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

To The Victor, The Spoils!

Welcome to the weekend, Acting Fans, it's time for another H&H end-of week- sign off post. Now let me tell you, we haven't been resting on our laurels basking in the glory that is our brand spanking new Youtube Channel Trailer, no, sir! Though the weather was against us for filming on Thursday, Vern & I braved the wet and not particularly wild to go on a bit of location scouting for the Halloween Special. Our first port of call an abandoned factory mill on the other side of the Dean Clough complex and, as those of you who may recall other scouting missions led by myself, yes, I took us what was actually the longest way round. Again. Sorry, Vern. On the way another potential exterior caught our eye:

Mmm, rocky...

We then continued on to the mill and, thanks to a handy bit of prior fence vandalism (not by us I hasten to add), we were able to make our way onto the factory grounds.

With Vern for scale

Unfortunately, though it would make an ideal setting for a 'Last Of Us' fan film as Vern said with a scheming look in his eyes, it was a little too far out and, frankly, a bit unsafe for the admittedly-minor-but-still-a-stunt stunt we have in mind for the sequence we were planning here. That IS the point of Scouting a Location though, figuring out suitability and viability. Having decided that we headed back to H&H HQ. The short way this time, where we happened across another potential spot for the close-up shots in the sequence, which Vern modeled in this test photograph.

Laaadies.

The spot documented, we continued on our merry way ducking into the Dean Clough complex itself for a nosey as we wandered back. Where we passed a familiar location. A dilapidated but still in use building that featured in one of our Series 1 'Previously' segments. No pictures here I'm afraid, as they might be [SPOILERS]. Let's just say we found a way to do our admittedly-minor-but-still-a-stunt stunt with an exponentially smaller risk to m'colleagues life and limb than a t'other mill. 
We also got into an odd and rather fascinating conversation with two of the Dean Clough maintenance men who work out of that building. Tall tales of the plethora of wild life and the numerous (& rather bold) criminal activities that have taken place at Dean Clough. Who knew? Well, those guys, obviously. After politely parting ways we found another couple of potential exteriors as we headed back into town.

Mmm, dynamic angle...

Everything location-wise pretty much sorted, it was time to hit H&H HQ again for a refreshing cuppa. Making sure to take copious notes too, so we don't forget what we need to do next. First of which was a bit of Prop hunting so, cuppaly refreshed, I set off on a pound shop trawl.
Now I got lucky with the first couple of items I wanted, thanks to a quick trip to Huddersfield. But thar be [SPOILERS]. Sadly, despite it being 'Talk Like A Pirate' Day I returned home lacking a particular bit of Booty. Good job I don't give up so easily. Today I did a discount shop hunt a little closer to home and found exactly what we needed, thanks to The Range:

TREASURE, ME HEARTIES!!!

Now all we need is, well, everything else we have to get together for the shoot. No rest for the Wicked. Wicked Cool, that is.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

SURPRISE!

Welcome back everybody, yep, it's Wednesday and it's blog time! Well now, as you can see, we have been busy since last we wrote. And trust us nobody is more surprised than us! Chris had been busy organising the YouTube Channel trailer setup this weekend. First recording the narration on Sunday (with the help of post-night out throat from the Saturday before, for extra gruffness) and then, while he was messing about, er, I mean sorting out the start of the trailer on Monday, he realised we might be able to get it done with a lot less additional filming than we at first planned. He set off yesterday with his Test proof version in hand to show me which I watched, just laughed at it and said, yes. During the quick meet up yesterday, we filmed just one shot for it. One shot. Which we were able to do at H&H HQ, that plus a quick scan on the interwebs for some stock footage of 'EXPLODO!' and we got the trailer done!
And There it is ☝!

Now we were planning to film additional scenes that we scripted especially for it but I think the way Chris has put it together (with a clever bit of footage recycling) is much better and, well, flows better too with a short punchy runtime. In fact it might be more of an intro than, well, our current episode intro, which gives us something to think about (and work with) when it comes to the Season 2 episode Intro.

Getting the Channel trailer out of the way sooner than expected means we have time for more things on our plate. Yes, we plan on starting filming on the Halloween special later in the week on Thursday as that really need to get done. Then well it will be on to film at last the last episode of series 1.Fings crossed we can get the spare warm bodies!

That's it for now see you in the Future!

Vernon Harcourt

 

Buck Rogers

Greetings, Acting Fans, and welcome to your late, late update of H&H doings this week, thanks to an unfortunate Rota-based mistake on my part. Oopsie!
Anyway, back to H&H Beeswax. Though we haven't met again this week Vern and I are still chipping away at the next phase of H&H production namely the parallel production of a Youtube channel trailer and the upcoming Halloween Special. Besides tinkering away at the script we will also be cobbling together some appropriate images and I'll be off out on a minor bit of Prop Hunting, which will most likely be a Poundshop trawl.
Now you may be wondering about the post title and the bit of Feeder at the start. Well, as today's post is a little light on actual doings, I thought I'd pad it out with a bit of a nod to one of the inspirations for the format of the channel trailer we've come up with and, well, the Feeder's a bit misleading as the actual inspiration is more exactly this:

Now as a low-to-no budget production we don't have the cash for space shuttle footage or, indeed, picture-in-picture editing so we'll have to find a workaround, wish us luck!

Stay tuned for more actual happenings next week and...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The Horror...the Horror...

Hello, fellow bloggers, it's Wednesday again, so let's get you dosed with your regular shot of Vitamin H²! Now, after a looong week last week and after me & Chris met up to sort out some plans for the future of H&H, I thought it would be best to get on with writing some of these up. Especially the upcoming Halloween Special!

An unfilmed script, like a pumpkin ripe for the carving!

Armed with my trusty-if-slow PC and ready with the notes we made for it in hand, I did indeed do just that. It wasn't easy though, no sir! I wrote down the ideas we had thrashed out and tried to make what we had come up with into some sort of a workable script for us to film as we have just under two months in which to get it done. At first it really wasn't going too well, I didn't like too much of how it was working. I wasn't even sure if it was funny at all!
Despite my notes I had forgotten some of what we had said and trying to get the story into a working order was difficult too. I hadn't managed to get it finished when we met up at H&H HQ this Tuesday when me and Chris got together again. We talked about the Special and how lately we both realised that we'd managed to get a lot more done by this time last year and that maybe we'd let the difficulty of getting Episode 6 done get in the way of us doing more H&H stuff.
Chris encouraged me to finish off the script, even if I didn't like how it turned out, so that once we had it in hand we could give it a real going over until it did work. With that in mind I got it finished that Tuesday night and sent it off to Chris for some split & polish and, well, to add some things that I might have forgotten, misremembered and so forth.

Today Chris sent back his re-gigged and re-worked version (complete with the title we came up with on Tuesday and, no, I'm not telling you it - that would be [SPOILERS]! Tee hee!) to me. I gave it the once-over and it is looking a bit better now, definitely workable. After a readthrough, and maybe a tweak here & there, it should be ready to go, all we need to do then is find a place to film it!

That's all for now, folks, see you on Friday,

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Welcome, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's time for the Friday blog, so let me (your humble Entertainer and Raconteur, Vernon Harcourt) fill you in on the second bit of H&H Business that came up on Wednesday. As mentioned in Chris's blog post we met up and discussed a lot of things we needed to do. The first thing being the Channel Trailer, of course.

The other thing, besides planning out the channel trailer, that came up as we talked was that we both realised, what with the Summer Special going up just before we hit September and now we actually ARE in September, was the fact that a special celebratory time that requires another H&H Special was just around the corner. Yep, that most wonderful time of the year! That's right, HALLOWEEN! Heck, it's about a month away and we knew we had to get our skates on. After sitting for a time totally stumped with blank expressions, we eventually also managed to plan a very bare bones layout of the next Halloween Special (two in a row makes it a Tradition!). Well, when I say 'Layout' it was more like a flip chart of ideas (Wright & Pegg - style) except, as a low-to-no budget feature, we can't afford a flip chart so it was me writing as quick as I could with a notebook and pen. Like this:

Workin' it!

Once we were happy with the ideas and after a bit of tweaking here & there and laughing at some of the ideas, well, like we always do - the process has got to be a little fun itself, you know. I'm sometimes surprised we ever get any work done with all the laughter we have when writing but it actually does seem to help. Anyway, we hammered it into a sort-of shape which I shall be writing up into some sort of working script and then it will be on to do a readthough, source the props and film it so it can go out on Halloween! Simples! I would tell some of what it was about but, well, you know I can't do that, sorry!

Until next blog have a good time out there, I've got to get on - no rest for the wicked.
Wicked Cool, that is!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

It WAS A Very Good Year...

Ladies & Gentlemen of the Internets, Acting Fans of all stripes, it's Humpday once again and time to blog what's what at H&H HQ. As the Summer Special 'This One Time...at Buntings Camp' steadily accrues views to an impressive 19 so far, Vern and I have not been resting on our laurels. It's the end of Summer (BOOOOOOO!) and that means it's time for that seasonal shift I always get this time of year, which means this week we only get to meet up today. And meet we did, to Moot.
Yes, we got together at H&H HQ and realised all the work that lies ahead of us to keep H&H ticking over. Yes, yes, there is STILL Episode 6 to get sorted but never mind that! 2 more important things spring to mind. The first being that in the rush to get our regular Seasonal Special out in the correct season (just) one of the previous points of order got pushed aside.
Namely our Youtube Channel Welcome video got pushed back down the production schedule. Which is what we started with today. That is the reason we were immersing ourselves in History, via the relevant Wikipedia page. What has 1984 got to do with our channel intro? Well, it was a very good year for many reasons (unless you're George Orwell) but the REAL reason we've chosen to look into that year is [SPOILERS]! Let me just assure all of you out there that us two 70s babies aren't trying to re-date ourselves to stay down with the kids. Nope. All will be revealed.
After our impromptu History lesson we came to our second point of order of H&H business but that I'll leave to m'colleague Vernon Harcourt, who'll fill you in on Friday, so stay tuned, Internet Chums!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh