Lee Hardcastle

Whilst fans have been eager for a fourth installment in the Evil Dead franchise, and have prayed that the remake would never see the light of day, British filmmaker Lee Hardcastle has been hard at work adapting his own version… with clay. Condensing Sam Raimi’s 1981 video nasty into just one minute, his entry into this year’s Jameson Empire Awards has been shortlisted with nineteen other shorts and has now generated a buzz online.

The film itself is available to view on Vimeo. Lee Hardcastle shares his experience in the making of his own Evil Dead…

How did you first develop an interest in animation and how did university prepare you for a career in the industry?

“As a child I had an interest in stop motion animation and always said I was gonna go work for Wallace & Gromit but then I grew out of it and started watching violent films and decided in my teens that I wanted to be the next Sam Raimi.

I got to film school at 18 and everyone was a bit older than me and had more experience & network skills, my first year at film school was horrible- non of my projects got made, I had no idea how to sell the ideas and I ended up being a monkey on other productions. Half way through film school I was suddenly exposed to stop motion animation, I had a go at using some old action figures and it turned out pretty well, I was like ‘cool, I did that by myself’. Through this; the teachers at the school were able to see what I could do so a couple of my own projects were funded and made- forcing me to specialise in stop motion animation as a means to make the films I wanted to make.

The film school was great and has been a big defining point of my life but once I graduated, that was that. I didn’t know what I was suppose to do next, so I got a job as a runner at a Post-Production house in London- which anyone can do despite 3 years of film school.”

Were you always a fan of horror movies when you were growing up and how did these influence your style?

“Always a fan of horror films, I remember watching the The Thing when I was 11 and covering my eyes ’cause it was so messed up. Another I remember is watching ’80s The Blob remake, I turned it off a third in and I’d have serious nightmares about these films, to me they were real, real characters in these awful situations! I bought The Thing on VHS, confronted it and felt really proud of myself and from there on I was very obsessed teen when it came to horror movies. My style, it’s a mish-mash that’s still developing- I love the goofy horror movies with what I call “rollercoaster plots” and I like to make a short, music video or whatever while keeping in mind how the viewer would react & think to what they’re watching, that’s the whole point of the video.”

Evil Dead in 60 Seconds was created as part of a competition run by Empire, in which filmmakers were to recreate their favourite film in one minute. What made you decide on The Evil Dead and how did you set about adapting a feature into such a short piece?

“I was going to enter it in 2008 with a live-action remake of Jaws but my friends with their respectively busy lifes couldn’t pull through and that was that. Back to 2010, I’m reading the magazine and they’re showing off the entries so far and someone had entered a Star Wars stop motion- my heart stopped, like, “I can make an animation, I can pull something off!” because, I didn’t if stop-motion animation was something they’d accept. There was exactly 10 days to plan it, shoot it, do sound and send it – I was determined to do it.

As a 17 year old, I watched Evil Dead about a hundred times, I was obsessed- bought books, video games, lunch boxes, I was the Evil Dead geek. It’s embarrassing to admit this now but what the hell, it’s true. Can you understand now why I had no social skills when starting at film school? So, acting fast and visualising the fact that I could pull of the Evil Dead based on the fact that it has one location, few characters, I knew the plot, the gags and the story behind all of it inside out.

It was tough stuff.”

How long did the entire process of designing the characters and shooting the film take and how many collaborators did you have on the project?

“I had 10 days to pull this off to meet the competition deadline so I blasted out a story board, quickly pitched the idea to a couple of sound engineers to help me. Built one crappy cardboard set, 4 crappy clay figures, my girlfriend made the clothes for the characters out of my old shirts- I’m such a bad boyfriend for not crediting her at the end so here I go; Puppet Costumes by Josephine Barat. I have a full time job, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week- I went home every night and worked solid on the props, set, puppets ’til midnight. Even on my 25th birthday I was doing this, a ‘no time to celebrate’ situation. Come the weekend, I animated solid, did not sleep. I only had one weekend to animate! With four days left until the dead line, I spent the evenings in a sound studio recording the voices while a good friend of mine, Tim Atkins, worked on the sound design on his mac at home to the offline I’d animated.

I couldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Patrick Baker (Sound VO engineer), Tim Atkins (Sound Designer) and Josephine Barat who has to put up with the mess in the apartment. Oh and the guy who plays Scott’s part, Jack Willcock, a guy I work with- this was my proudest moment getting him into the sound booth and directing him, he’s a Runner and I wanted more people doing voices rather than just myself. He was so close to going home but he saw what I’d done so far and he said ‘Why not’ I’m really happy he decided to do it.”

What was the greatest challenge you faced throughout the whole process and do you regret any decisions that you made?

“I don’t regret anything, I think as a film-maker you’ve really got to kick your own ass into motivation ’cause no-one else is going to do it for you and if you’re a serious film-maker you will over come obstacles, never give up, keep going, going and going like the Duracell bunny otherwise it’s not gonna get done and if you quit, well, someone else is going to come along and steal your thunder.”

Other submissions included one minute piece based on Fight Club, Donnie Darko and even Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Aside from claymation, what kind of niche do you feel you gave your film for it to be shortlisted?

“I was stunned by the fact it got shortlisted, really surprised, I keep entering stuff and it get’s rejected 90% of the time and I’m just like ‘oh well, next time’. So, what the organizer saw in the Evil Dead- I suppose it was different in tone and style. Because the other entries literally tell most of the whole plot of a film in 60 seconds and it’s funny as hell ’cause you blink and miss a micro-reference to the original, it’s funny- I love that type of humor and with mine I really focused on the timing and the gags to breath and sink in with the viewer. I’m talking rubbish of course but that’s what I was going for!”

Having short various short films, how would you compare your other work to your Evil Dead piece? What plans do you have for the future and do you intend on seeking permission to release the film?

“My previous shorts, well, they’re a bit off and weird and I don’t expect everyone to understand them but I’m proud of everything I make. Only recently I’ve started focusing on the viewer & what they’ll enjoy or get a kick out of from uploading my stuff to YouTube for years and you obviously know when you’ve done something right when one video has 3 stars and some very hateful comments and the other one has a solid 5 star rating with 10′s of thousands of hits- it’s called demand and supply, right? Anyone can have the Evil Dead movie, depends on the Empire guys now really. I make stuff for the people at the moment, it would be special to be reconised and hired for your own unique skills but that day still has to come, ’til then, I’ll keep entering these movie making competitions and hope something like that comes out of it. But here’s the cliché, it’s been my life long dream to make a feature film even if it’s sat on my shelf and no one likes it, I am going to make one – you watch.”