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

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

Life Finds A Way...To Get In The Way

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, welcome to your mid-weekly update of what's what at H&H HQ. I have to admit that's not a lot so far this week, we haven't even managed to have our regular meet-up yet. Yep, It's the time of year where I'm called up in work near-enough full time, as I'm covering other colleagues annual leave which hasn't left any time for Acting at Large.
All I can do is apologise and assure you that I'm poring over Vern's script with an eye to the odd tweak or two and a bit of word wrangling. Hopefully we'll have more to report Friday but that's all for now.
What you could do though (if you've already gotten through our episodes and blogs and need some new humour injecting into your life) is check out the iPlayer as Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle has sputttered back onto our telly screens and can be viewed right there. A brief warning, though, some of the language is definitely NSFW! 

Enjoy! And until next Time...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

 

Hungry Like The Wolf

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the world's internet and welcome back to, yep, it's friday and this our blog post. We've managed both of 'em this week!

As we all know it's Valentines Day and, as those of you paying attention on Wednesday may already know, we have an extra special vlog up for just this occasion, in fact it's especially for all our fellow singletons out there - so if you're down and in need of pick-me-up what better than the POWER of laughter. So, please, let Harcourt & Haigh into your life so we can cheer you up.

What you might not know is Valentine's is a christianised spin-off of an earlier Roman festival Lupercalia that involved, well, there's no polite way to put it Horny Werewolves and whipping. So a bit of Retro-Pop might be called for too...

 Anyway with that aside what else has happened down here at H&H HQ? As we said on Wednesday we have been busy with Vlog filming and have another vlog in the Internet Pipeline coming your way very soon, as a matter of fact that bite of Lupercalian Retro-Pop is a cryptic clue to what's coming next. Yes, 80s and a Wolf, hmm.
We are still in planning stages for the series 1, episode 6 our own white whale, so as we asked in the Wednesday blog post if there is anyone out there who would to co-star/help out and behind the scenes plpease get in touch either via the Facebook Fan Page or by the email at handh.tv@gmail.co.uk as we really do need some very much needed help with this episode and even past it into series two as well. We have plans to extend ourselves, gluttons for punishment we are, but to do it we need a H&H Army.

Well, that's all folks tune in next week: Na noo, na noo.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Riding Like The Wind

Greetings, Acting Fans, welcome to this week's Humpday, yes, we're halfway to the Weekend, folks, and we've been busy at H&H HQ. Forget Vern ushering me into the age of 37 with his musical stylings of 'Wild Thing', 'Bad Moon Rising' and 'I'm A Believer' at a local cocktail bar on my Birthday night out - we've been busy on actual H&H stuff too, particularly on the Vlog front. We got two of them shot and edited this week and the first of them to go up is live right now, just in Valen-time for Valentine's Day!

Yes, take heart, single Acting Fans, love could strike at any time, any place but while it hasn't yet try keeping busy. How? Well, even as it threatens to snow Vern and I are moving on with trying to nail down the filming of the elusive 6th episode of Series 1 and as it turns out we need all the help we can get. Yep, we're saying that...

If you're no longer content to just sit back and watch H&H unfurl and would like to get involved in front of or behind the camera then get in touch with us at the H&H Gmail account: handh.tv@gmail.com.
We need as many warm bodies as possible for this ambitious Season 1 finale and are looking to move on it as soon as we can. In the mean time stay tuned to the H&H channel as Next Monday we have the next Actor's Log ready and raring to go! That's all so far this week, Internet Chums, so...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Christmas Wrapping

Welcome back Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the internets to this erm...erm...what day is it? Oh, yeah - Friday blog! Yep, as some of you more eagle eyed fans of you might have seen that there wasn't a Wednesday blog and I bet you might be wondering what happened to that there post. Did we have a break down? Were we abduction by Aliens? Was there a computer melt down? An Acrimonious divorce? Well actually none of the above it was we a much boring reason I just plain old plum forgot about as we were very busy down at the H&H HQ.

What were we doing that made us forget this important update to the people of the world? Well acting fans we were very busy filming another video for the actors log. Now this has a special theme to it AND had lots for us to do  (so much for simple short and quick!) but in true H&H style we got on with all of the various shots in our short space of time. With only our wits about us (and our Xmas shopping list of props) and some idea of how it was going to be we managed to Ad Lib our way through!

With everything set up and went for it, and it was a fun day as we were flying by the seat of our (lounge) pants. And having a laugh and getting through this long sequence of events, as for this one there was no really script, we just had the list of the items that we at use and off we went.

Boy, did it takes use a few takes to get things right and we were only on the first item on list, yep, I kept on losing on what was the third line that I said. So after all of he laughs, fluffs, spittakes, cracking, cat herding and more laughs we got through to end and it was time to do some close-ups, which meant going back over the footage to see how and where things stuff was held so this time it would match up and defeat our old nemesis CONTINUITY (see we are learning)!

Then the rushes were rushed off to the edit suite (Chris's bedroom, natch) for Mr Haigh to edited it down into a watchable Vlog but more on that...sooon, so now you're all up to date on what's has been happing over here at the H&H HQ!

FOR REALSIES!!!

Oh, and as one final note me, myself and Chris are going over to Huddersfield tomorrow (7th December) to participate in a live life drawing session of Harcourt & Haigh at the Packhorse Gallery! Yes, that's right, no content with corrupting the Internets H&H are invading our reality as well! So we shall be immortalised in the medium of drawing and maybe put up in a gallery for all the world to see. Well, for a few weeks anyways.

That is all for now, I did say it has been a busy week.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Technically Hitched

Hello, Acting Fans, and welcome to this Not-On-A-Friday Friday Blog post coming to you late only partially because Vern is rubbish at remembering to remind me now that we are splitting the blog duties when I forget but mainly because we have had a SNAFU on the technology front.

It started out so promisingly too, a lot of the props we need for our upcoming next bit of filming were mostly a matter of gathering things together we already had. We did however need certain images creating and printing out. Now I collated these images earlier in the week and on Friday I thought I'd take the time on my morning off to get the printed out. Unfortunately the Printer's Devil struck and nether of the printers in the house could manage it. Bugger. We needed them sooner rather than late. And Vern doesn't have a printer that's good enough for photos, or work at all as it turns out.

So it was that an initially simple task became more difficult and led to me trawling round various Halifax Printshops to see if they'd print off photo quality images for me, after a lot of traipsing about and a lot more of just being fed up with this I ended up getting the assistance Totally Locally from Halifax's resident Photoshop, Janet Green's. All this palaver plus some ancillary stuff I needed to sort for myself meant the blog completely left my mind, sorry, Acting Fans, so here it is belatedly - better late than never. And so are our prints, thankfully.

Yes our Prints has come. Now we are faced with another conundrum, we have so far been unable to source a certain set of props and might have to think of some sort of low-budget replacement which is going to entails me staring at a Thesaurus (well, the contents of one) to try find a solution. That's all for Last week, Internet Chums, see you on the other side of the weekend!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Let There Be Light(ing)!

Welcome back, bloggers and Acting Fans, yep, it's Wednesday again and this is our blog!

So what exactly's has been going on down here at the H&H HQ, well, nothing! What we've been up to didn't happen at H&H HQ! We have once again ventured out on Sunday to get the exterior shots of the Halloween Special done, with the kind help of one Jake Broadhurst and another, Hardy Boococks,
as our camera people we got it done.

We braved the night (okay, early evening) to do this but, alas, the first place we were going to use, was unviable, down to closed and locked entrance gates. We had to troop back down to our second choice. Then on to the depths of Dean Clough to get one final bit shot (including some awesome stuntwork from yours truly) and we were done for the night (by our usual standards it was a short shoot) and a good job too, that dark sure is coming in quick now!

That brings us up to today were we have been dressing the second set (above and beyond Legacy Comics) ready for the this Saturday shoot, we tested out some additional lighting as that is very important and we had a minor costume test too (no, not our costumes, some other peoples') We've also got all of our props that will be needed for the shoot now in one place, on set, which should hopefully prevent any forgetting of important stuff.

Mystery Costume Test

ACTING! But more importantly LIGHTING!

 And a head of time we even managed to get some close up shot coverage done too that doesn't need any one else in shot other than......well, that would be telling now, teehee!

Well I think that's your lots' lot for now, see you in the Future!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

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

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

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

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

Workin' it!

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

It WAS A Very Good Year...

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Promises, Promises

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's time again for your first dose of the H&H blog this week. Let me get down to it. We have indeed been busy busy this week, as we said we would last week, we got into the editing of the Summer Special and, well, we have done just that.

Me, myself and Chris locked ourselves up in H&H HQ 2 to do it yesterday (Tuesday 27th August) and I can report the Final Cut is done (well, apart from two voiceovers which Chris is going sort out) but all of the main body of the episode has been done and finalised. And I must say it has come out rather funny indeed, if I say so myself - as I usually do but, dammit, I mean it! This time we have been quite ruthless with some of the cuts and editing because, after all, some of the things you write don't always work out on the screen and after it is filmed they just don't seem to fit in the natural flow of things.
We got done pretty quick too and for that I really have to thank Chris for taking his Bank Holiday Monday to get right into the prep of the rushes. Stripping off the "Actions" and "Cuts", sifting out the odd Outtake and chopping the selected footage up into handily-labelled, nice, edit-sized chunks. Fuelled by a lunch of exotic finger food and plenty of tea we got done, not too long after eating it.

So now we have got a complete special and as to when it is coming your way, you may wonder, 'When can we see it?'. Well, all I can, and will, say is soon, maybe even quite soon. Well, that's all of the update for today come back on Friday for more.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Saturday's Alright (& Tuesday Went Well Too!)

Well, hello there, Acting Fans and felow bloggers, welcome back to this the H&H blog for your usual Wednesday post. Let me tell you what have we been up to then over this week so far. Just sit tight right there and I'll tell you - that is if you keep reading, it IS a blog after all. Use your eyes!

Ok, Internet Chums so last Saturday we did indeed manage to get ourselves up to Manor Heath Park to do the experimental bit of filming and it was a sunny, shining success. It turned out we didn't end up going into the Jungle Experience to do it, nope, we filmed at a nice spot we found out in the Walled Garden area up there. We did sneak a peak at the Jungle Experience facilities but, well, while it might have had some nice exotic plants, it didn't look right. The 'Greenhouse' look of it seemed like it would be too hard to hide in the shots and we might not have been able to get as up close and personal with the Flora as we needed to, so we layed down on the grass in our ideal chosen spot, got out the [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and went to work, and I must say having now reviewed the rushes that it does indeed look very good and should be funny. (Plus we saved TWO WHOLE POUNDS not going in, hey, every little bit helps on a Low-to-No Budget!)

Ooh, there's more............Yes, we have been busy!

Yesterday (Tuesday 6th August, 2013) Me, Chris and our good buddy Logan Darkholme (yes, that really is his name...legally) met up for a read through of the Summer Special script as we have found this is always good to iron out any problems with the script and change any lines that might not work or flow naturally the way we first wrote them (it does happen). It was a roaring success too, we laughed through it too, well I did - I'll have to put a lid on it for the shoot which won't be easy, it's pretty funny if I say so myself. All in all I am very pleased with how this script is turning out. You know it could be our best Special yet......could be. Though the other two out of three ain't bad!

Well, that's you lot for now we have now things to doing during the week but I leave that for Friday.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

The Call To ACTION!

It's the weekend, folks of the Internet, and time once again for your second weekly update on the goings-on at H&H Productions. Well, I can confirm that my approach to the management of the establishment we need for tonight's shoot (done just before my night at the theatre, dahlings) was a complete success. We got permission to do our filming almost before I'd got the full question out, I'm not complaining that means it's a Go - ACTION STATIONS!

Thanks to some assistance from our friend (and proprietor of local comic book shop, Legacy Comics!) Has lent himself to us for the evening so Vern & I can concentrate on getting our H&H on. Yes, we'll be braving the summer heat in our rather toasty costumes but it's a minor bit of suffering for our Art. All Fings crossed by the end of this evening we'll have the footage we need for the intro to the Summer Special, then all we have to do is film, well, the entirety of the rest of it. At this rate it might even be done THIS Summer ;-) !

That's where I'll be leaving you this week, Acting Fans, we've got to get everybody and the stuff together before we blow this scene. You'll have to find out how it went next week. Until then have a grand weekend yourselves and...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

How Does Hat Beat Pint?!

Welcome back, Acting Fans to yet another blog post after a very sunshiny day. Well do I have some news to report, me and Chris did indeed get met up this week. Last night in fact, yep, Tuesday - glad somebody's keeping track.

And wholly in character, and for the sake of the Art you understand (well, that and to give my flatmates a break from our conspiratorial cackles coming from the H&H production office as we type up our latest masterpiece) like the drunkard actors that we are it was in a pub (well, a few actually)! Where we have now conceived of an opening for the summer special and we are, Gods willing, going to be filming that on this coming Friday too! Yep, we are once again getting back into filming. We also had a good plan to set in motion another project or two involving something that might just be popping up sometime soon BUT IT IS A SECRET! So, shush. Quiet now.

We even managed to puts some plans in place a character to appear in the 2nd series, yes folks, we are now even starting to put plans in place for a 2nd series so stay tuned for more on that one (and yes, yes we haven't forgotten episode 6 either.

That isn't all that happened, oh no, while we were talking at one of our various open air production offices (yes, yes, okay - pub beer gardens) that evening, Chris took his hat off and put it on the table, where my pint was when suddenly a gust of wind caught his hat. Chris managed to snag his hat but at the cost of my pint, mostly over me. He swears he has no idea how it happened as he didn't feel any contact with the glass, just the brim of his hat. So somehow a hat, light enough to be blown by a gust of wind, knocked over a nearly full pint glass. I can only assume Chris has an Evil hat and I will be keeping my eye on it from now on.

VS.

 

Never mind, though, as Chris coughed up for a replacement and while I'm working away in a hot call centre today he's going to approach the manager of the location we need to hopefully be able to get on doing it on Friday. He'll be popping in to see the manager before he goes to see 'Miss Nightingale - The Burlesque Musical'. Going into work on his week off, what's he like, eh? As Chris is indulging his theatrical side (and he does the final edit and posting) this entry might get posted a tad late but hopefully it'll still be Wednesday - I have to admit, I hold my hands up! I totally forgot about Blog - but I did have a lot on my mind AND I'd had my pint thrown at me! Anyway, things crossed for Friday, Folks.

Well that is about all what I can tell you today, so have fun in, on or under whatever and wherever you do out there!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Employment

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, it's Chris here with your midweek H&H fix. Once again the job, or in truth jobs, have gotten in the way again. My evening shift this Tuesday put the kibosh on our regular meet-up session. The reason I even had an evening shift in the first place was also to do with a job because, you see, I am seeking employment...

Now don't panic, my regular day job hasn't gone south - I'm still gainfully employed, part time. It's the Part Time bit that is getting to me a little, it's come to my attention of late just how limiting my take home from just 16 hours work is and, with annualised hours, the more time I'm losing during busy periods at work without really gaining anything long term. So I've tried to kickstart my looking for longer shift/better paid jobs (that, to be honest, had fallen by the wayside as I've gotten a little too comfortable at work.)
I recently found a couple of jobs that seemed ideal in the 20+ hours sweet spot and in areas of my expertise (or at least experience). I applied for both and made it to interview stage for one of them. Yes, an honest-to-God interview! An interview that was on Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning. One of the only two days I had a shift this week with the theatres shorter opening hours. Typical. Of course it was Tuesday morning. Luckily, I had a colleague willing to swap shifts with me but it still took out our weekly (& handy pre-blog day) meeting.
The kicker is it's looking most likely that I didn't actually get the job either. Bah. Nevermind, if at first one doesn't succeed, etc. Back to the artsjobs listings, oh, and the preparation for H&H!

Stay tuned for more on what we've been up to in Fridays blog and, until then...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Spirit Of The Staircase

Welcome to the weekend, Acting Fans, and todays blog post title is a translation of the french phrase 'L'esprit d'escalier'. Like a lot of french phrases it's one of those that doesn't have as succinct a way of saying what it means in any other language, like Déjà vu. 'The feeling that one has been/done something before even if you haven't' just doesn't quite cut it by comparison.
'L'esprit d'escalier' means the clever things you think to say after a conversation has ended, all the 'oh, I should have said that's that hit as you leave or have left, quite often as your feet land on the steps out the front door. I like to think of it as a sort of metaphysical Columbo. (Although the Lieutenant himself usually remembered before he finished leaving.)

"Eh, Just one more thing, sir..."

It was something a little what I felt as I edited Wednesday's blog for posting, something had been nagging me since our meeting on Tuesday night but it wasn't until Wednesday that exactly what it was coalesced in my mind. Now the exact thing would be [SPOILERS] if I wrote it here but suffice to say an element we'd deliberately added to the Summer Special hadn't been utilised to full effect in the first draft so, shortly after posting, I tapped out my additional idea and emailed it to Vern. Who will get back to me about it in due time.

Now we've been unable to get a second meet-up together this week, nevertheless Vern is keeping busy as he's casting his net wide to try get a willing victim kind volunteer to make themselves available to play the third wheel required for the Summer Special.

That's all for this week, Internet Chums, so get out there and enjoy the sunshine but don't forget to tune in next week!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh