfriend for a few days after a moments notice. We visited Basque Country in Spain, camped there for two nights. It was crazy as we were there during a 3 day party time, it was like 2000 Maniacs. Tons of locals firing shotguns and marching bands at five in the morning. Honest to god. During the full day's stay, we visited San Sebastian and went on this wickid spook house ride 'Casa Del Terror'. On the way back home, we stopped by the government funded UFO Landing site. Read more about it here.
Tomorrow will be a productive day, gonna build an armature and begin tearing apart that first draft.

A first draft done & dusted.

I wasted 78 pages of paper today as I printed off a first draft of a screenplay I've been working on everyday for the last 90 or so days. As you can tell from my daft face, am happy I've now reached this far but I still got a lot more to do before I'm done. Currently titled 'The day everyone at Bushy Cliff died.' because that's what pretty much happens in it. I think am safe in saying that the title will change at a later date. Hold tight.

'Une de Perdue' Screening in Rome.

I've just been informed that my little super8 claymation 'Une de Perdue' will be shown on the 1st of Septemeber in Rome at l'isola del cinema, 9pm and it is a Free screening.

An investment: Armatures

As I'm a stop-motion animator which I tell myself and anyone who asks what I do in life. I decided to make an investment. Armatures, they are 'metal skeletons' which make animating characters that more easier and precise. I bought as many as I could afford with money I have recently obtained from giving up a nicoteen addiction. If you're thinking of stopping smoking, do it, you won't regret it and you'll also be so proud of your self. So, they came in the post today. I'll be using them over the last 3 months of 2010 for a few top-secret projects that I have lined up.
I am still writing, enjoying the Summer season ever so much, even though I am rushing things a tiny bit - which I have to! I feel confident in saying that I will have a draft of my current Screenplay finished before Septemeber is out.

New 60" claymation also in HD & Stereo 3D

Okay, here's the rules. To make the 3D work, cross your eyes 'til you see three images and focus on the center image. Or, if you have a pair of glasses (not the real D glasses from the cinema, you fool!) visit the video on youtube and set the 3D option to suit your Three Dimentional needs.

Update - it's not just the head that's missing.

It's been a little while since I posted anything so to keep you in the loop I thought I'd share a few things with you. I left my job in London to go traveling around Europe, which I'm currently doing and enjoying very much! Now, don't worry, I'm still "film-maker active".
I have a couple of small projects planned for this year, 2x 1 minute shorts, one of which will be going into production mid-August and it is a claymation adaption of a comic strip I wrote in 2004 called 'Prozak Kay'. It is expected to be finished in September.
Finally, what I've really been doing everyday for this last two months is developing a feature length screenplay, I havn't exactly started writing a script yet just 'developing'. This is my 3rd attempt at writing a feature, I am seriously hoping to take it into production if I successfully finish it in the near future - fingers crossed.

Une De Perdue

If you missed the live stream last night, you can watch my short which played at Cannes last night on YouTube. Here are the eight straight8 shorts that were shown in one video clip, mine is the first one. It came out a bit shakey but I'm happy with how it came out over all. Oh, and if you're wondering what the french title is all about, it's the french way of saying 'Plenty more fish in the sea'.

World premiere of 'Une De Perdue' live from Cannes TONIGHT.

Got my suit & shoes together right now as I'm gonna head out to Rushes' Soho Film Lab for a live feed screening from Cannes of the best from 2010 Straight8 films.
You can watch too! Online.
Go to http://straight8.net/2008/news.php for details, the show starts at 9pm (GMT) / 10pm (CET)
My short is titled 'Une de Perdue', a 2 minute claymation. Tonight's screening will be the first time any audience has seen it, including myself, yeah, I havn't seen it because I shot it on super 8 and havn't seen the developed film.

GI Joe Fest - 2010 tour

This is a preview of the films at this year's GI Joe fest. My entry, 'Ricky's Battle Shock', makes a small appearance.

New comic coming soon - preview page.

I am working on a new comic book that is a collaboration with Leeds based graphic artist Jordan Ramoth aka Jamajamajimjam, his website has a ton of artwork on there at blackleafcompany.com. The comic is a sort of '2 in 1' and will be DIY published.

I am going to the Cannes film festival

My entry for the straight8.net film making event will be shown at Cannes. This is really good news, I am very happy indeed as festivals are hard work to be apart of in general, never mind Cannes! My entry is roughly 2 minutes long, titled 'Une de Perdue', shot on vision2 200t Super 8 film - and it's clay animated. Below is a video clip containing a half second preview of every entry for this year's Straight8, mine happens to be the very first clip that comes up.

Don't blow your vote.

Leading up to the elections in the UK, here is a viral I've made for Sauce Productions along with the sting at the end, which I'm just as proud of.

My entry for the Doritos competition.

Done in 60 seconds results

5 finalists were invited to attend the Empire Awards 2010 at the Grosvenor Hotel on Sunday the 28th of March. It was mind blowing, truely amazing. The winner was announced, Mark Wong with his 60 second remake of Top Gun which you can watch at empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds along with the rest. I made a lot of new friends over that weekend. Here's a youtube video where you can breifly see me on the red carpet 28 seconds in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nNQJrGujy0

Done in 60 seconds ~ Round 3 (the final)

What an experience, I've never felt anything like it or been apart of anything like it before. The Empire Awards put me up in a very classy hotel for 3 nights, I'm in my hotel room right now enjoying the free hospitality - last night I met all the other people involved in the competition and we were all taken to a venue in Soho where everyone watched each other's entry as did 3 judges; Chris Hewitt (Empire Editor), Michael Bassett (Director of Solomon Kane) and Edgar Wright (no intro). They picked 5 entries to go through to the finals on Sunday and I got picked, it was great, unbelievable. Tomorrow is when the Empire Awards 2010 takes place and the winner of the 60 seconds competition will be announced.

An interview with AOL's Asylum.com

Mostly all about the Evil Dead 60" Animation but he's a 2nd interview that's up.
http://www.asylum.com/2010/03/17/animator-lee-hardcastle-evil-dead-one-minute-stop-motion-animation-done-in-60-seconds/

Done in 60 Seconds ~ Round 2

Brilliant news, my Evil Dead entry for this year's Empire Done in 60 Seconds competition has gone through to the next round based on the public vote. Thank you to every single one of you that voted, it wouldn't have happened without you. Results of round 2 will take place live on the 26th March at Club 24, London with Edgar Wright and Jason Isaacs on the judging pannel.

A message from Tim Philo

I got this message yesterday
"Fantastic, Lee! Really enjoyed your work. The other 80-some minutes of Evil Dead were really just filler, right? Thanks for paying attention to the lighting.
Tim (the DP of Evil Dead)"

Message from Tom Sullivan.

I got this message yesterday-
"Hi,
I am Tom Sullivan, the Creator of Special Effects for The Evil Dead and I hearby declare this film, “Evil Dead in 60 Seconds” by Lee Hardcastle to be brilliant and worthy of recognition by all. Well done!
I will be recomending this film for everyone.
Congratulations.
Beast witches,
Tom Sullivan"

Evil Dead in 60 - "Internet buzz"

Less than one week to go vote @ http://www.empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds/ Wow, what a response. It's been blogged on a ton of sites, I was even asked to do an interview for one site, so here's my first interview ever as a film-maker:
http://drgoresfunhouse.com/interviews/filmmakers/lee-hardcastle-talks-evil-dead-in-60-seconds/

And a list of blogs:
MTV usa
Arrow in the Head
Dread Central
Bloody Disgusting

Empire magazine #250

Page 32, Empire magazine #250- it's there, my entry for the Empire's 'Done in 60 seconds' competition with my name there and everything. This is a first and I am amazed. Vote at http://www.empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds
Fantasic.

Ricky USA Premiere

My friend Gio from http://www.GIJOEFEST.com sent me this photo after the Ricky's Battle Shock USA premiere in Los Angeles last Saturday.

Here is the crowd that witnessed the beauty & the shocks.

Photographs from the set of Evil Dead done in 60".

Photographs from the 'studio' which is really the spare room in my apartment, look at this mess. Don't forget to vote at http://www.empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds

Shortlist, Empire done in 60 seconds competition.

I need your vote.
I found out today that my 'Evil Dead' entry for the Empire Jameson 2010 Awards Done in 60 seconds was shortlisted, honestly shocked and over the moon. Now it's down to the public vote for a month (ends mid-March) to decide if I go to the finals or not. Watch the other entries and vote here http://www.empireonline.com/awards2010/donein60seconds mine is "15. Evil Dead". Thank you, I'm happy.

Super 8 test roll

This is a roll of super 8 I used to figure out the results my camera would give before I went ahead and shot my straight8 entry. I was testing the focus, the macro lens and exposure of shooting indoors. It came out a lot better than I imagined. Kodak EKTACHROME 64T Colour Reversal film; it was roughly £40 for the film, processing and telecine with p&p.

missinghead, re-done.

The site has a had yet another make over, same thing but with added content. I've posted up all my videos I've done from as far back as 2001, videos that I'm not proud of but still fun to watch.
Over the next week I will be planning out my next shoot which is for the straight 8 film event. I can share a few details, I know what I am going to shoot for a start, I will be turning one of my comicbook stories into a 3 minute stop frame claymation. Which one? You'll soon find out.
Anyway, what do you think to the new website?

Evil Dead - done in 60 seconds. With clay.

My entry into the Empire Jameson competition 2010. I can't explain to you how much emotional PAIN this cost me.

2010, the start.

What have I done? Tons of stuff! I've finished re-harshing an old short into a new short, so please welcome "The Waster" a 2010 short starring a 2004 Lee Hardcastle- an offical entry into the paranormal activity dvd competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aVAxDRApec

And, I am now in the middle of post production for a 60 second Stop Motion clay animation, which is a re-make of 'The Evil Dead' for a competiton for the Empire Magazine's done in 60 seconds.

Happy new "Twenty Ten"

Happy new year, I am busy, a busy start to the new year, even turning projects away.
I have got two projects on their way, one small & one big.
BIG: My straight 8 cartridge has arrived, a 3 page script is now complete and pre-production is well under way- starting with test footage of a armature cat.
SMALL: The Cellar Man, a film from 2004, is getting a George Lucas treatment- re-cut at a new length of 2' 30" and completely new audio track from scratch. Why? Someone got in touch and asked me to do it and send it to them for a DVD. Wicked.