VIDEO: Lancing animator uses stop motion for Coen Bros trailer

Trevor Hardy, who works from his studio in Monks Close, has had the official stamp of approval from Universal Pictures for his 30-second movie trailer.

“I love the Coens,” said Trevor. “I love their films and one of the things they really wanted to see was stop motion, which is what I do.

“Doing the trailer was me all over.”

To help with ideas, Trevor was sent a copy of the official live action trailer before it was released to the general public.

He said: “I watched it and I thought I don’t know what to do here, it was so difficult.

“It was almost too easy to just copy sections of the trailer.

“They said to make sure it relates to Coen brothers’ fans.”

To appeal to lovers of the duo’s vast film catalogue, Trevor decided to choose a selection of memorable scenes from Fargo, No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski.

He said: “I wanted to go back through Coen brothers’ films that people know and do it with clay to give it that quirky feel.

“I used these classic films to cement the whole thing together. I wanted each of the clips to keep the trailer rolling.”

Trevor reimagined a scene in Fargo with Steve Buscemi; followed by Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men and Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski.

The final scene takes an hilarious moment between two of the main characters in Hail, Caesar!

Directed and written by the Coen brothers, the film set in 1950s Hollywood follows a day in the life of Eddie Mannix who works as a ‘fixer’.

A fixer is a studio employee who helps keep the stars in line and mops up after their messy personal lives.

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Josh Brolin, George Clooney and Tilda Swinton, the film is set for release in UK cinemas on March 4.

Trevor said he hopes the Coens Brothers have watched his trailer after it was wittled down from 2,000 entrants to just five.

This was all made possible by a website called The Smalls, which is an online platform that allows creative people to showcase their work for consideration by film industry big wigs.

The Coens brothers used the website to appeal for animators to create an original trailer, and Trevor’s contribution was one of the few that stood out amongst the rest.

He said: “It took me about three weeks to make”

“I saw the job for the Coen brothers on the website, entered an idea and won the contract.”

Trevor said he hopes this trailer will lead to more opportunities with big film studios.

No stranger to film and TV work, the animator is the founder of Fool Hardy Films and has a running series on the Nick Jr channel known as Watermill Farm.

Trevor said: “I’ve done stop motion for many years. I literally went from grassroots to owning my own studio now.”

Recently, Trevor teamed up with a director and writer to create an original children’s TV show, called Ghost Boy.

The trio launched a Kickstarter campaign to encourage residents to donate and make the show a reality.

The result was a nine-minute pilot that features a young boy who moves to a new home with his flamboyant mother and forms an unlikely frienship with a ghost.

To see Ghost Boy, click here

To learn more about his work, click here

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