Winter Wonderland

Seasons Greetings, Acting Fans! Welcome to the last H&H blog of 2013 as Vernon and myself enter the spirit of the season and our very own Winter Wonderland, yes, a Winter Wonderland where we spend the Winter Wondering what exactly we do next in H&H. Of course, if you feel we've been good this year you could always give us the best pressies - by heading over to Youtube and giving us more views and likes! Especially our seasonally-apt vlogs right here:

Anyway, internet chums, keep yourselves warm with the thought that, despite our usual hiatus at this time of year, OUR thoughts will mostly be on what WE can do for YOU next year (apart from when we're too full of booze and/or food and/or both). We've already met up this week to do a little planning about the basic shape of what we'll get up to next year as well as a bit of brainstorming, yes, we even managed to figure out what happened in Bangkok (but we're still not going to talk about it for now, [SPOILERS] and all that)!
Now the weekend just before Christmas approaches (and, somehow, I find myself working every evening of it - bah, humbug) and as I said we'll be signing off on the blog until it's time to welcome you all to the world of tomorrow - or until we actually have something to tell you about H&H related, of course.
To all of you Acting Fans, Internet Chums and Fellow Bolognauts out there on the interwebs and beyond both of us here at H&H HQs wish you the very merriest of Christmases and a very Happy New Year (of course it'll be a Happy New Year - there'll be more H&H)! If you've been good we hope you get your Christmas wishes and if you haven't, well, we forgive you but do try to do better!
And, of course, don't forget after the Doctor Who Christmas Special, the Queen's Speech and any turkey tryptophan-based comas to get tuned back in to H&H for any updates. Happy Christmas to you all and to all a great time!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The Last Hellraiser

"He'll tear your stage apart!"

Ol' Blue Eyes is back...he may have been drinking...

Good day, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the internets, yep, it's the last Wednesday before Christmas and this our blog post and what have we been doing? Well first things is the 2nd Yule Vlog is live and a waiting for you to view. Observe.

However this blog is going to take a turn to a more serious (and sadder) note for a bit, as some of you no doubt by now would have read and heard early in the week, the actor Peter O'Toole passed away. The last of the great Hellraising actors of his time, and one of the characters from Acting History that have been a big influence on the characterisation of our own two felonious thespians. He was indeed a great actor with the rarest charisma and will be missed from the world of acting, the stage and screen shall seem a little dimmer now he has gone but he shall not be forgotton, as he leave us a legacy of great movies behind (apart from 'Supergirl' but he's even good in that AND we here at H&H Productions have a soft spot for Helen Slater, so just leave off, alright?) and some of the most amazing stories of his antics, and they are truly legendary and, well, just what you would expect of an actor dubbed 'hellraiser'.

The both of us here at H&H HQ send out our well-wishes to the family and friends of Peter O'Toole and he will be missed, thank you for all the great movies. To Peter O'Toole.

Well, that's all for now acting fans, will see you on Friday

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

I Do It To Myself

Though sometimes I get a little help.

Greetings, Acting Fans, another late missive on the H&H production blog from a tired co-creator and, frankly, spent editor. You see, despite me spending all of my only full day off this week editing the next part of our extra special seasonal vlog, m'learned colleague was kind enough to remind me it was MY turn to blog today. So nice of him to volunteer. Volunteer the information, that is. Thank you so very much, Vernon.
Yet I can't hold too much of a grudge against my fellow actor at large as ultimately it's my own fault. Yes, it was me who, whilst showering, suddenly had the phrase 'A cartridge and a late fee' pop into my head whilst musing on the upcoming season of good cheer. Bah, humbug. After staring at an all-too-blank blog screen wondering exactly what to write, I have fallen back on that old adage write what you know and this is it.

I know the first part came together all too easily. This part, not so much. To be honest, I'm thankful for some of the tricks I've learned in the progress of H&H otherwise Thursdays travails would have taken so much longer. After a day of wrestling with both shots and doubts I got a first cut done in time to run it past my colleague with some time for me to do more editing if necessary. Happen a good job too as on our mutual viewing it soon became apparent that, despite my rather ruthless approach to cutting, the first cut still needed more ruths removing from it. Back to the editing suite went I and, if I say so myself, did a great job of cutting it down to the quick. Showing no mercy, I got Part 2 down from an unwieldy 8.17 minutes to a sleek, sexy 6.29 minutes and done in one day - all it took me was a skipped lunch and innumerable cups of tea.
That's right, Acting Fans, the task was completed - so keep your beady little eyes peeled this Monday for Vlog#4 Part 2! That's all from H&H Productions and me this week - I'm off to write a letter to Father Christmas to ask him for a decent computer and editing software. No , not for me. For Vern, that'd be a great gift for me.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Christmas Presence

Welcome back, Acting Fans, people of the world wide webs and fellow bloggers. Yep, it's Wednesday blog again (at least this time I didn't forget)!

Just what have we been doing down here at the H&H HQ? Well, just in case you haven't seen it we put up the 4th actors vlog on Monday, yes, and video log number 4 has a very seasonal flavour, it's the 'Yule Log' and it is here, just under this text what you are reading right now for you to watch!

OK so you've watch it right? RIGHT!?! So what else have we been doing? Well, as we said in the big Friday post, we went o'er hill and dale to our sister town Huddersfield, where we were drawn from life, yes, live and in character and I can say it was a load of fun. For being sat still that is. Just a note to self: next time pick poses that don't hurt after a few minutes, as being stood in the same pose for up to 15 minutes can be a bit of a killer. Forget poses with your arms stretched, even 5 minutes can be bad - or maybe we need more exercise!

There's nothing to it...VOGUE!

On the following Sunday me and Chris did a quick meet-up to view the vlog that you have just watched and do a very quick pick up shot for the second part with a bit of additional dialogue recording. As always I am not going to tell you what the pick up was as it would, well, with an appearance by-
Whoops! Almost let the cat out of the bag there! Well that's most of it for now and I guess we'd best get back to it, and we shall see you on Friday!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Christmas Wrapping

Welcome back Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the internets to this erm...erm...what day is it? Oh, yeah - Friday blog! Yep, as some of you more eagle eyed fans of you might have seen that there wasn't a Wednesday blog and I bet you might be wondering what happened to that there post. Did we have a break down? Were we abduction by Aliens? Was there a computer melt down? An Acrimonious divorce? Well actually none of the above it was we a much boring reason I just plain old plum forgot about as we were very busy down at the H&H HQ.

What were we doing that made us forget this important update to the people of the world? Well acting fans we were very busy filming another video for the actors log. Now this has a special theme to it AND had lots for us to do  (so much for simple short and quick!) but in true H&H style we got on with all of the various shots in our short space of time. With only our wits about us (and our Xmas shopping list of props) and some idea of how it was going to be we managed to Ad Lib our way through!

With everything set up and went for it, and it was a fun day as we were flying by the seat of our (lounge) pants. And having a laugh and getting through this long sequence of events, as for this one there was no really script, we just had the list of the items that we at use and off we went.

Boy, did it takes use a few takes to get things right and we were only on the first item on list, yep, I kept on losing on what was the third line that I said. So after all of he laughs, fluffs, spittakes, cracking, cat herding and more laughs we got through to end and it was time to do some close-ups, which meant going back over the footage to see how and where things stuff was held so this time it would match up and defeat our old nemesis CONTINUITY (see we are learning)!

Then the rushes were rushed off to the edit suite (Chris's bedroom, natch) for Mr Haigh to edited it down into a watchable Vlog but more on that...sooon, so now you're all up to date on what's has been happing over here at the H&H HQ!

FOR REALSIES!!!

Oh, and as one final note me, myself and Chris are going over to Huddersfield tomorrow (7th December) to participate in a live life drawing session of Harcourt & Haigh at the Packhorse Gallery! Yes, that's right, no content with corrupting the Internets H&H are invading our reality as well! So we shall be immortalised in the medium of drawing and maybe put up in a gallery for all the world to see. Well, for a few weeks anyways.

That is all for now, I did say it has been a busy week.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Technically Hitched

Hello, Acting Fans, and welcome to this Not-On-A-Friday Friday Blog post coming to you late only partially because Vern is rubbish at remembering to remind me now that we are splitting the blog duties when I forget but mainly because we have had a SNAFU on the technology front.

It started out so promisingly too, a lot of the props we need for our upcoming next bit of filming were mostly a matter of gathering things together we already had. We did however need certain images creating and printing out. Now I collated these images earlier in the week and on Friday I thought I'd take the time on my morning off to get the printed out. Unfortunately the Printer's Devil struck and nether of the printers in the house could manage it. Bugger. We needed them sooner rather than late. And Vern doesn't have a printer that's good enough for photos, or work at all as it turns out.

So it was that an initially simple task became more difficult and led to me trawling round various Halifax Printshops to see if they'd print off photo quality images for me, after a lot of traipsing about and a lot more of just being fed up with this I ended up getting the assistance Totally Locally from Halifax's resident Photoshop, Janet Green's. All this palaver plus some ancillary stuff I needed to sort for myself meant the blog completely left my mind, sorry, Acting Fans, so here it is belatedly - better late than never. And so are our prints, thankfully.

Yes our Prints has come. Now we are faced with another conundrum, we have so far been unable to source a certain set of props and might have to think of some sort of low-budget replacement which is going to entails me staring at a Thesaurus (well, the contents of one) to try find a solution. That's all for Last week, Internet Chums, see you on the other side of the weekend!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Checking It Twice

Welcome once again, fellow bloggers, Acting Fans and people of the internet, yep, it's Wednesday once again and this is our blog.

Once again we have been a bit busy, we have put up another Vlog video on YouTube, Number 3. WHAT?! You've not seen it yet? Hmm...ok, I'll be nice and it is under this text of which are reading for you to watch and enjoy.

Watched it? gGood. Now what else have we been doing, well, we have been putting together a Christmas list, no, no, not for Santa (though we have been exceptionally good this year) but for our next vlog. You see we have a few things in which we need to do this next vlog. In fact I think it has the most props we have every used in one go, more than most episodes. No, really it has we have about [SPOILERS] many [SPOILERS] including a [SPOILERS], [SPOILERS] [SPOILERS] [SPOILERS], [SPOILERS] and [SPOILERS] *teehee* we are so mean to you!

Well I'd best get back to the list and find some footage clips of things I need for it. 'What footage and what things?' I hear you cry out at once, then suddenly silence. Well you will just have to wait and see, we won't keep you waiting too long for it.

That's all for now folks we'll be seeing you on Friday.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Happy Birthday To WHO!

Hello there, Acting Fans, it's the weekend - and an extra special one at that! Yes, as some as you may be able to guess from our prior postings, here at H&H Productions we will be grinding to a halt this weekend for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who!!!

Yes, we'll be celebrating the 50 years of the triumph of Intellect and Romance over Brute Force and Cynicism, so it might look a little something like this:

Since 1963 a bedraggled anarchic alien-but-oh-so-british figure has baffled, bemused and battled to defend the multiverse on our television screens so join Vern and myself in wishing the good Doctor many regenerations more, long may he continue to transcend Time and Space. We'll see you again once we transcend this weekend, stay tuned for more updates, oh, and keep your eyes on the H&H Channel (once you've finished using them to look at the Doctor) this Monday. There just might be a little something for after the weekend.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Vloggerheads

Welcome to the midweek, fellow bloggers, people of the internets and Acting Fans, yes, it's Wednesday so you know what it's time for - let's get down to it. We have been busy this once again week down here at H&H HQ, yes, I know it's only Wednesday so how busy could we have been in just two days of a new week?

Well, we put up the 2nd H&H Vlog you the world of the internet to see, if you have not seen it, well WHY? Ok, just for you it's here just below this text. We are good to you lot aren't we?

So what, you say, that's just a bit of uploading what else have we been doing other than putting up a 2nd Vlog? We me and Chris have only once again been filming and now filmed have the 3rd blog vlog, yes, that's right - a THIRD vlog (these might even be come a regular thing at this rate)! Yes, we got the idea for this from something that has been mentioned in the media lately, all the news about a somewhat well-known film franchise doing some UK-based open auditions. And it got us thinking, especially about what H&H just might do about that.

COMING SOON!

As I said it was filming Yesterday(Tuesday 19th November) at H&H HQ to go with footage of a familiar-looking sequence (pre-edited by Chris over the weekend) and once it was shot it was rushed back the Editing Suite and edited (at the sacrifice of Chris not going food shopping, now that's dedication - don't worry though he had some fish fingers in). So it's now ready to go but when will it go up, I hear you ask, jeez, you do ask a lot of us don't you? Well it will be very soon, my pretties, soon.

That's it for now we will see you on Friday or read you it you like.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Elemental, My Dear Watson

Happy Weekend, Acting Fans, it is for us here at and, in the spirit of 'Children in Need', here I am blogging away in my pajamas. Now it may be true that there has been little going on since our flurry of activity in getting the Actor's log off the ground (and on to Youtube) but as a part of the next phase of H&H we're trying to be better at disseminating our comedy doings, putting Twitter and Tumblr to good use to cut out our own slice of the Interwebs and, well, it's paid an unexpected dividend as we have been followed back by a musical idol of ours the inexplicable, irreplaceable master of syncopated speech with musical accompaniment Professor Elemental himself has followed us back on Twitter! What do you mean WHO?! Britain's foremost tea-drinker, explorer and gentleman rhymer, of course! THIS CHAP:

You might do well to acquaint yourself with his excellent oeuvre to entertain yourselves between doses of H&H, you could do worse. We'd just like to say a public Thank You to the Prof, especially as he's helped liven up an otherwise somewhat colourless blog, what with what we are doing (getting more props together and prepping more vlog ideas) not being at a stage to share with you more interesting details.
Anyway that's all, folks, have a good one and please do think of the Children! (& don't just watch for the Doctor Who bits like we are!)

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

(Not Very) Dear Diary

Welcome, interneterers, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, were back for another Wednesday blog post. So sit right there and let me tell you how and what we have been doing this week!

Well it has been very busy down here at H&H HQ, yep, we have been steaming along with the Next Phase of H&H. Once again we have been busy filming. Yep, you have indeed read that right FILMING! 'But what?!' I hear you cry, well now just calm down and I will tell you. We have been filming the 2nd Actor's Log video and it was a lot of fun to do (with much laughing on set), yes, we filmed and it was done in record time too! What do you mean 'What's an Actor's log'?! It was clearly explained RIGHT HERE:

Yes, THAT Actor's Log - these are a major part of the next phase of Harcourt & Haigh, so from now we hope to get at least one of these quick turn-around short shorts on the channel a month so there's something new (and Funny, we hope) to see on the channel in between the Series and Specials being made (plus it keeps us on out toes). The very next Vlog is based on semi-true events that happened to M' colleague Chris too and, well, when I heard it I knew it just had to be a blog so we met up this Monday gone (the 11th) and got down to film, then Chris took it off to the editing suite for the cut.  Now it has been done and is ready to go. Yes, folks we filmed and edited it all within two days (we are indeed getting better at this) and I can say it came out a lot better than I ever imagined!

I can also say this is probably one of my favourites so far, of all the things we've done so far too, I so can't wait for it to go up, and when will it go up, I bet you are all wondering....well it will be soooon!

Well that's all folks.... and we will see you on Friday

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Return To the End Of The Beginning

Welcome to the weekend, Acting Fans and other peoples of the Internets, and this weekend it's a most special time of year - yes, tomorrow it's time for the Vernniversary. To celebrate the most auspicious arrival of your favourite Colossal Acting Talent on our humble planet we will be assembling the H&H Productions News Team to anchor rolling coverage of what should really be a national holiday! In lieu of a day off please join me in once again wishing the Vernster a very Happy Birthday and many happy returns!
Anyway as it's his Birthday we've decided a little treat (for you lot) to celebrate the fact is in order before this Monday, that you should already be #SAVETHEDAYing remember, so we dug back into the H&H archives and sifted out this little bit of H&H History. Yes, we're spoiling you again. As a little 'Thank you' to everyone who helped us get this thing off the ground and get the pilot filmed we shot this short on my Dad's camcorder (for effect, yes, yes, okay AND because we are a Low-to-No Budget production) and, after a dust off with a quick once-over, we thought we'd stick it out there for you lot as a 'thank you' for tuning in to the felonious acting of our two struggling thespians.

So there you go a quick look through the wayback machine to the very beginning, we hope you enjoyed it! Oh, and there might be a bit of a connection with the upcoming #SAVETHEDAY event this very Monday, yes, we can be a bit sneaky like that seeding things to come. You really should keep your eyes peeled when watching Harcourt & Haigh, y'know. That's it for this week, Internet Chums & Blogonauts, but of course you still need to #SAVETHEDAY - MONDAY 11TH NOVEMBER to be precise for the Next Phase of 'Harcourt & Haigh:Actors at Large' stay tuned.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

So We Begin...

Welcome, people of the internets and fellow bloggers and, yes, all you Acting Fans you lot too. Once again it's Wednesday so here is our blog on what's been happening down here at our HQ/Production Office/My Flat.

Well, as it turns out we have actually been filming once again, yep, yes we have! "Just what is it we have been filming", I hear you wonder (you really wonder quite loud, you lot). Now just sit back down there and I will tell you, geez, you're such an impatient bunch! You may remember (if you've been paying attention like good little Acting Fans) that we said that we were going to be starting something 'big' over here at H&H Productions. Well, we have indeed started the next BIG thing for H&H and paradoxically it's actually quite short, for a Big Move that is. Anyway, that was what we were filming for yesterday (Tuesday the 5th November) taking the advantage of a gap in Chris's shifts to get it done and even by our stands it was a very quick shoot and edit. A short cut, if you will. Yes, folks it was done in the same day this time but you will find out exactly how and why it was able to be done so quick soon.

"What is it", I hear you ask and, "When we will be able to view it?" Well, what it is I cannot say just yet because, well, you see it'd be [SPOILERS] so, no, I mustn't. I simply I canno..... HOLD ON! I CAN tell you WHEN you will see it, HA HA, of course! So pin your ears back and listen closely folks, in a move we have totally nicked from the Doctor Who Marketing Team, we here at H&H Productions as you to SAVE THE DAY!
We want you to SAVE THE DAY of the 11th NOVEMBER to be precise!
Yes, the next BIG but SHORT thing goes live on THIS COMING MONDAY! So please be there to witness a new phase of H&H, a bold NEW Era in ACTING!

Well that's all for now folks so stay tuned and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to this week's down-to-the-wire Friday Blog, Acting Fans, whoo I'm getting bad at this but here we are nonetheless. Sadly there's little new to report since the last H&H head-to-head but we are continuing on with the next phase of our plans for your favourite Actors at Large.

Vern did indeed get our bit of writing bashed out into Word and sent it on to me, where I did the brush up and polish on our verbiage. It's now ready to go and we hope to get it pencilled in shortly for shooting. The next phase of our latest scheme though requires a bit of a Scavenger Hunt.

Obscure UK Comics reference FTW!

Yes, Internet Chums, in touch with the ground, we're on the hunt - we're after props! And a rather specific set of them it is too. Once again we've made a rod for our backs but if we can beg, borrow or scrounge up all the stuff we need then hopefully it will lead to something rather amusing. To say any more, well, we'd be into [SPOILERS]! So stay tuned, folks, for further developments as m'colleague said, 'SOON'.

That's all for now however so...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Happy Dance

I love it when a plan comes together! Welcome acting fans, bloggers and peoples of the internet, yep, it's mid week so here is this Wednesday's blog post.

The mood is up at H&H HQ, what with us managing to get the Halloween Special up right in time (not down to the wire like the Summer Special), and we're still doing the happy dance inside. Deciding to get on while the mood is up, me and Chris met up again today to discuss some plans for the future of H&H (No, no, no - we're not stopping, so calm down, you lot!)
I had idea a couple of weeks back about, well, more stuff for us to do in a shorter timespan and, after a very, very funny discussion about it today, we will be starting...well, very soon indeed but to let you know exactly what we're working on now, well, that would be telling. Yup, [SPOILERS]! Chris had also had an idea that fit right in with the plans of what to do next, which has gone straight onto the To-Do List which really seems to show this is the right way for us to head.

"So how soon is 'very soon'?!" I hear you ask...well, fings crossed, possibly as soon as next month soon (which is only two days away - eek!) and what are these plans of ours? Well, once again, I would love tell you all, no, really I would, but that would just ruin the surprise of it when it starts and it will be very sooooon! Soon.

Well, that's your lot for now - I best get on and write up what we fleshed out today or else we will have nothing for us to do or show you very soon! Yes, soon.

Signing off now.

TTFN
 

Vernon Harcourt

 

See What We Did There

Welcome, Acting Fans, bloggers and people of the Internets, yes, it that time it's Friday so here is our blog of the day. Let's get down to it - it's a Special one today!

As we said we would on Wednesday we went into the editing room, two men entered and with some luck a complete episode should have left (or two broken men). Well, I am pleased to say we did, yes once again we got the episode done but this time it was a looong editing day. We weren't broken but our brains took a battering. Thank God Chris did some of his pre-editing and cropping, or we would probably still been at it well into that night.

Once again we were reminded of some of the hard lesson we learned from over the course of making H&H but due to us not doing a lot of filming this year, well, we kinda forgot (Whoops!). It didn't help that we had such a tight deadline to get the Special done in time for Halloween and in the rush things getting bypassed or just even straight left out. Things like a pre-read through, checking angles, using marks and making sure that we had all of the coverage that we needed, to name a few. Despite all that we put our heads down and kept at it until we made it work and I think you'll be very pleased with it, well, we hope we get at least a single laugh - though we'd prefer a few times more too.

'So when is it going to be out?' I hear in your screams of anticipation (or is Michael Myers doing the rounds again, it is his time of year, after all)............Well, I can say it is already out! It was released out into the wild world of the internet last night or, to paraphrase the late great Orson Welles, it escaped (with a little assistance, of course) into the mysterious morass of Youtube and for your convenience, dear reader, it is also just below this text for you to watch, because we're nice like that

We would greatly appreciate if you would spread the Curse of our humour, far and wide. Let it infest the entirety of the Internet - or at least like, post and pass on the link. Our monstrous (Alter) Egos need feeding, get on it, Internet Chums!

Well, that's all for now see in the future, oh, and don't have Knightmares...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Two Floors Up, One Post Down

Happy middle of the week, Acting Fans, it's H&H blog time again. First of all an apology, the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed a distinct lack of a Friday Update we're sorry about that but we hope to make up for it soon, it was down to a glut of shifts for me at work - that and the fact that the major part of H&H shenanigans went on the following Saturday above Legacy Comics.

Stairway to On Set

That's right, Folks, we managed to get together with our able assistants and co-stars, Hardy Boocock and Jake Broadhurst, to get the main body of the Halloween Special filmed this past weekend. And we managed to do it only slightly unnerving Simon in the process. Thanks for putting up with the bangs, scrape and yells, old chum!

Work in Progress

With the footage in the can this past couple of days I've been taking the odd pass at a rough cut of the Special, cutting like a ginzu chef in a frenzy to get the footage into editable chunks and myself and m'learned colleague will be getting together at the Editing Suite this Thursday to see if we ca get this thing bashed into a decent shape then it's just a matter of a little ADR and we'll be ready to go. Two men will enter, one Halloween Special will leave! Fings crossed, Internet Chums, Wish us luck.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Post Not Found

Let There Be Light(ing)!

Welcome back, bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, it's Wednesday again and this is our blog!

So what exactly's has been going on down here at the H&H HQ, well, nothing! What we've been up to didn't happen at H&H HQ! We have once again ventured out on Sunday to get the exterior shots of the Halloween Special done, with the kind help of one Jake Broadhurst and another, Hardy Boococks,
as our camera people we got it done.

We braved the night (okay, early evening) to do this but, alas, the first place we were going to use, was unviable, down to closed and locked entrance gates. We had to troop back down to our second choice. Then on to the depths of Dean Clough to get one final bit shot (including some awesome stuntwork from yours truly) and we were done for the night (by our usual standards it was a short shoot) and a good job too, that dark sure is coming in quick now!

That brings us up to today were we have been dressing the second set (above and beyond Legacy Comics) ready for the this Saturday shoot, we tested out some additional lighting as that is very important and we had a minor costume test too (no, not our costumes, some other peoples') We've also got all of our props that will be needed for the shoot now in one place, on set, which should hopefully prevent any forgetting of important stuff.

Mystery Costume Test

ACTING! But more importantly LIGHTING!

 And a head of time we even managed to get some close up shot coverage done too that doesn't need any one else in shot other than......well, that would be telling now, teehee!

Well I think that's your lots' lot for now, see you in the Future!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Interiors

Welcome to this weekend update post, Acting Fans, I'm here today to let you know the two of us at H&H Productions have been at it again. Yes, this morning Vern & I met up once more to take a look at the location for the interior shots of the upcoming Halloween Special, above (and beyond!) the new shop location of our old chum/sometimes guest star/occasional location manager, Simon Shaw, Proprietor X of Legacy Comics.
After getting Simon's kind permission, we ducked past the Counter and up the two flights of stairs to the room at the top. With a bit of tidying up (man-style tidying up, so really just shoving stuff out of the way) and some amateur Feng Shui we got the room set up and, well, it turned out even better than we thought. Then it was time to break out the old Lumix and plan out the shots.

The Cardboard represents [SPOILERS]

Swarthy!

Thinking Time

Are we done yet?

Staring at Nothing

So with Vern having sorted out the 180° we took a few pics, including the ones you see above, as a quick storyboard, experimenting with varying angles and working out how best to capture some of the action. To post them all would potentially be [SPOILERS] so that's your lot for this week!
The site is prepped, now we have our fingers crossed that the weather holds so we can get the exteriors done sharpish, wish us Luck!
Before we go though, one last massive shout out to Simon - a big 'Thank You!' Without his generosity we'd be lucky to even have a trailer filmed. We don't know anyone else who'd put up with our filmic messings-about on their patch (apart from vern's flatmates, cheers to you guys too! Yes, you too, Muta)! As for the rest of you lot, see you on the other side of the Weekend! Keep watching!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

On The Cards

Hallo, Good Wednesday and welcome to our regular middle of the week blog post where we let you lot know what we been doing and, actually, it's quite a lot in fact. We have been busy, firstly Chris went and picked up our copies of my 'Hero Quest' screen on Saturday when they were ready but besides that he has also re-cut the H&H YouTube channel trailer shorter, and then re-tweaked the audio where necessary, to form what is probably going to be part of the Series Two intro sequence. (Well, after we get on write and film it, that is!).

Seeing Double

Today (Wednesday 9th October) we have been and done some more filming, yes, we have! It wasn't a big shoot but that doesn't mean it is any less important. It was for a cutaway sequence for the Halloween Special. (We haven't got onto episode 6 yet but we will, keeping this seasonal special in time for the right season is our priority!) We have had to once again dig out the old poker game table for this, and get in touch with a couple of familiar faces from last year. And, joyfully, they said, yes. I guess they must get bored all the rest of the year round when they have nothing much to do. For Chris part, well, this time he wasn't himself so we had to put a bit of different costume together...

Yes, There may be a little costume re-purposing going on here, spottable by Eagle-eyed Acting fans

As far as our shoot itself went this was by far the quickest as, well, there were only two shots to do - that helped a lot. In fact I think the setting up took longer, as generally is the case in these things. So with everything done on this shoot and a small brief tweak of the script, yep, it really does seem that we can't help ourselves always re-re-tweaking. Now we are done it's just on to plan the rest of the shoot for this special. While I get on with the organising, Chris is off back to the Editing Suite to do a bit of desk top publishing, for the main sequence we need a couple of additional props that neither of us own - so a bit of Game Card counterfeiting is on the cards for him!

Well that's all we got time for now so seen y'all really soon.

TTFN

 Vernon Harcourt

A Virus With Shoes...

Welcome, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, it's Friday - so lets get down to this. Well me, myself and Chris finally got to meet up yesterday to sort out some more things H&H Productions-wise.

And some good brainstorming happened when we met but first we got together at Legacy Comics and got the ok from Weapon HX, yes, Simon Shaw, to use one of the floors in his new shop for a location of the Halloween special, which is rather cool of him. Thank you, Simon xx :-)

Then after that it was back to H&H HQ for some discussion on all matters H&H, and during our talking we stumbled upon a well quite frankly an genius Idea (yes, capital 'I'). One I'm amazed we didn't think of it much sooner. Yes, internet chums, here is the idea of which I am going tell you right  now in writing so here it goes, strap yourselves in, we're going to try and go viral...

We are going to MEME ourselves!!!

Yep, we going to put up some funny picture macros using stills from the episode with a quote or other funny line and sent them out into the wide world of the interweb as memes. In the hope that someone, somewhere out there will pick up on these, send them around and maybe even find their way back to our H&H hijinks, well that's the plan, we hope. So look out for them sooooon. We really can't believe we didn't tink of it sooner in fact when we did we both pretty much...

It's just so OBVIOUS, why didn't we think of it before?!

Then as the final protocol of the day we had to once again source one more prop problem, luckily I already owned what we needed. We took my Vintage cardboard screen from 'Hero Quest' down to our local  Simprint to get some copy's of it for the Halloween Special. Why? I hear you cry, well, "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that" by which I mean I cannot tell you just yet! Tee hee!

Well, that's all for now folks, see YOU in the World of Tomorrow!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

P.S: POST 200! WOOOO!!!

Games Afoot!

Well here we are once again, Acting Fans, halfway into the week and there hasn't been a meet up so far but there have been things going on. First of all this weekend, whilst I was stuck behind a desk selling tickets for 'Room On The Broom', Vern was lending a hand to our old chum and sometimes Location Manager.
That's right, Weapon HX himself proprietor of Legacy Comics, Simon Shaw. Not wanting to get too much into the ins-and-outs but circumstances (mainly the up-and-coming re-development of his previous shop location) have led to our old chum having to find a new location. After hunting high and low and hither and also thither Simon has actually managed to get himself re-located to the high street. It was to this new location, handily just up the road, that my co-star and some other local reprobates helped Simon get moved to.

Sheldon is watching you. Always.

Best Wishes and warm regards from all (alright, both) of us at H&H Productions, Simon. May the re-boot to Legacy Comics 1.2 be a rollocking success!
As for the Halloween Special, though we haven't met up this week, the preparation continues. I've been on the hunt for some additional props  and it just so happens that fortunately they were right here at home. At the risk of blowing [SPOILERS] we needed to get our hands on some board games. Some of you more astute Internet Chums might get an idea from it but I'm going to say no more, except they were easier to find than I thought. I'd been thinking of where we used to keep them though, d'oh!

"When you play the Game of Chess you lose and then cry!"

Yep, as a Low-to-No budget production it sure does help to use what you already have. It's as cheap as free! Anyhow with a morning shift, another day off and a free weekend this week we hope to get a bit closer to filming so stay tuned to find out how it goes on, we hope your route to the weekend holds straight and true and we'll see you here again on Friday!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Who IS That Masked Man?

Welcome back yep it's Friday, yep Friday, Friday got to get down on Friday, Friday. Get the blog written down that is. So then, fellow people of the internet, what have we been up to since that time me a Chris meet to do the Mysterious Guest Star filming...

Well as me and Chris have't had a chance for another meet up with Chris doing his day job and me putting down some of the wrong times in the diary for Chris working this week (Whoops)! So it has been a matter of checking things over and sorting out the little things as we end the week.

We now have two more bits of costume for the next part of the film these are Balaclavas (which my co-star is modeling above) and masks, yep. Chris has hunted high & low on the internet and the odd shop to purchase them for us to use, and to become part of the ever growing prop box for the show. But why do we need them? What are H&H going to be stealing? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile I have been going over the script looking at all of the (hopefully) final changes to script but then again, knowing us, maybe not.

Creeepy...

I have also been asking/looking around for some possible locations to be used in this Special and might have one hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Well that's all for now see on Wednesday when there should/will be more to report.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Crouching Vern, Hidden Guest-Star

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, it's the midpoint of the week and H&H Productions has continued ticking over as we approach the filming of the Halloween Special. Over the weekend and at the start of this week I've been in Hunter/Gatherer mode still, sourcing some additional bits and bobs of Proppage for the shoot. We can't always get away with just trawling the poundshops and I've had to dare the wilds of Ebay for a couple of items that are hopefully winging their way here now.
There's also been a little bit of tweaking to the script editing out a bit of a 'bump' in the narrative, a few additional lines and, after last night's meet-up with Vern, a rather musical enhancement to one of the scenes that he had an idea about after last time.
About last night, it was a little later than usual that we met up - after 8PM, actually. That wasn't just because of the intermittent bus service after 6, no, we needed it to be dark for our little bit of filming.

Mystery Guest

That's right, Internet Chums, we've already been filming for the Special with a previously-appearing Special 'Guest-Star', too! The sharp-eyed among you might recognize the above individual and be able to figure out the reason filming the sequence meant Vern had to take to a knee but I'm not going to say any more. It's more of a kind of 'Stock Footage' for the Special to be honest but a start has been made nonetheless.
Still on the cards: figuring out where we can actually shoot the interiors and, of course, getting it shot. Things are under way though, so it's up to us to keep the momentum up.

That's it for this midweek, Acting Fans, stay tuned for more details at the end of the week!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh