Movin'

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans alike. This. Is.  FRIDAY!
And, yup, it’s BLOG time - let’s do this!

So what's been happening this week? Well, Erm, actually, as said in Wednesdays blog I was helping my lovely ladyfriend (in the interest of personal safety & privacy I won't even tell them your name, Jo - Oops!) to move to a new location in [CLASSIFIED] and what a busy day it was!
Everything went well with only a few bumps 'n' scrapes and everything got moved, well just about everything, Erm,  everything that is except the few boxes of towels and blankets in that one cupboard I forgot to check *Ahem*. Anyway as always it helps when have such an EPIC TASK to get a professional or two in (I do prefer to pay someone to help you move, especially as they can then do most of the hard work and lift all of the heavy stuff, I see myself as more in supervisory role, after all I AM a Director). All we had to do was move the boxes down for them to take and load up.
On a side note it was the opposite of The Cookies Bar shoot, where we didn't have even a single box, there were loads of boxes, so many in fact not all were used to put stuff in, heck we could have made a box fort out of what was left (but sadly we didn't have the time - I'll miss you, Fort Neverwas *Sniff*. It's just Jo really wanted to get to her new place).

Ok, Time to get back on track to H&H what is happing next with the episode and I bet you're all wondering where it is and is it done yet? Well, erm, the answer is not here and no, it’s not finished yet. We did warn you that episode 5 would be delayed. though even we didn't realise by exactly how much, but we are going to be filming the remainder of the scenes over the course of next week and it should be done, in the can and ready to go into the editing suit for the long editing day ahead of us. We will lock ourselves in the room and get it all down (Well, we hope) and up for all of you to watch as soon as possible. Wish us Luck!

Well that’s all for now so keep the home fire’s burning and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Man At Work

It's midweek and here we are again, Acting Fans, it's time for the Wednesday update and, well, unfortunately there's very little to update. As we've mentioned before Life finds a way to get in the way at this time of year, especially when it comes to getting filming done. We've had one cautious eye on the weather this week but my shift pattern has meant that, even if the going had been good Monday/Tuesday, I was unavailable. Now today the clear blue sky taunts us as it's Vern himself whose unavailable but why?

Well, Acting fans, let me tell you, as it turns out chivalry isn't totally dead, just sort of badly beaten and lying in the gutters bleeding, gathering it's breath - it'll be okay, just give it some time to rest and collect itself. Vern is unavailable over the next couple of days as he's helping his good lady Jo to move in to her new living quarters like a proper boyfriend/partner/whatever-your-preferred-term (&, let's face it, the exercise will do him good).
This isn't entirely terrible news for the production as at the moment I seem to have a bit of excess goop on the go, which I'll hopefully manage to shift by the time we get to filming again, which looks like it may end up being next week. So that's it for this week - nothin' doin', I'm afraid. Stay tuned for Fridays post when we'll be able to let you know some actual stuff!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Cookies? Monster!

Welcome, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, to your regular Friday dose of blog. What shenanigans have we been up to since Wednesday? Well, we've been filming once again (I did say it was a BIG episode)and, like I said in Wednesdays blog post, we have been filming some where we have NEVER EVER (EVER!) filmed before. Yes, we filmed in a local pub (& a preferred hang out of Chris's) called Cookies Bar. It's situated in Halifax town centre, yep,  in fact it’s about a ten minute walk from the Flat/Principal Set/H&H Production HQ and downhill too - handy! They very kindly to gave us permission to film just after opening time at 3PM.

This place used to be stables, no horsing around!

We tried our best to keep the sequence tight on shooting time, it was a short one but we still had quite a variety of shots to get done. Chris and I met up to go through all of the planning and sorting out of the shots at about 2PM, so that when we got in there we weren’t tying up too much of their time - they gotta sell those drinks to make a living.
We also had a couple of extra things to sort out, I realised I'd forgotten to source a couple of props for the shoot and, while we could do without one, we couldn't do it without the other. A quick side trip to the Borough Market sorted out the missing required prop (well, bit of costume actually) and while I went to Cookies to meet with and prep our crew/cast (Hardy and Jake lending their hands, and rest of bodies, again), Chris headed down to the Piece Hall to pester our old chum Simon to lend us an essential piece of background. Which he kindly did.

Meow.

Yes, essential. Anyway, I must say this was the quickest shoot we have ever done. Everything was filmed and in the can by 4:30pm. Which was just in time too as some customers were heading in to wet their whistles. Well, that’s all we’ve done this week since Wednesday - see you in the World of Tomorrow! (Well, er, next week.)

Keep the home fire’s burning and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Back To The Flat!

A warm Wednesday welcome, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, to this midweek blog post. Here's the happenings at H&H Productions since the narrowly prevented script leak last week. Well, luckily enough, I don’t think anything good has been spoiled or leaked too much from the script. Which is good!

At the start of this week, on Monday in fact, we started on filming the first of the flat interior scenes for the next episode, thanks to Chris's and my flatmates free time not clashing for once - at last! It turned out I, for quite some time of the shoot, was faced down in a pizza (Don’t worry - all will be become clear soon). We had quite a lot of shots scheduled for Monday and we didn’t quite get them all done but we did get the two sequences of the first scene completed (which is good for us, especially as one of them took a while to set up, too). That one (the long set-up) was where Chris spent quite some time of the shoot but I can’t tell you any more about it as it will be [SPOILERS] (Aren’t I just bad? Tee hee). This meant a bit of re-scheduling with the last two shots now being set to get done at a later date. (This a BIG episode guys - for a Low-to-No Budget webseries).

Now today we are off out to do even more shooting this time in a location that we have never used to before - that's right, folks, somewhere brand spanking new to H&H! More on that on Friday I think, I mean I’ve got to keep on making you come on back now, haven't I?
So that's all for now, folks, as always keep them home fires burning and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Disaster Averted!

Belated greetings, Acting Fans, to this late breaking blog! With news that's both urgent and not! This week with the breakdown of my shifts and the encroaching Panto season making it's presence known meaning my hours at work are going up (work being a theatre and pantomime being it's bread and butter) we've had time for little else shooting wise this week. Vern has been on with the shot selection for the filmed scenes of episode 5 and that's about it - except for one thing!
Today it has come to our attention that there has been a potential script leak during production of episode 5. Somebody, we're not sure who yet - possibly some greenhorn intern in the production, left a shooting script on site after Wednesdays shoot!

The Horror! All those precious [SPOILERS] laying about willy nilly at the Piece Hall! For ANY  Tom, Dick or Harry to get their filthy paws on them!
Luckily for us the filthy paws in question belonged to our old chum, Proprietor X of Legacy Comics, Simon Shaw. I retrieved the script today but who knows what secrets Simon has gleaned in the mean time? Maybe he'll let you in on a spoiler or two, for a PRICE! So 'Harcourt & Haigh' join illustrious productions such as 'Doctor Who' and 'Batman Begins' in having vital scripts leak out - but WE got OURS back, HA! Shows what you know Nolan and Moffat!
This weekend see's myself and Vernon caught up in a bit of a social whirl but the production will be back on track next week, Acting Fans, so never fear the show goes on. Until next week...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

We'll Take The Fifth

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, to this this Wednesday post, so what has been happening since my Birthday last week, well -  I survived the night of the celebration of my birthday! It was an hard night but someone had to do it. Only I was up to the task, which I met head on and, only occasionally, face first.

There we go.

Me and my fellow colleague haven been hard at work this week, on Tuesday we had a runthrough of the script to makes sure that all of the lines read right. I had also managed to get in touch with the Elsie Whitely Centre to find out if we would able to use them as a location and we could but, well, we could but at a PRICE (£20 quid per hour, the standard rate they hire out conference rooms for) and for the amount of time we need it for (Which is about a half hour, if that, as it is just one or two shots) we were, well, rather shocked - so that won’t be happening. Perhaps the bloke for Elsie Whitley's didn't quite grasp it when I told him we were Low-to-No Budget and I mean REALLY Low-to-No budget ('No' being the apt word), we are either going to have to find another location, or drop the scene. Which we don’t want to do if we can help it, I'm sure between me and Chris we can figure something out though. We also did a final check on some of the locations and popped by to confirm the dates and times we would be showing up at, and today? Well, today we were out filming a load of the exterior shots of episode 5.

And here we come

We have been filming once again in our favourite place to film (and, so far, it’s free to do so), the Piece Hall. 'For what?' I hear you ask, well, it's the [SPOILERS], teehee, you didn’t think I was going to tell exactly what we were filming, did you? Oh, you did, did you? Well I'm not going to tell you! We even managed to get some extra people roped in, in fact, we got most of 'em from people who were just mulling in and around the nearest shops (I can be quite persuasive when I want to be).

What's he doing there?

We have had a lot to do on this episode with still more to go and this is why this next episode will be a little late in coming out but don’t panics! We do have a long shoot planned for next week too, where we should get all of it done. Well. with any luck we should - I mean yes, yes, WE can - in fact we SHALL get it done!

Roll up, roll up

Well that’s it for now, Acting Fans, so as I sign off today wish us 'Good Luck' and remember to keep them home fires burning.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

HAPPY ANNIVERNSARY!!!

Yes, Acting Fans, it's that special time of year again! What?!
NO! Not Goth Christmas, you've well missed that! And, NO, not Bonfire Night neither!
It's the time of year where we reflect on when a certain man incarnated on our tiny planet, a man who came to save us all, or at least to watch a heck of a lot of Manga cartoons and Honk Kong films! Yes, Acting Fans, rejoice for today of all days he came unto us - The Vern!

Behold THE VERN!

Rumour has it that the gentle giant of mirth was rocketed to the relative safety of our little blue dot by his loving parents as their doomed world exploded!

WARNING: Not ACTUAL Footage of the Vern's arrival

The other rumour is that that isn't true at all but that Vern started spreading the first rumour himself because, well, who wants to think about their parents, y'know, doing the deed. Eew!
Nevertheless from that fateful November the 9th onwards the world would forever cower in the shadow of the Colossal Acting Talent that now bestrode it like a, well, like a Colossus!

Always ready for the call to, 'ACTION!'

So, Acting Fans, please join me in wishing my Partner-In-ACTING!-crime and drunken hijinks all the very best and a Happy Birthday -

Many Happy Returns to The Vern!

Christopher Haigh

 

All The Old Familiar Places

Yep - It's Location, location, location time (once again)!

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, to Wednesdays regular blog post. Here's what's been happening over and down here at H&H productions. Well, well. Once again we're planning (yep, again) but, of course, it IS essential to process of filming.

Tree!

After the planning and storyboarding of last week, we went out today to scout out, and try to get permission to use where necessary, some of the locations that we need for episode 5. This time we even did some proper visual storyboarding on, wait for it, the actual camera we shoot with, our trusty pal Lumix, instead of with Chris's phone camera - which, by the way, can't do the right aspect ratio (Yep, we finally remembered the camera that we use for filming can also, you know, take photos BECAUSE IT IS A CAMERA)!

Cookies!

We checked out the area of pedestrian precinct we need for one exterior scene, had a look at setting up the shots for a scene at trusty old Piece Hall, got a 'yes' from the pub we need to use for one interior scene (Chris's beloved Cookies Bar), got the exterior angles sorted for near a local Greasy Spoon and from the Elsie Whitely Innovation Centre we got contact details of who to get in touch with regarding filming there - wish us luck there, Acting Fans, as we could really do with using this location in the episode!
So, well, that’s about it, not really all that much to report on this week. Filming will commence real soon on this next episode and, of course, you’ll be the first to know when it does.

Somewhere so familiar...

That’s it for today keep them home fires burning and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

May The Fourth Be With You!

The 4th episode has landed!

Welcome back once again bloggers and Acting Fans - it’s Friday! It’s blog time let’s do this. Well, well, as we said on Wednesdays blog post H&H Episode 4 'The Experiment' is now live, in fact it’s on this very blog just below what are reading right now! So, go on! What are you waiting for? Give it a watch, we've made it easy for you to see:

We do indeed spoil you lot with TWO H&H adventures in one week but we still need your help to spread the word, folks. So please share and post it EVERYWHERE PPPPPPlease. Pretty please. With a cherry on top. And tell all your friends about it and get them tell their friends and so on and on and on and on (ad infinitum would be good).

So, what else have we been doing? I hear you all shout out at the once and then, suddenly, silence! We have begun the planning and storyboarding of episode 5 of H&H and with any luck (and little Energon) it will be up soon for you all to view. This one might take a little bit more time to film as it is a big’un as befits the last episode of 2012 (fingers crossed) and it's, well, you’ll see when it’s up live and kicking.

Well, that’s it for now acting fans I will sign off and see you in the World of Tomorrow!!!!!

So keep the home fires burning and….

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt