Writer, director and animator. If there was someone to prove the creative diversity you can have as a filmmaker, it would be Corin Hardy.
Hardy gifted students from our BA (Hons) Filmmaking, Filmmaking and Screenwriting Diploma with a focused Masterclass on his journey as a filmmaker, from creating his own animated short ‘Butterfly’ to writing and directing his first feature-length film ‘The Hallow’.
Hardy is a lover of classic horror movies, such as the cult creations of John Carpenter. Like Carpenter, Hardy wanted to achieve an element of realism in ‘The Hallow’ through practical effects.
“Bad CGI ruins a film, you notice it straight away. So I wanted to make the monsters of ‘The Hallow’ as practical as possible. The best special effects are ones that you can see from the ground up”
Hardy then described the transition from independent filmmaking to directing part of a franchise, in ‘The Nun’, part of ‘The Conjuring’ horror series:
“It was really eye-opening going from my own independent feature to suddenly be sent a pre-written script with a franchise I was a huge fan of, that peaked my interest.”
Hardy gave our students great advice about challenging themselves, and stepping out of their comfort zone. The brand new series from Sky and HBO ‘Gangs of London’, was Hardy’s first grounded project, and although violent and gory, no horror elements were involved.
“When I read the script it was really different from what I had done. It was out of my comfort zone, no monsters just a pure crime thriller. But I just went for it, and wanted to bring a real heightened feel to an emotional family drama."
This is part of our series of online Masterclasses, with a lineup of prominent filmmakers, including Aline Bonetto (‘Wonder Woman’), John Strickland (‘Line of Duty’), Tracey Seaward (‘The Two Popes’) and Dick Pope (‘Mr. Turner’). This series is exclusive to our BA (Hons) Filmmaking, Filmmaking and Screenwriting Diploma students.