Cuckoos In Flight

Yes, it's midweek once again, Acting Fans, and that means, if you are TRUE Acting Fans, you still have THREE chances to catch the Colossal Acting Talent hinself treading the boards at The Actor's Workshop as The Chief in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.

Despite taking to the stage for the first time Tuesday night this week (and a work meeting for yours truly) we managed a meet-up at our usual locale and, after our usual meandering, we've only gone and come up with an Actor's Log idea that, well, it actually supercedes what we were going to do originally and jumps to the front of the filming schedule and it's all down to me watching a bit of mid-morning telly with my parents. Mum & Dad have a daytime TV programme they watch fairly regularly and, well, Mum turned to me and said, 'You should do a H&H version'. After talking it over with Vern over our coffees, we realised she was right - so thank you, Mum! Now all we have to do is get on with it. First though, we're going to let Vern get his board-treading out of the way. So do please remember to support your local actors! Ah, go on!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

McConaissance Reconnaissance

Greetings, Acting Fans, it's bad news again this Wednesday as once again my day job has taken me out of the H&H equation - don't ask me what m'learned colleague has been up to, once again we haven't even got together yet this week! I even have to admit I've been bad and haven't even made my usual first pass at the next vlog script yet, Naughty Chris! Enough of what I haven't been doing, what have I been doing?
Well, after work I have in fact found myself getting caught up in a fresh, exciting new cultural movement that started in 2011 in the United States - yes, I'm talking about the McConaissance. That's right, the stunning second act of Matthew McConaughey's acting career. I am a total convert. After not initially rating the Texan and dismissing him as a pretty-boy actor for years I decided to check out 'True Detective' due to the absence from my telly of the programmes I usually watch (yes, I was right in the middle of a 'Doctor Who' & 'Person Of Interest' drought). I'd heard positive rumblings about the show but dismissed it as yet another cop show with a bit of stunt Hollywood casting. Oh, boy, was I wrong!
Both McConaughey and his co-star (and real-life buddy) Woody Harrelson absolutely knock it out of the park!

It's a frankly stunning bit of Telly that's as much about deconstructing the form as it is in showing the mystery with a hint of Cosmic Horror to boot, whose creator Nic Pizzolatto has been open about the work of comic book writers Grant Morrison and Alan Moore. So, yes, the story is pretty much Chris Catnip but that would mean nothing with out the great central performances. Now, time to stop ogling other peoples' creativity and get on down to my own!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The Lonliness Of The Long Distance Script Wrangler

Hello and welcome, Acting Fans, bloggers and people of the Internet, yep, it's time for another round of H&H news.

Okay, so here we go.....erm....uhm...oh, yes, it's coming back to me now, as you read in Wednesday's post we went about going the long way round in coming up with our next Actor's Log at our last H&H meeting. Afterwards it was my job to make those discussions and ramblings into a workable script. So I immediately got down to it, and then sat their looking, much like Chris mentioned (in terror, that is), at the blank screen trying to remember how to start it.

I suddenly remembered I had actually written down some notes this time (we are getting more and more on ball with this, honest), now if I could only read my own handwriting. (Hahaha, I'm not kidding either - I should have been a doctor). But, with sheer determination, I did manage to decipher it and Chris had also posted a reference post to my Facebook wall that helped jog the vlog memory. Okay, with the mostly-deciphered notes at hand and this post, I was ready right, right? Well, yeah, sort of, I just had to remember which order the lines were going to go in. So with much going back & forth from my word doc, the notes and FB I got down to wrestling it together.

Vern's Spirit Animal

Now this does seem like I'm trying to make this sound more difficult than it actually was but there really was quite a lot of information processed at our last meeting, plus I discovered my Spirit Animal - the actor Richard Harris! I was really surprised how he came across in the interview and ended up liking my favourite Dumbledore a whole lot more, especially him being willing to show himself in a humorous light, like sharing his outtakes and mistakes with the audience. I am playing it up a little bit, yes, but it is a wordier Vlog script, we even got to use a short exchange of lines that both me and Chris came up with on a real-life night out (yep, and we were a little bit drunk too - what can we say, Method Acting). Just how did I remember this line if indeed we were drunk? Well, it amused us so much I decided to wrtte it down on my phone and saved it as draft text. See, I told you we we're getting better at this - even when we've been drinking! So at last that line has gotten used, where and when in the vlog, you will have to watch it to find out, well, once we film it that is. Which shouldn't be too long away!

Anyway that's your lot for the week so next time.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

The Last Hellraiser

"He'll tear your stage apart!"

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Christmas Presence

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

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

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

There's nothing to it...VOGUE!

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

(Not Very) Dear Diary

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Return To the End Of The Beginning

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

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

So We Begin...

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

See What We Did There

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Interiors

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

The Cardboard represents [SPOILERS]

Swarthy!

Thinking Time

Are we done yet?

Staring at Nothing

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

On The Cards

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

Seeing Double

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

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

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

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

TTFN

 Vernon Harcourt

A Virus With Shoes...

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

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

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

We are going to MEME ourselves!!!

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

P.S: POST 200! WOOOO!!!

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

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

STOP! Summer Time! (Special, that is!)

REJOICE, Acting Fans! It's HERE! Yes, Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum. Bring out the Special, let the Views come!

Now witness the funpower of this fully EDITED and OPERATIONAL Youtube video! I know we usually recommend an accompanying cup of tea but in this case we can't in all honesty. And if you risk it, well, we refuse to be held accountable for the resulting state of your keyboard/monitor/tablet device/phone.
As you can plainly see with your own two eyeballs (or less, or more - depending on the number you have been allocated) I got finished with the Summer Special on Wednesday night. A rather fortuitous turn of events happened with my talented sibling popping in at home for a flying visit. You see I needed a female performer for one of the required Voiceovers and, as you may gather, my sister is indeed female. One impromptu voice recording session later and 'This One Time...at Buntings Camp' was locked, stock and ready to Rock!
Now it's up to you, Internet Chums, disseminate as far and wide as you can! Post, blog, re-blog, tumbl, Bebo, Twitt and whatever else you can! To paraphrase Orson Welles, this film has escaped - so help it run to freedom as far as you can. As ever you will have our eternal thanks for doing so but, please, don't forget to enjoy it yourselves. That's it for this week, H&H OUT!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Loading Screen

Hello there, Acting Fans, a belated blog as we careen into the Bank Holiday Weekend! Though we haven't had a H&H Pow-wow since our midweek final Summer Special shoot there's still been activity at H&H HQ II - The Editing Suite, conveniently located rather close to my bed, ladies! (For when I get TIRED from all the EDITING, my dears, REALLY, how naughty of you!) Anyway since we got the footage shot it's up to yours truly to get the lot of it uploaded and ready to edit, so I've seen quite a bit of this:

Yep, the familiar site of the iMovie loading bar and, fortunately this time, not a lot of the spinny Beach Ball O' Doom:

I HATE that guy!

I'm happy to report that, after my memory kicked in and I grabbed a little bit of extra footage that I had to dive into the ol' H&H Footage Archive to load up with the rest, this screen is loaded to bear and ready for the H&H Cutting Crew (Myself and the irrepressible Vern, of course) to get on and wrangle it into an episode-y sort of shape. There may be a little additional prep for edit to do over the Bank Holiday but that's pretty much it for this week. Have a Grand Bank Holiday Weekend yourselves, Internet Chums and...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

It's Curtains For Us

Welcome back, bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, it's Wednesday update time so let's get down to this! We have actually had another busy week here at H&H HQ. Yep, we met up Tuesday (20th August) where we went over some new, well, new-ish ideas and we are still slowly planning out how exactly to get the last episode of series 1 filmed.

In the course of the meeting we also tried to figure out where to film the last two cutaways we needed for the Summer Special and, after a bit of rolling it around in thought and conversation (with the need to get a Summer Special out actually IN the Summer concerning us) we had a great idea. We could get it done right there in H&H HQ! We did some test shots for some of the Summer Special cutaways and we found out that, yes, the curtains in my game room looked rather good, well, great even with them drawn (and the big light on with an improvised spotlight from a de-lava-ed lava lamp shone up at an angle).

Curtains!

With that in mind we decided to go ahead and film the last two shots to go the very next day - TODAY! (Wednesday 21st). And, well, we did and I am pleased to be able to say the Summer Special is now in the can - finito, fin, done, finished...well, I'm sure you get the point. Now all that's left is the looong edit to get this into a funny special that you lot can feast your eyes upon! Well, hopefully not too long away we have pencilled in a date next week to lock ourselves in the editing suit with a fair few cups of tea and we won't come out until it is completed or one of us breakdown which ever comes first (or probably both).

Well that's all for now, Internet Chums, wish us Good Luck!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt