Filmmaker Harry Chaskin has written and directed projects for Adult Swim, Warner Bros, FunnyOrDie, College Humor and Mattel. He has designed and created the animation for numerous music videos, television shows, and award winning commercials. His short film Bygone Behemoth premiered at SXSW and went on to screen at over 30 festivals internationally, picking up several awards along the way. He recently co-created the Annie-nominated web series Friendship All-Stars for L/Studio. Other notable credits include Robot Chicken, WWE Slam City, Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, and Dinosaur Office. He can make anything out of hot glue and popsicle sticks.
Although Harry won’t be able to join us at WCCA 2015–he will have two of his short films included in our Café Book Signing and Film Evening. You won’t want to miss having the opportunity to see them! Here’s a bit about those films, in Harry’s own words:
“Yucca Flats” – The idea for this short came quite accidentally. One day I inadvertently separated the sound from picture on a clip of the classic TV sitcom The Honeymooners. I was instantly struck by how violent the show sounded (specifically Jackie Gleason’s lines) without images to support it. I decided to explore this further by setting the Honeymooners audio to a surreal mock-sitcom. The result is Yucca Flats, a strange two-minute satire of 50’s television which aims to darkly poke fun at the gender stereotypes and nuclear paranoia that loomed over mid-century America.
“Holiday” – A music video for the band Body Language, produced for OM records. Aesthetically it pulls inspiration from tokidoki, a lifestyle brand created by artist Simone Legno. It was shot with flat felt puppets on multiple planes of glass to create depth, a stop motion technique called ‘downshooter’. Warning: This ‘Christmas Special Gone Wrong’ contains implied stuffed animal intercourse and a tragic ending.