The Dopes On The Street

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the Internet! It's once again time for update of what's happening down at ol' H&H HQ.

Well, after we got our mojo back with the recent first Vlog of Series 2, we have been busy banging our heads together (metaphorically and not literally) to come up with a few more ideas that are bit more short, sweet and straight to the point (as well as funny, of course). As well as easier, or maybe rather simpler, to get filmed as the Vlog where starting to get a bit out of hand, our ambitions were starting to outstrip our resources (well, it is us of course it was going to). So we took the tack of reigning it back in and sticking to the resources we have (basically a camera, a mic and us - it's been really difficult over the course of H&H's production to get other people involved and enthusiastic unfortunately).

Whilst discussing what to do next we decided to try and do more that referenced H&H actually being Actors, BAD Actors, yes, but still Actors, and I was reminded of some of the acting lessons I had been taught at the Actor workshop. One tip in particular for stage and acting work after telling Chris it kinda clicked as a good, simple idea for a Vlog.
And in fact it would have been Actor's Log #2, if Chris hadn't presented the basic idea for our latest Vlog 'Down With Your Bard Self', which if you haven't watched it is RIGHT HERE:

We bumped this one up the schedule because it was minimal props (and one or two bits we already had), plus we were already a bit behind in relation to the film 'Straight Outta Compton's release and we didn't want to leave it too long, so we did our best to get it out there before the film was no longer showing at cinemas, and to beat the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who because of the tiny wee Doctor Who reference in the Vlog. Did you spot it, Acting Fans? No? Maybe you need to watch it again (and give us MORE views), MWAH HA HA HA HA!!! *Ahem*

During our what-to-do-next conversation we also revisited an old idea from a TV episode-style 'pilot' we wrote, and we have hopefully figured out on how to make that work for us too. Once again it shall be beaming to your eyeballs soon, well, at some point in the future - after all a flexible approach to episode filming is still a part of the new plan (it seemed to work out well for Vlog #2). I bet you are wondering, 'what is it?' I can tell you mothing as that would be [SPOILERS] and we're back to our usual cloak and dagger blog, with your old pal the Big Tease.

Lastly with us feeling for good after getting the fist vlog of Series 2 up, we decided to email two company's about providing ourselves and/or our services for some community TV production. We emailed Calderdale TV here Halifax and Made in Leeds (which of cause is in Leeds, durr, but is still pretty commutable for us) to ask both if we could help them out and in turn help us out by either using H&H in any of there programs and also by volunteering our skills in making other programs for them. We are still playing the waiting game to see if any of them get back to us on it but even if they don't we hopefully got another view or two out of both of them. So it's still a win. Yeah, WINNING!!!!

So that's all for now folks we be back soon,

TTFN!

Vernon Harcourt

Straight Outta Avon, Ye Fulle Sonnet

HARCOURT BEATS:

Straight outta Avon, crazy mother[BEEP]er named Shakespeare,

A troupe called Global Players!

Will get called off, gets his lines off,

Hits his mark, the audience they applaud off.

You too, boy ya wanna act like Will,

Deliver those rhymes by meter and skill?

No punk mother[BEEP]ers that are acting out!

Actors wanna rumble, they all start to mumble.

Mix 'em, put 'em down and they all just stumble!

Goin off on a dungheap like that,

With the stage pointing at yo' ass?

So give it up boosh!

No tellin when I'm down for a K-Bran movie!

Here's a tap an rap to keep yo' dance on,

With acting record like James Mason!

The stage is the tool!

Don't make me act the mother[BEEP]in' fool!

Me you can go toe to toe, no maybe,

Knocking those tickets out tha box, daily,

Yo weekly, nightly and monthly!

'Til them dumb mother[BEEP]ers see clearly,

That I'm down with the capital A-C-T!

Boy you can't act with me

When I'm in your neighborhood, you better duck,

Coz H is crazy as Puck!

As I leave, a board I stomp on!

But when I come back, boy, I'm comin' straight outta Avon!

1ST AIDE:

Straight outta Avon, number one crazy @$$ player!

More dope he smoke, yo, his rep gets bigger!

He's the bard mother[BEEP]er and you know this,

Givin' dope @$$ messages in pentamenter!

Will don't give a [BEEP], He'da make his raps,

If not for the stage, he be pullin' the crops!

Back in the day, ain't no AK for packing',

But my man Shakespeare was ready for 'jacking'!

Slice a mother[BEEP]er in a minute,

Stage fight foot work always win it!

So if you're at a show in the front row,

Pay full attention or blood will flow!

You'll probably go wild when I show you my Falstaff,

Demonstratin' to you other actors are all chaff!

Keepin' it real, we're packing the steel!

Attitude verity 'cause I'm chewin' the scenery!

MC Will rhymes flow automatic,

For any dumb mutha[BEEP]er that starts static.

Not the right hand cause I'm the hand itself,

Every time I pull a rapier off the shelf!

The dramaity is maximum and words the law,

Shakespeare lyrics spitting it raw!

See, coz I'm the mother[BEEP]in villain,

Enterin' stage left, you witness my illin'!

Whats takin' place is drama due,

And, when the curtain drops, the show is through!

Look, you might take it as a trip,

but a player like H is on a BAFTA tip!

Comin' straight outta Avon!

HARCOURT BEATS:

Now that we told ya, 

It's clear to see.

1ST AIDE:

Bard's just the old word for MC!

HARCOURT BEATS:

Now let the curtain...drop!

Street Date

Here it is, Acting Fans! Are you ready to be educated by H&H? Can you get down with YOUR Bard Self?

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh

300(th)!

This. Is. ACTING!!!

Yes, Acting Fans, your eyes do not deceive you, not only is this our 300th Post it's also true your favourite felonious thespians are BACK! You have our sincere apologies for our (longer than intended) hiatus but a number of things, including life in general, got production off track. Nothing majorly serious, please do not worry, but misfiring ideas (that neither of us thought were really up to snuff), employment (or lack thereof), communication (or lack thereof) and some minor illness conspired to halt the H&H Productions machine.
As you can see above though, we're welcoming you back with the first episode of new look series 2 of Actor's Log (and the more eagle-eyed of you may notice a light sprucing up of the Production Blog itself). We're pretty proud of this one, it took us long enough to conceive it and it feels like a return to the essence of our initial idea of who Harcourt & Haigh are. The only problem now is to keep coming up with videos that are just as good! Oof.
You can rest assured, this is the first though and not the last - it's onwards and upwards into the 2015-2016 Series 2 from here on, so thank you for your patience and keep your eyes peeled for more H&H shenanigans to come but for now, People of the World's Internet...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh

Christmas Closedown

Festive Greeting, Acting Fans!!! Yes, after all the skirting-around-the-issue-because-Dammit-it's-not-close-enough-to-Christmas-yet the Season has sprung it's steely jaws on us and we can no longer deny the tide of Christmas! Luckily, as some of you may already know, we have our bit of annual festive fun ready in the form of the latest, and last video of 2014, Actor's Log Vlog:

I mean, what could be more festive than a visit to Antarctica and Santa's pre-Christmas holiday hideaway? Anyway the keen-eyed among you will have spotted the key phrase 'and last video of 2014' that I went and slipped in there and, yes, I'm sorry, it's true whilst we run about like headless chickens looking for that last-minute stocking filler, picking up the party booze, doing both the Christmas Wrapping & the Christmas Rapping and stuffing our faces with mince pies and other Festive Treats the H&H Youtube channel and this here Production Blog will be having their annual Winter Hiatus Hibernation. Don't worry, it's only sleeping and we will be back with you in the 2000 plus 15!

Until then Happy Holidays and the very Merriest of Christmases to you all, do it the thespian way and all of you break a (metaphorical) leg, all the best for 2015, We'll see you in the World of TOMORROW!!!

TTFN!

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh

Christmas Wrapping

Welcome Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and People of the Worlds Internet - it's once again Friday and time for a catch up on what's been happing at ol' H&H HQ.

Well once again the Wednesday Blog entry was conspicuous in it's absence BUT with a good reason. Not only was it Chris's works do with his Box Office ladies BUT we finally managed to get out and film the Christmas Vlog, yep, once again we got behind and in front of the camera. Not only outdoors neither. After I did some scouting out on Manor Heath park we had realised we had to recoded our voices on my phone (of which I have to buy so we can getting off my phone) because of bad winds. As we were heading out there though we got talking of somewhere else we could try. A place where it would be easier to get more of the white sky we needed in shot without it looking like too much of a staged angle. Which got me thinking to a previous place we once used. It was in fact a place we used waaaay back when we did Series One. Yep, H&H were once more on the rocks, the rocks at Albert promenade, that is.

So, so windy. ARGH! MY HANDS!!!

When we got there it was just right, much better than our first idea in fact. The only problem was it was just as windy as Manor Heath, if not more, and BLOOMIN' FREEEEEZIN' ,and I hadn't got any gloves with me as I couldn't find a matching pair (which I later realised would have had some added comedy value - D'OH!). Something I would come to regret as my hands were like Ice blocks after the shoot. After a few runthroughs of the lines and marking out were we where going to stand, we were off to filming. Of course, with it being windy I had to hold on to my hat for dear life especially as it had already flown off for me to chase down the road a few times during the line run (lucky the road was quiet) and, in true H&H style, it did take us a few goes and with extra lines added into the flow of the scene. Some by necessity as myself and Chris had missed a massive geographical error in our original script, can you guess what it was, folks? (Probably not yet as you haven't seen the Xmas Vlog yet but when you do try to spot the the lampshaded excuse!)

When we started to use the my phone we needed to sync up the sound to so we could edit it easier. The best way is just a loud noise on camera but don't try and clap with freezing cold hands like I did. OUCH. Yep, I was an fool. And a sore-handed one too. After that we went on and got it done but, just as we were about to pack up, we remembered to do the end scene too that also had to be outside. Yep, we almost forgot the end, but as we were doing the recording my phone cut off, yep, the battery died, piggin' iPhones! So we had to go with what we had. Then it was to film the Interiors which, once again, led to a quick run down the Y.M.C.A ,well, after showbiz lunch, of course.

The Y.M.C.A was very kind in letting us once again assisting in our crimes against the internet and use the their building for the shoot, which was lucky as the decor was just the look we needed for it (I can't say any more, [SPOILERS]) so, after setting up and line runthroughs, it was a go and, well, I at first just couldn't get the flow right of one of lines I kept on falling over them. Despite having done some rehearsing of these scenes and blocking them out so we knew where we were to move and stand, it just wouldn't flow, so between us we worked out a streamlined version that made the scenes a bit pacier and also were more natural for speech (a lesson to do more reading out loud of what we have written to check the flow of our dialogue). This by our usual Actor's Log Vlog standards was very smooth and, once again, we got a lot done in one day. We are getting better at these. I mean we should be by now we've being doing the vlogs for just over a year!

The Xmas Vlog shall be beaming to your eyes soon, so please look out for it.
And see you in the FUTURE!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Found Footage

Hello, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the Internet, It's Friday once again and only THREE WEEKS until Christmas. (Yes, I know it's the mad rush time.) So what's has been happening in the ol' H&H front down at H&H HQ, and are we anywhere near to getting the Christmas Vlog filmed, will it be done in time?!

Well, well, that's a lot of questions you have there, so I shall get to answering them for you. First me, myself and Chris did get a meet-up in this week and a good ol' chin wag did we have. (Yep, we sure did) we talked about all sorts of things. From the new Star Wars trailer (I dig it, Chris is coming around to it despite Abrams-scepticism, which I don't blame him for since 'Into Darkness') to Jurassic World (set in a universe with entirely different Health & Safety legislature than ours) then on to other films and stars and such. We even got on to how we can fix the Fantastic Four film franchise and how it should be written and done. I if I do say so myself, it's a much better idea than the rubbish 'grounded' take that 20th Century Fox has in mind, I'm not the biggest fan of the FF myself but even I would want to watch our version. Just a shame we are not paid screenwriters as it would be a much better film. In fact the idea is so good we are considering writing it out for ourselves just as an creative exercise, but that's for NEXT year (We've still got to finish this one off for now). Fox, call us.

Yep, totally fixed. Call us, Fox.

And so on to the next point the Christmas Vlog and where it is at, well, we was going to try and film some of it on Wednesday. At least the exterior shots, but as is bloody typical for H&H outdoor shoots the weather was against us, nope, not wind, nope, not rain neither, we had a piggin' clear blue sky, and what we NEEDED was a cloudy white sky! Bloody weather! *Shakes fist at sky* So that's why you got no blog from Chris on Wednesday, we had nothing to report (and he needed to chill out after our epic rambling conversation). He's not done nothing entirely though. On Thursday he took to sourcing some the film footage that we are intersplicing into our Christmas Vlog. A certain film, and, nope, I am not going to tell which film it is yet. You will have to watch the Actor's Log vlog when it comes out to know. Once again Chris got most of what we need, despite having to upload most of the film for the few bits we need. With that film footage down and ready to go it's now time to get on with filming. Which shall be happening soon, well, as soon as the weather is in the exterior shoots favour, it's fairly short and hopefully not too difficult, but we may have to record our voices on my phone and sync it up due to high wind sounds and our Nemesis TRAFFIC. Bloody traffic! Luckily I got an app to record voices, so it shouldn't be too difficult to do. Well, here's hoping that isn't!

That's all for now, so see you in the Future!!!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

The Long Way Round

Hello, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the Internet. It's Friday, time for me to insert my ramblings in your eyeballs. What did we discuss at our Wednesday meet up? Well, as we usually do, we went the looooooooooooooooooooong way around (but this blog wont, so don't panic).

Okay, so at first we had a talk about the up and coming H&H Actor's Log vlog where and how we are going to film it. As we need a plain white sky (something we are getting a load of at the moment) with none of those pesky building, we need some fake desolation, after some back and forth we thought of going back high up on a hillside to where we filmed an H&H episode but, after a bit more thinking about it, we weren't sure it would be such a good idea as the wind might well be a factor. A Bad factor. Well, it is rather rough up in the wilds, if the weather turns and the wind picks up, and if the wind picks up the camera mic picks it up and we sound really bad on camera, if you can hear us at all. So instead we settled on Manor Heath Park, which means I have a wee camera test to do but I had to bit of research for it too, which involved me watching one of my favourite films again (and, no, not 'Big Trouble In Little China' again) to see if we could match up the sky and snap some screen grabs for Chris to see what scenes we need to use to splice into the Vlog.

Now comes the fun bit we went off on a wild tangent about films and how they are shot and filmed now and then (yes, regular blog readers, it was a bit of a continuation of our last film chat)to Hong Kong and Japanese cinema and then skidded off sideways into the history of swordfighting, how it has usually come to be depicted in film and how if someone did an actually really well shot fight that abandoned most of the movie cliches on screen how cool it would be. Now I bet you are all wondering where this is going and how it is going to lead in H&H? Well we got on to some historically recorded behaviour of swordsmen meeting on the battle field who were equals and how their behaviour towards each other wasn't quite like the movies would have it but to say any more in detail would be [SPOILERS] because, yes, after a bit of laughing about it we realised it would make a funny sketch, but at first it wasn't H&H. Luckily after a brainwave on my part, I thought of a way to make it work.

HUZZAH! Inspiration!

Now you are wondering how could this work, well, obviously I can't tell you all about because then you wouldn't have to watch would you? But it's good that you're curious, so stay tuned and you might just find out. You'll just have to trust me when I say it will be one of the Vlogs for the New Year. (Cripes, nearly that time already!) This means as it stands we now have 7 video ideas for next year already. Wow! We are getting good at this, it's almost like we've had some practice or something! Some do need to be finished, fully fleshed out and and written but, hey, the ideas are there, 7 is most definitely better than none, and written down wait and ready to go!

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Trigger Happy

Greetings, Acting Fans, welcome to this down-to-the-wire Wednesday blog that will eventually get around to H&H Beeswax. I'm afraid my approach has been a bit lackadaisical this week as I've got a bit of a pre-[The Holiday Festival Which Shall Not Yet Be Named] holiday which started with a weekend in Liverpool at the Cosmic Trigger play and Find The Others event.
I was one of the many who stumped up a bit of cash via crowdfunding to help fund the production celebrating the life and work of the late Robert Anton Wilson, the late countercultural author and thinker, get made. Having not been to Liverpool since I went on an art gallery trip some time ago, I thought I'd do the full weekend and not just the play.
I'm happy to say that the play was a lovely shambles that told the story effectively, funnily and in a way that was a great tribute to Wilson and to the other major figure the play was dedicated to, Ken Campbell. You may not have heard of Ken Campbell but he is a fascinating figure from british theatre (and he was almost Doctor Who once, you know - he lost out to Sylvester McCoy, who could be considered something of a protege - he was in Ken's roadshow before that) who himself organised the production of a dramatisation of another of Robert Anton Wilson's works 'The Illuminatus Trilogy' as a play of epic length.
Back down to earth after the weekend, I have been in a bit of a recovery mode but H&H has never been far from my mind. Some of what I saw over the weekend has caused an idea or two to percolate and reassured me that H&H are just about the right kind of shambolic themselves. Despite my rather relaxed attitude this week (& a Tuesday [The Holiday Festival Which Shall Not Yet Be Named]-shopping trip with my parents) and thanks to Vern being unexpectedly free, we have managed to knock our heads together today and get the H&H creative machine ticking over but I'll let m'learned colleague fill you in on that at the weekend.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Remembering (Brain)Storms Past...

Hello Acting Fans, people of the Internet and fellow bloggonauts, Friday is upon us once more so it time for the end-of-week H&H round up onwhat has been happening at the ol' H&H HQ.

First we have the new Vlog up for you all to watch, and it is just below this text for all to see, so please watch and give us the ol' like & subscribble too and a share to all of your friends too. Please we need the precious, precious views. Preciousssssssssss!

Yes, our lust for fame continues it's downward spiral as, having already tried recruiting a cute cat occasional co-star, we have now scraped the barrel with a complete misuse of both nostalgia and a blatant bit of Full Frontal Nerdity! Phwoar, just look at Transformers annual. Speaking of Transformers the keen-eyed among you will have spotted a missing Weds blog again this week, yes, poor Chris fell afoul of his work shifts this week and managed to get the Vlog done in time but not a Blog! On the plus side he has also managed to sell a couple of those Transformers he's clearing out, which is good for H&H but time sorting out their delivery also added up to a blog post missing.
Despite that post-Wednesday we got a meet up in this week, where we got on to discussing the Christmas Actor's Log vlog, well, after we went around the houses and talked about classic movies and their impact on todays film's. and the loss of films that make you think and slow build up (apart from some great exceptions, like some of Christopher Nolan's films for example). Films that let character action speak louder than telling you. I know, it sounds like we are being film snobs but trust me we are not. We just have a love for older movies and how some of the ways to put the scene together, and how some of those techniques could do with coming back into use sometimes.

How does this link into the Christmas vlog? Well as we were sitting in our usual meeting place Nero's and after bouncing some idea around about maybe some further-future Christmas vlog possibilities. We though maybe we should parody an Christmas movie of some sort. I remembered the film 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' about a maniac in Santa outfit (trust me, it's much better than it sounds - it turns out to be a surprisingly effective horror movie despite being dated, in part due to a great performance by the main antagonist) but that would once again mean we have to get a costume we don't have the budget for yet (and, to be honest, might be more expensive this time of year) but as we were sat there thinking and brainstorming it popped in my head that we had already came up with an idea for an Xmas vlog at the start of THIS year AND it involved riffing on a film I personally consider a classic!

Funnily enough, Chris never had a Brainstorm.

Yep, consulting our notes it turned out we have been more efficient then we realised, there it was at the front of it. Well, next came task of understanding my handwriting (yes, folks it is really, really bad - it's the only skill I have that would qualify me as a doctor) I mean this was also written down in January of this year, so we had forgotten some it. After a bit staring puzzled at it, we got it. When I got myself back home after the meet-up, I got down to writing out the first draft. I mean it's not like we can can hang around about it - there's not long left until Christmas now! I have gotten the first draft done and sent to Chris to take a look and add anything that I might have missed.

So we should be on with shooting it soon (let's face it we have to be), so stay tuned folks!

See you in the (Xmas) Future

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Cash Convertors

Hello, Acting Fans, people of the worlds Internet, and fellow bloggers, yep, it's Friday and once again MY time to ramble on....
Well, first of all sorry for no blog posting on Wednesday, we have been very busy - so busy the blog post slipped our minds. So just what have we been busy with?

We haven't had our meet up this week, so we haven't much time to get any new ideas down on paper but we are working on some things. I sent Chris some of the footage that we had forgotten for this month blog. Which he is working on in the fiery forging* of our next blog, so what else have we been doing if not H&H Beeswax? Well, it's sort-of H&H related in that we have been going through some off our old things looking to sell them to generate budget funds. I mean, after all, one man's old stuff is brand new tat for someone else! So this means Chris has been going through his Transformers Toybox (yes, he has a toybox, no car (except for the odd one that turns into a robot), but a toybox) looking to have a clearout and sell them on. He does have quite a few of them, and some of them have not seen the light of day for a while, so he's looking to set them free, for a Fee!

And, coincidentally, I myself (& me) have been sorting through some old comic books to do the same and put them up on eBay, along with some collectable Metal Gear Solid figures that I was given some time back. These are fairly rare, so fingers crossed that they go, and for a pretty penny too! Now, why is important to H&H? Calm down, I'm getting to that point. After all these creative projects don't fund themselves, uhm, until they are actually successful and do, but we're not there yet so to try hitting the two metaphorical with one stones at once we are de-cluttering of our excess things we don't use/or need anymore and, if all goes to plan, we make someone happy getting what they want and WE get some cash money to put back into H&H! We could do with the budget boost as we start getting bolder in what we are planning and, well, you gotta spend money to make money (or at least more ambitious comedy videos).

Please check out for my upcoming listing on eBay and help us out if you see something you fancy. You never know, you might just find something that you would like at a bargain price that could help fund H&H too!

See you in the Future!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

*= No actual fire or forging is used in the creation of our videos, it's all digital - we can't afford a film forge!

Forking Out

Hello fellow Acting Fans, bloggers and people of the worlds Internet it is Friday once again and my turn to ramble on, and ramble on I shall!

As Chris said in Wednesdays blog he has spruced up the H&H YouTube page. Well, we do want it be easier for you to find your way around the page and find and watch your favourite Vlog Log, episode and/or Specials. So place go and check out our new look to page and, please, while you are there (please, please) re-watch your favourite H&H video and give it a 'like' thumbs up. C'mon, chaps, we only need about 24 views or so to get us up to a channel total of 3000!!! So please do this for us go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

So whats else has been happing this week? Well, erm, nothing as of it we haven't got another meet up and that and the weather has been awful these last couple of days so even if we would have wanted to film anything, we couldn't. Damn bloody weather!!!! But fear not the next vlog is in that there bag and has been for some time as I said a few blogs back so we don't have to much worry about, but we still do have to come up with a Christmas one. The only other thing that is happening is well sort of in a related to H&H is me waiting for a my job to start. Yep, that's right I am to be starting work. I think we did say a few weeks back that I had been on a course and that course was to learn how to drive an fork lift truck! As Peter Cushing might say an actor is lucky to develop many other skills in his profession.

I can confirm that I did indeed pass the course and am now waiting to start work as the warehouse manger (yes, folks I am now in management, not just a common or garden Wheelman, me). All I know on this front so far is that the builders are in, well, building (that's what builders do, right?) the facilities, sorting out the plumbing and electrics too. So I should be in within the next few weeks of which I am looking very forward to be doing so. I just wish the blooming builders would hurry up and get done! I'm ready to get behind that wheel! Never fear though Harcourt & Haigh will continue, but we might even get a bit of a budget now!

Well, that's all for now folks see you in the FUTURE!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

The Thumbs Have It!

Salutations, Acting Fans, we've once again hit the Hump of the midweek and the blog is back. First, a big 'Thumbs up' and THANK YOU to all of those who gave us a push for the Hallowe'en Hinfestation of Youtube, every view and like helps!
Now, down to the current H&H Business. Vern and I got right on with our regular production team chinwag this week on Monday as we were both free. With some wide ranging discussion we hammered out a few of the next steps for our Youtube Funnies, assessing the impact of our Hallowe'en campaign we realise that for maximum engagement we are going to have to look at throwing some money at Youtube and/or Facebook to use their promotion features as our more recent videos seem to have settled at a fairly steady similar amount of views and we have to look at breaking out of the social circles of people who are familiar to us to engage with those who aren't, especially if we want to cultivate those numbers.
One bit of business I could get right on with after our meeting though was as cheap as free and that was a bit of curating of the H&H Channel. Previously we've lumped our 'Seasonal Specials' into a single playlist but talking on Monday we realised that as there is a fairly light (but still there nonetheless) continuity to them we would move the Hallowe'en Hextra Bites to their own playlist. Vern also suggested we drop the 'Seasonal' from 'Specials' to which I assented, this way we don't necessarily have to tie ourselves to a time of year if we want to do something one-off with H&H that doesn't seem to be right for the Actor's Log vlogs or the Series (yes, that is still on the cards, yes, including the oft mentioned, yet-to-materialise Episode 6) or even actually fit any particular holiday or seasonal event.
Well, that was a job that only took a few minutes after getting home following the meet-up but, with the thought of maximising the mechanisms we use to get H&H out there at the forefront of my mind, I decided to take a crack at the automated To-Do checklist that crops up on your Youtube Channel Sidebar. A thrilling evening of Youtube corporate/educational videos followed, some of it almost of some use (almost), the sacrifices we must make for our Art, eh?
One useful thread was sprucing up our Thumbnails, the images (often a still from the video itself) that appear on the links to your video on the first page or in any search list and so as I listened to corporate shpiel I did spruce up the ones that the site suggested. Due to our skills improving (and like wise Youtube functionality) we had already learned to create custom Thumbnails for our videos but, at the meeting with Vern, I submitted that we should consider changing exactly how we do it.

That's BETTER!

My main focus was the Actor's Log thumbnails which, while they are strongly branded, all look essentially the same with the Actor's Log titles and don't show anything of the actual videos themselves - there's no visual or narrative 'hook' for anyone unfamiliar with H&H. I suggested we go back and re-do them all but m'colleague had an alternate suggestion.

Instead of doing it retro-actively, he said, let's do it in an ongoing forward-looking way, keeping the current vlog thumbnails style until next year, collating this first year-or-so of Actor's Logs into a 'Series 1' and seeing in the New Year with a brand new style of thumbnails for 'Series 2' (yes, I'm afraid we aren't stopping). Yes, folks, that is why it's handy to have a second brain about and is exactly what we are going to be doing. New Thumbnails in 2015! Oh, but there will be at least a couple more Actor's Logs before that, of course!

Once again thank you all for all of your help and support, Acting Fans, and, as ever...

TTFN!

Christopher Haigh

It's Halloween Time!!!!

Welcome Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and the people of the worlds Internet, it is Friday and not just any ol' Friday - it's HALLOWEEN mwahahahahah!!! So, erm, anyhoo back to it and the 'it' that  it is back to is crunch time for all of our H&H fans! Yes, we need your help if you could please, please go and watch this years Halloween Special, and please gives us a like and subscribe too. Now I know Chris asked this of all you on Wednesday too, but we do need to get people out there to see it, and power is in all of your hands! So please gives us those views and likes. More views and likes can mean more fun for you too!

What else is happening down here at H&H HQ? Well, despite the blackly festive season we do have an Actor's Log vlog in the works and it is going to be going up next month (which is tomorrow, jeez, where has this year gone!?!). This vlog has been our floating vlog and has been filmed for a few weeks too but we have wanted to let something sink in and kinda make sure that you have been watching closely too. Well have you been??

Then it's going to be on to planning and filming the Christmas Special, yes, sorry to break it to you that time of year is once again almost upon us. We did have an idea but due to me starting work soon we going to have put that back until next year as we need a few props and costume for it too! So that leave us to come up with an another idea for this year. Well, surely we can do this we work well under pressure and to deadlines. So WE CAN DO IT, hahaha! And I must stop calling myself Shirley...

Well that's all for now folks

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Takeover TV Terror

Greetings, Acting Fans, and as the sharp-eyed among you may have already noticed our latest Hallowe'en Special has escaped into the wild just in time:

That's not all though, Vern and I have also managed a Tuesday tête-à-tête on upcoming H&H Beeswax and we have hit upon a diabolical scheme, one of such pure devious nefariousness that it needs not only us, but involves you lot too!!!
Yes, this Hallowe'en we are going to try to harness the power of you nebulous internet chums to give the H&H channel a boost by getting as many likes and views as possible. To help kick it off we have started this Facebook Event here:

H&H's Hallowe'en Hinternet Hinfestation

Even if you yourself do not have a foot in Facebook, you can still help out by watching our Hextra Bite between now and Hallowe'en Night, then 'Liking' the video with the ol' Youtbe Thumbs Up and then sending a link to someone you know who might enjoy the old H&H shenanigans but who hasn't seen them before. With all your help we can RULE THE INTERNETS!!! Or, ah, at least get a few extra views and a bit of a boost up the ol' Youtube listings. Heed our Dark Prayer and help us take over Youtube, just for Hallowe'en. Oh, And have a great one yourselves!!!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Cut Approved

Good Day, Acting Fans, fellow blogger's and people of Internet!!! It is Friday and the H&H update is on me! As Chris mentioned on Wednesday's blog we - well, he (I've been on a training course) - has done a cut of the Halloween Special and it was then sent to me by the almighty power of the Internet to cast my eye over it and see if (anything) could or might need to cut from it.

Well, I am very pleased to say Chris did an excellent job of the Halloween Special it is all well and very good, and funny, special. Everything that we envisioned has worked this time, with only a few lines cut as they would have not gone with the flow of it, putting off the pace. Now this brings me on to the special ending that we had planned out for it. I still really would like to get in done but as I have been on that course I mentioned all of this week (ending today in fact) we haven't had time to film this ending. Unless we have some free time this weekend we might not be able to squeeze it in. If not, it might have to go up as an Extra Hextra Bite as I would really like for you all to see the ending we have in mind and it does play a vital part in the next Halloween special. I know, it sounds very interesting, and so it should!

Hopefully either way this years Halloween Hextra Bite should be beaming to your eyeballs very soooon!

So long for now folks and see you in the future.

TTFN

Submitted For Approval

Greetings and salutations, Acting Fans! Just a short one to let you know how the regular H&H Halloween production is coming on, and come on it has. I have taken my first pass at the footage we have and it now sits awaiting in a DropBox folder for my partner-in-crimes-against-the-internet's to take look at it.
Yes, I have wrestled with the shots (plus a measure of self-doubt) and come up with the best what I could. Now all we need is for Vern to cast his keen eyes over it and give us the yays and the nays. Looking at what we have so far we may have to discuss altering our original plans, but all in good time - he does have to do the course he's on at the moment too, poor chap. Nevertheless the H&H machine seems back on track, fings crossed!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Back Filming the Elm for Halloween

Welcome Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the worlds' Internet, it is Friday - once again a my turn to ramble on, so ramblers lets get rambling.... What have we been doing. Well we haven't been into the woods but we've been around some trees...

Pretty sure there's an Elm in there somewhere but trees aren't my strong point. Dammit, Jim, I'm a Filmmaker, not a Tree Doctor!

Well as said in Wednesday's Blog we were going to be filming again and, yep, fortune was with us this time we once more got behind and in front of the camera. We did it on Thursday now at first we were just going to do the INTerior shots of the Halloween special but, as the day turned out be so nice, clear and dry day, we thought why not get some of the EXTerior shots too. At first we were just going to do one of them which involved an old character popping up from previous special, plus it was also going to be a test for a deliberately lower-tech camera to see if the effect it would give was going to work.

And it worked very well indeed thanks to the older digital camera Chris had bought way back in the early Noughties. The jittery movement of the video on the camera gave the exact effect that we were after. After all, if you can do it camera it always better, cheaper and easy in the edit, so with this test  shot being so much better than we thought, and only being able to film 6 min on this old camera, we decided it would be best to gun it and get the rest of other sequences we were going to use it on done too. Especially as we had the day, the light and the nice weather.

So with both of us out there taking turns to film different sequences using both the the old camera and our trusty Lumix, we got all of the EXTeriors done and in record time, as some of them were just one takes. (Yep, we are really getting that much better). Besides one battery crash (Chris had warned me about the OG DC's battery life) that left us briefly powerless and meant I had to walk back to H&H HQ to get the spare batteries (luckily we had plenty, we just didn't bring them all out with us, d'oh!) it all went well. Then it was on to actual H&H stuff, in-character and everything, as that was all INTerior and we decide to go mainly with a static two shot partly for speed and partly for contrasting atmosphere with the more , let's say, 'lively' EXTeriors. Though this meant just going through some main scenes in single takes without any cutaways so we needed lines bang on. Which, after a slow start and a few small fluffs, we did eventually get them down and in the can.

Once that was done along with some clever reversal shots, making sure lighting would match up as we had filmed one half of them much earlier before we went on out extended EXTerior shoot, it was on to the last two POV shots and the endcap scene with H&H (yes, that's us). That was the real easiest one an, once again I got to eat a prop, always the best props are edible I find, but in true H&H style, just as we were getting ready to finish for the day, we remembered a short sequence we hadn't done! Once again Chris donned his outfit to do this last scene which is, well, it was just as important as any other scene and more importantly would have harder to re-shoot at a later date. Finally with everything done in and around H&H HQ. It was a wrap now, all we have left to do is the end of which I can tell you NOTHING about....mwhahahahah!!!

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Making A List, Checking It Twice

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, and it is a happy one here at H&H Productions - fingers crossed we are actually going to get some actual production with some actual filming tomorrow! Yes, you read that right - Filming! Yes, it has been a while thanks to unfortunate circumstances and filming-unfriendly work patterns. Keep your Fings crossed for us!

And, seeing as it has been a while, we are wracking our brains to draw up a list of exactly what we will need for tomorrow, besides some good luck for a change. The script is in place, a couple of new co-stars have been drafted and we are raring to go. Let's just hope the weather is with us when it comes to our outdoor shenanigans.
Heads have already been put together at our usual meet-up this Tuesday at our usual haunt (Nero's once again) all we have to do is get everybody and the stuff together. Hopefully we will be ready well in time for Goth Christmas! Now I'll leave you with this short, short blog as I go to check the list a third time.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Keeping It Funny

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the Internet once again Friday is upon us so here is your round up of what has been happening at the H&H HQ. Firstly once again apology for no midweek blog posting on Wednesday, once again Chris' busy work schedule as got in the way and kept him very busy but with his dogged determination and dedication to H&H we did get a meet up on Wednesday after he finished his shift that day.

Flippin' Time slippin'!

What has been going this time, well, quite a bit actually despite the business, now, just sit right there and let me tell about it. First thing is Chris has been going over the Halloween script with fine tooth comb AND a toothpick, if you like - metaphorical ones obviously, using real ones would be daft, to add anything I missed and pull out some of the joke threads I might have started but not made them fully fleshed out. Some of the scenes with H&H needed a bit more punching up to the dialogue in them and, of course, getting around (finally!) to putting on the new ending, which you shall see. Now we just got to find some locations. Hmm, easier said I think, but we can do it!

At the meet we did discuss the filming, how and when we were going to do it and, hopefully, we shall be starting next week. We really need to get on as the month is ticking away and soon it shall be November and, well, we would have missed it (Halloween, of course, how can you forget Goth Christmas?!). We also did sort the thing I hinted at last week plus how and where we are going to use the Mystery Item. The only thing I can say it might pop up quite soon, well, maybe, with good luck. We came up with, well, I say we it was Chris with a quick couple of lines for H&H to well, erm, something but, erm, as to where those lines will turn up we don't know, yet. But it shall get used as we did this with the last lines in Grog, and look what happened there. We wrote them down and we did eventually find a place for them and it shall happen once again. So Say I, Vernon Harcourt!

Well, that's all for now folks see you in the FUTURE!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt