One Of Our Posts Is Missing

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and People of the Worlds. Yep, it's Friday and it's time for a blog.... Now can any spot the (not so) deliberate mistake, yes, we are missing a post, no, not a fence post - the Wednesday Blog (Whoops! We have had a busy week though with work and prepping sometimes these things slip our minds, especially this Wednesday as Blog Writer/Editor Chris failed to foresee a colleague's leaving curry might lead to more shenanigans. Bad Chris!)!

What's been going on then? Well we did once again get a meet up this week and planned out what we need for the shoot we had this week. Hold your horses, WHAT? Yep, that's right, folks, you've read that right we have been filming! In fact it was yesterday (Thursday 26th June) we filmed at once again the Old Cock in town. Before I write anything more I must give a BIG 'Thank You' to the Landlady of the Old Cock for once again letting us film there. As well as letting us film the Summer Special there last year just before their drastic re-fit. So THANK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!

Anyhoo we got ourselves (that's me, I and Chris) and our regular extra body Logan Darkholme (soon to be Daniel Kilburn, yep, he's getting hitched soon) to get this latest Actor's Log done. And as a testament to us we are getting better no animals or actors were harmed and no props were left behind. Ah, well, one did get broken though, Chris got a bit overzealous with the item he picked up cheap off Ebay for the shoot. Oh, dear. The Art of Comedy demands some sacrifices! We armed ourselves up in one of the back rooms, somewhat away from the public and too much ambient noise and set to it. Well, there was one thing we didn't have that was a print of the script! We are both currently without working printers, bah! Now this wasn't a problem as it first sounds, as me and Chris are getting better at learning our lines and improvising too (I mean, we have been working on H&H for a couple of years now, so we should know the characters inside and out. After all they are us.) Plus Chris had had some last minute ideas about some extra funny business that weren't in the script, so with Logan/Spyke/Danny (they're all the same person, remember) dressed up as yet another different character we set to it and, well, I can successfully say it was a very fun and good shoot. Normally we take more time with an extra cast member but once again it was a easy working with Logan as he always puts in a good performance and we have know each other years, too. Also we didn't give him any lines, and at one point forgot to give him any direction. Ooops!

With all the shots in hand it was back to H&H #2 to pick the shots and then Chris was off with his stick drive to edit. And, folks, it was all once again done in one day, ready to go live THIS MONDAY in fact, yeah, just in time for June, right down to the wire but still the June Actor's Log nonetheless!

Well, that's all for now, folks, see you all in the Future......

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Thor's Day

Welcome, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and the people of the world to this Friday.... Erm I mean Saturday blog (EDIT: Oops, Sunday!*). Why so late, I hear you ask. Well as I was getting home my housemate Jo saw me outside Tesco and told me we had had a power cut. But not the one of which we could fix. Nope it was a problem on the outside of the house. It turned out water had gotten into the outside power line and had blown it. So a call out had to be made for it to be fixed. So we now have a big hole in our garden but at least we have POWER!!!!!

Anyhoo back to H&H well me a Chris another meet up on Friday before my rehearsal (I'm treading the boards again, remember?) to discuss the filming schedule. Yep, I had already been in to the Old Cock, as we filmed there before and we needed to set up a replacement for our unavailable first location choice sharpish, I asked if we could film there again and luckily the very nice landlady, she said, "Yes." So after another quick phone call to regular friend/supporting actor who has helped us out in the past. We are now a go for filming next Thursday (yay!) where we hope to bottle the H&H lightening. So, yes this vlog is cutting it very fine indeed. It shall be up the last Monday of June for you all to watch, fings crossed.

And after an great quick idea the Chris came up with, we should be also be filming a super short short at the same time. That will need some additional filming at a second location to finish it off, but of course I can't say much more - tee hee! Other than the down-to-the-wire June Actor's Log that short, short shall/should be up in July with luck.

Well, that's ya lot for now, see you in the Future!!!!!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

* = Editor's Note: This Blog comes to you on Sunday due to Chris's unscheduled drunken debauchery

Specs Appeal

Hello, Acting Fans, time once again for your midweek missive from H&H HQ. Today has seen me get the old eyes tested and fork out for a new pair of corrective eyewear. Yes, on the H&H Production Weekend Outing the point was hit home by my current specs failing the rigorous safety test of me thrashing about on the dancefloor to some CHOONS. Yes, I'm afraid things came apart, but then they had already been put back together with copious amounts of superglue. A prior repair job necessitated by my unfortunate tendency of leading with my face (ouch).

Weekend outing? Yes, Myself and t'other H (and other associates) decided to break out of the confines of Halifax for a night out and tottered our way over to Leeds after a nice tea of Thai. There may have been an other, ahem, ulterior motive on the part of one of our party but, dear Reader, discretion is the better part of valour. Or, as this poster reminded us...

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT BANGKOK! What I can tell you about the evening is it began at 'Carpe Diem' which we promptly did the opposite of, carpe-ing the old noctem, and ended at a post-'The Cockpit' pizza joint. A good time was had by all, though I discovered that when it comes to finding my way around Leeds I often undershoot when it comes to finding my desired destination. Don't we all fall short sometimes though?
In more salient news for you, Acting Fans, we also had a following Monday meet-up and, besides decompressing from our Saturday Night/Sunday Morning Shenanigans, have come a step closer to sorting the next Actor's Log. It turns out, after further investigation by Vern, the first choice of location for the shoot may be unavailable so we'll be looking at arranging a secondary choice (& sharpish). We also realised we'd overlooked a small item of prop-age that could add a little something to our upcoming escapade. Good news though, getting straight on Ebay as soon as I could, I found the very thing (and well within our Low-to-No Budget too!). Doubleplus Good News, said item arrived TODAY! It was sat waiting for me as soon as I got back from the Opticians. Yay, All H&H Systems are GO! Stay tuned for more messages from us this Friday as that's all from me for now, so...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Be Careful What You Don't Wish For

Welcome Acting Fans and fellow bloggers and people of the world. It's FRIDAY!!!! (Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday, Friday, Friday) but this one is a 13th (Wooooo! Beware!) So what have we gone and done today, besides avoid abandoned summer camps and burly men in hockey masks? Well, once again we've got our meet up on and again this time not in the ol' coffee shop, not even in another coffee shop but back in the pub!!! Actually it was TWO pubs, well, we are drunken actors. I have to take some responsibility, it was me who suggested it this time.

After a bit of talking away, well, talking about films & stuff once again, the conversation worked it's way around to H&H-ish territory with the phrase "Jaws in SPACE!!!" being bandied about and that is all shall be said on that one for now. We got to the end of our drinks and Chris asked if I fancied changing pubs, as The Old Cock was busying up and knowing sometimes our lively conversations draw in odd folk, sometimes REALLY odd folk (& we're Actors we know odd).

He thought it might be good to move, to avoid getting minor hassled by some of the clientele while we were trying to sort stuff out. We'd gotten to thinking about the things we've filmed so far and reminiscing about the 'Grog' shoot in particular where, while in People's Park filming, a drunk bloke had started trying to get us into a conversation whilst we were trying to film and this lead us on to another idea for a H&H future Vlog, making a comedy version of the event. Seeing how it was getting busy I thought it wouldn't hurt to try another pub but...well, yep, you guessed it as soon as we got our drinks in and sat down outside we got hassled by this odd guy Chris vaguely knew (they'd crossed paths during a shift on his second job). Weird, eh?
Fortunately this odd fellow didn't hang around as long as the bloke in People's Park, so we managed to get back to more H&H business. Looking over what we got so far, which now amounts to about 8 ideas almost ready to go and an idea for a live show on the back burner. With all that in hand, well, I guess we best get one filmed, and on time for this month, too. Which we shall hopefully be doing some next week as, due to a quirk of shift, Chris is free all week long...and me? I'M FREE! *Wink*


Well, that's yer lot for now, see you in the Future!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

K.B.O.

Hello, Acting Fans, it's time for another bit of H&H Midweek musing on a week that started with quite a bit of a blow following the sad departure of Comedy Legend, Rik Mayall. The sympathies of all at H&H Productions go out to Rik's family and friends, we are now down a National Treasure, dammit.
The world turns on though, and H&H remain on mission to (hopefully) bring a little happiness with their daftness. To that end Vern and I have had a our regular meet-up today for some more chinwagging and planning. First order of business was a change of location. Yes, with no more shifts for me until the weekend, I lured my partner-in-crimes-against-the-internet to a nearby pub for a change. Quite a familiar place it was too, The Old Cock, a major location in our H&H Summer Special. Over a pint of Smith's and a purple Bulmer's we got down to H&H business.

Weapons of Choice

 

We took a look over our ideas for the live performance and decided that rather than alternating on the scripting, as we have gotten into the habit of lately when it comes to writing, we should sort out a full writing session where we compose the thing together and perhaps even do some blocking out of the actions we want to do 'on stage' as it were (I write 'on stage' as, well, wherever it actually manifests H&H Live might not always be on an actual stage).
On to the next Actor's Log, I had taken a pass at the script and also figured out a proper title for it to replace the placeholder, which I ran past m'learned colleague, who then gave it his seal of approval. Next is to source the bits and bats we need as well as sort out a location. Vern had tried earlier in the week but had missed the management personnel he needed to talk to at our first choice. He'll be taking another pass at it this week but, if it doesn't work out, we have a couple of contingencies.
So that's about where we are this week, fairly low key so far with nothing major to announce but the wheels of the H&H Productions machine are in motion and with that I bid you...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Mystery Play

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the world!!! It's FRIDAY (What, already!?! Okay, just who keeps on shrinking the weeks? Eh? Come on - own up!) So what have we been up to since last we wrote?

Well, once again me and Chris have had another meet up and, yep, in our new favorite place too the  local Nero's coffee shop. This meet-up was to further discuss the possible live show of H&H, what shape it will take and exactly what it involve, so far it has involved us having to get into a bit of Culture! Yes, BOTH of us!

WARNING: Not for the Cheery Hearted

Yup, as Chris mentioned on Wednesday he's had to read up on Beckett and, while doing so, managed to find some video of the play we chose online, so he roped me in to watch it too. Well, after doing my bit in our research of the Mystery Play (we're not going to tell you which one it is yet...okay though, if you want to take a guess, it was only picked at first as the title made Chris laugh, so it's all his fault) with Chris reading up on the play too, what we discovered that, well, it's a pretty depressing play. A real bummer. Chris said he wasn't surprised, because it's a Beckett play but, man, it was DE-PRESS-ING. Frankly I prefer my Beckett being the bloke in 'Quantum Leap' but at least it wasn't as scary as the Horror short Chris sent to me. Brrr, I've still got chills. And now I have a Night Light. Anyway, we realised we had some work ahead of us in finding a way to make it funny while still sort of sticking to the shape of it. We have some ideas about how to do this after of get together, but for now they shall remain secret. Ssh! (I mean we want you to watch it fresh with no [SPOILERS]). It does hinge on the rest of the live show though.

Yes, this Beckett stuff is just one part of the possible live show, which we have figured out will revolve around Acting, which seems pretty obvious now we look back at it! What better way to showcase H&H live than a show of their acting 'skills'? Now, once again, nothing much else can be said on this, as it is still in very early stages and some it might still change as yet. Let's just say there might be a bit of history involved, as well as boards trodden on.

Lastly the final thing we got on to was filming this month's Actor's Log, we're aware of how quick this month is going and need to get on, so I have a few pubs to scout & ask if we can film in and, fings crossed (and Landlord's willing), that should be filmed and done soon. (For this Month, of course. We don't want to get behind now!)

Well, that's all folks. You are now all up-to-date on the H&H news so, until the next time, see you in the FUTUUUUUURE!!!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Guest Appearance

Hi there, Acting Fans, we're midweek once again and so it's time for your H&H Information injection! Yes, we've had the first of our usual and becoming even more regular meet ups this Tuesday gone where (yes, in Nero's again), after our usual preamble ramble (which also seems to be getting more rambling, but it's cheaper than therapy), we eventually got around to H&H Beeswax.
The main topic up for the day was for us to chew over was actually related back to the Mystery Opportunity, we wanted to take a real crack at formulating what could be the format for a live-and-in-person H&H performance. Now who else would turn up when talking about such things but my sister, the street theatre professional! Yes, Beka told us some tales of her working trip to the United States specifically the Bible Belt including Tenessee (which it turns out is a 'Dry' County, yep, that's right the HOME of Jack Daniels is a 'Dry' county, you'd best believe we took a note of that for possible future H&H use/abuse). There was also her visit to the Opry (but not the Grand Ole one, yes, we asked) which included a man singing while astride his motorbike on stage, who would later return on horseback for his next number, 'flying' musicians, caged tigers (BOO!) and a magician with the worst animatronic fake limbs for tricks than you could possibly see. A debate over exactly what kind of cats he was dis-and-Re-appearing, led to an idea for a H&H gag but then Beka had to be on her way as she's in the midst of getting on with her part of the current Yorkshire Festival, The Hunt!

Guest Star

Having bid my super-talented sibling adieu, we got our brains back to the task at hand and, eventually (TWO drinks this time), we came up with some possibilities based around an 'Acting Workshop' with the addition, at the insistence of Vern, that we do something in the live performance that was alluded to in our unfilmed original pilot script (the one we sent to The BBC's Writers Room waaaaay back when). This then led us down from Nero's to the local library as we needed to do some research on Samuel Beckett, no, not the dude from 'Quantum Leap', the Irish Playwright!
Never afraid to trample over proper culture for a laugh, us! After a failure on the DVD front we went to the bookshelves and with some much appreciated assistance from the Duty Librarian chap we emerged with a complete Beckett collection to stick our nebs into. That's it for now, Acting fans, we're pushing on with the next Actor's Log(s) and researching with our thinking caps on, so...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh