Getting Connected

Happy Weekend, Acting Fans, the two of us here at H&H productions hope you're in for a good one, whether you're glamping at Glasto or just watching it at home on the BBC. Back at H&H we've gone and had another face-to-face. On this Thursday meet up's agenda, first and foremost, getting connected!

Yes, Acting fans, Vern and I came to the conclusion on Tuesday that we hadn't really been engaging properly with the more social aspects of Youtube.
I mean, yes, we've stuck our favourite channels up, liked a video here and there but early in setting off on this venture we've often talked about getting in touch with other Youtubers, especially those whose work we admire for a bit of advice and/or feedback. We kept mentioning it but it seems we've both been a bit reticent about actually doing it, I think out of a certain sense of shyness but also not wanting to be rude. After all, it does seem a bit self-centred to be asking for favours from complete strangers.
After Tuesday's meeting we decided Thursday would be the day to get ourselves connected, so that night we met up at H&H HQ with a list of five Youtubers we admire (instead of spamming loads of people all at once) and, instead of a soulless identikit email, we wrote out individual messages to each via the Youtube messaging service. The 5 we chose were:

The Vlog Bros

Geekandsundry

Mr. Weebl

Yellingatconcrete

Glove And Boots

If any of these names are unfamiliar to you, well, you really should check them out! Now we are under no illusions, these folk have all got their own stuff going on and we don't expect them to get back to us instantaneously or even at all but a least we have given it a go. In fact it took us totally by surprise that Graham at 'Yellingatconcrete' got in touch that night to ask where we were based and, during a brief exchange made the really encouraging comment that he liked our style and would keep an eye out for our new stuff. Cheers, Graham!

Now Thursday wasn't just about pestering folk over the internet, we also tried to bust a move on our idea for a Summer Special. Vern and I put our noggins together after they'd warmed up composing Youtube missives. Then we blocked, yep, we couldn't think of anything. Until we did. Yes, Internet Chums, we finally got unstuck (not unglued, unstuck - yes, yes, we were already unglued) and after a bit of furious thinking we got a basic premise but I'm taking a leaf out of the Big Tease's book here and I'm telling you nowt. It's all still a bit nebulous but we've got that premise to hang it on, you'll just have to wait and see what it is but fings crossed it'll be this Summer and it'll be Special.

That's all for this week, Acting Fans, so...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The Game's Afoot

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, you gets it - its Wednesday so here comes your Blog! Well, I am please to announced that this time we have some stuff to actually blog about on the status of H&H. I know, shocking! I hope you're all sat down. Yes? So we shall begin...

PhotoⒸ: Matt Birdsall Photography

Yessir, me and Chris had a meet up (Yes, we actually did it - in person and everything! No 21st Century textual interfacing, nope, just two actual faces) last night at H&H HQ and, well, Chris was armed with good ideas for things to do while we struggle to get Episode 6 sorted out. We are going to start planning out a Summer Special (well, we hope we can get one done before we lose the sunny weather!) and we talked a bit more (and laughed) about a new YouTube channel trailer for H&H. In fact we even actually managed to bash out a first draft, yep, we did and it flowed. (Yeah! Go us!) We even came up with a premise that might explain something of just a little bit of our characters' mysterious past, well, maybe. Possibly. Okay, don't hold me to that.

We even worked out we could give a taste of the series so far in the channel trailer with some clips and which clips we could use in the trailer as well. We even did a few line runs too to get a feel for it. Oooh, what else? Oh, I know - we even went over some of the earlier things that we wrote and found a nice little sequence that is now going to used as a short - now we've changed a few lines after we did line run through of that too.

And don't worry folks, we haven't forgotten about the episode 6 of series one. We did have a chat about that and got some possible alternative ideas for filming that too, in case we need to use them to get it done.

Lastly we discussed something secret. Oh, no , I couldn't possibly tell you what it is at all. At all at all. After all, what is a blog post from my good self worth if there isn't at least a bit of a tease, HA HA HAAAAH! So I think all in all we had a very productive evening, well in-between the laughing and both of trying to compose ourselves so we could continue and get it written down.

Well, that's it for now folks, more on Friday and there WILL be more to report, oh yes!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Working Girl...I mean BOY, er, MAN! Working Man!

Welcome back, fellow bloggers, and, well, you should by now know who are whomever is reading this (if not, TO THE ARCHIVES, they're RIGHT THERE! ☛)
Once again we are going to taking a brief pause from the H&H stuff (Don't worry, not for long though).

As you should also know, I have started working full-time, this very week in fact, down at an [Entirely Legitimate Insurance company mentioning no names to avoid being suddenly unemployed again for bringing them into disrepute, etc.] and, well, I have been busy with my on the job training. Trying to get to grips with all of the insurance jargon and the various policies and believe me there are quite a few of them. Quite. A. Few.

Heck, we haven't even got on to the main bulk of what I'll be doing just yet, we've been doing mainly talk about what type of Insurance there is out there, how they affect us all, why they are needed and about other less obvious insurance stuff, like how to possibly spot people who might be lying to us. Yep, I may have to occasionally wear my Detective Hat (it's a metaphorical hat, they don't like actual hats in the office - I'm kidding).

Yep, like I said their is a lot of stuff to get used to and learn.

Well now, back to H&H. Despite not getting a physical meet-up we did get a sort of get together (Well, by text so that still counts right. Right? In the 21st century it counts, surely?). Anyway me and Chris did have a text conversation about some possible idea for some things that we can do while the nights are too bright to film in/people aren't available. With the new One Channel layout on the tube of You there's an option to make a channel trailer for new viewers so we are turning our tiny minds to thinking how to get one done while we try to get production geed up. Chris has also taken the time to spruce up the ol' Youtube homepage with some new channel art and as a Brucey (or rather Chrisey) Bonus he's made a forum friendly version that falls roughly within the 500 x 300 pixel rules which, if any of you Acting Fans are so inclined, you can download and use as a forum signature for any message boards you are on to give us a bit of the ol' publicity. So please do it for us, Internet Chums!

That's it for now acting fans, see you on the flip side...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Role Reversal

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, it's time for your regular mid-week hit of H&H business. This week it's a matter of trading places, what with Vern starting his new day job and becoming an upstanding contributing member of society (or as close to one as us dodgy thesps can get) and me hitting the typical off-season lull in hours due to it being the Summer at the theatre, it's been me with some time to spare and my partner-in-(Acting)crime who's been unavailable for a meet up. Bah! The Cosmic Ballet goes on.

In his absence I'm still steadily chipping away at a bit of the minor prop work we need for Episode 6 but that's about it so far this week. We've received no reply as yet from the local college Performing Arts tutor but we're not willing to write it off just yet, we might just be victims of an unfamiliar email address smacking into the wall that is the council email systems Spam Filter, even though we aren't Spam (and I myself, for one, prefer Pek...mmm, Pek!). This means we're considering a more direct approach, no, we aren't going to go kicking doors in - we just need to find a polite way to introduce ourselves.

No doubt my colleague is keeping an eye out for usable humorous situations as he experiences his training but as it is we're still stuck here on the back burner, darn it!

Stay tuned for Friday's Blog Post to see what we manage to pull together later this week. Keep your fingers crossed, Internet Chums, and...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Farewell, My (British) Heart (Foundation Chums)!

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers this Friday I'd like to take a break from our regular blogging programme & going on about H&H just for a moment, and say a goodbye to my Volunteering days.

As some of you may recall whilst I pursued a proper job I was volunteering at the British heart foundation here good 'ol Halifax. Now I am going to be starting full-time employment (On Monday, in fact) I would like to say a fond farewell to all of the people that I worked with. I've had fun working there & I'd like to thank my work colleagues there, especially as I got to get my hands on all sorts of things from books, dvds, games - even a nerf gun too, and some rather cool lounge pants to boot, that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford new.

Best of all thanks to them I got myself a really good copy of the retro board game Hero Quest (this old favourite of mine can go for loads of money on eBay ) and for those who don't know what this is -  shame on you! ;-) I even managed to get hold of a few things that may be useful on H&H too. Including some light reflectors and some hand held fans, I don't know if we ever WILL get to use them but they are there if we need them. Let's not forget that it was thanks to the guys at B.H.F. Halifax that we got our hands on Gambon's infamous camouflage jacket.

I really will miss working there like I said it was fun. I wish everyone still working there all the best and thank you for having me but paid work is calling and, well, me having money is always good. Not just for me but for the Economy!

As for H&H, we are still getting on, trying to come with some idea for shorts and planning our shooting, so we haven't stopped at all on that front. Stay tuned but...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Message In A Bottle

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's Wednesday so that means another blog post - here we go. Here's what have we been up to since last week.

We have been trying to come up with a few ideas for some shorts of H&H for us to make over this Summer, just in case we can't manage to film the last episode due it getting dark much later, and the availability of friends and other actor volunteers (an aborted attempt at one of series 1's earlier 'Previously' segments, that had to be abandoned due to none of the additional folk needed turning up continues to prey on our minds - plus it is getting dark pretty late now).

Speaking of actors, we've made an attempt to reach out for more warm bodies, my co-creator Chris has sent an email to the local college asking the head of their Performing Arts course if any of the students would in interested in helping us out (or if they'd like to get in touch and/or have a meeting with us to suss us out and see what we do first). You know, by starring in some of the additional roles and/or helping behind the scene's as we also need people behind the camera as well. So fingers crossed we get to hear something back from them.  If it's an 'Aye' then we can hopefully get on with this episode. We did say that this was a biggie, and it sure is. Wish us Luck!

Well, once again that is it for now, good folk of the interwebs, so...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Black To Black

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's Friday and it's blog time again and this week we have actually done something practical relating to H&H. Yep, I know, a shocker compared to our recent posts! ;-) We met up for a second time this week to go out and do a test of one of the moving shots I have conceived of for Episode 6. It's a shot sequence that will start at black move across the gangs then back to black. For our start and end in black we used a fairly heavy grade black card that Chris already had (Low-to-No budget, remember) which he would hold while I filmed with our camera. It took a bit of practice, and will probably need a bit more too, but it worked. We tried a number of different ways and what seemed to work best was if the card was held in a curve so that it also 'hooded' the camera, stopping light reflecting from the surface of the card itself and creating a darker black in front of the camera. We will hopefully be using this technique to show intercut shots all of the acting 'gangs' in what will appear to be a continuous shot.

If we can get this shot right, it will lend a very movie look like. We also talked further about the shooting schedule and the difficulties of it, especially due to the summer nights getting darker so late it might just take a bit longer than we thought. Taking this weekend in particular we were hoping to get a short 'gang' sequence done but the lateness of the hour has put off the majority of the folks we were hoping to get together for it and, unfortunately, we can't do it without them. This has led us back to thinking about widening our reach for additional cast so we may be looking wider than our immediate circle of friends and family to get the extra bodies we need - time to get begging to those drama course students! We still do have some other things to sort out for the episode to keep busy on, but don't panic, Actings Fans, progress is looking like it might slow again but we will get there with this episode!

Well that's all for now,

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Stuff Of (A) Legend

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's wednesday and blog time once again, but for today we will be turning our view from our ongoing production to wish a fellow actor and stage and screen legend to get better soon. We are talking about Tim Curry who it's recently come to our attention is currently recovering after substantial stroke.

Yes, the star of Legend, It and, of course, every misfit, outcast or sexually repressed, impressed or just underdressed drama students' favourite movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
We would like wish him all the best and that his recovery soon and he can once again starts to lend his booming baritone voice and unique presence to more projects. I know this may be a bit of old news to some but, well, we are Retro, yep, even our news updates can be some times. He's apparently still in good voice and approaching recovery withe good cheer but, even if it's a bit late, - All the best, Tim!

Well, that's all for now folks, we do have some H&H news and so please stay tuned for the next blog post coming up soon.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt