Bringing Spexy Back

Now coming to you in HD! What? No, not our latest Actor's Log, which you can view right here:

The HD vision is mine as today, before this weeks first meet-up, I picked up my brand new specs and now, like Sir Patrick Stewart, I've seen EVERYTHING. Okay, I haven't seen EVERYTHING really but, boy, can I see clearly, now I'm not squinting past all the scuffing. For those of you about to reckon I should have gone to Specsavers - you're TOO LATE! That's where I went and got my sexy Flexi 71s from.

Noice!

They may be tortoiseshell but let me reassure you, Acting Fans, no tortoises were harmed in their manufacture, remember we have a low-to-no budget to maintain and that would be well out of budget. Anyway, enough about me and my new vision machine, on to H&H doings. Yes, as briefly mentioned Vernon and I met up at our usual haunt (both of us a bit skint to go pubbing this time) to knock our heads together. After a wild meander through some pop cultural topics we finally got around to some H&H business, one of the first being a great idea from Vern for another upcoming vlog.
The main crux of today's meet though was deciding our next steps production-wise, after letting June's Actor's Log get down to the wire we've decided to pull our fingers out and aim to get a next vlog in the can as soon as possible but without rushing it too much. Ideally though we'd like to aim for getting two of them out to you, you lucky people. Any more details on exactly what they involve would be [SPOILERS] so that's your lot for now, I'm off to try and come up with a good excuse for not being able to read the fine print now that I can see it in pin-sharp detail...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Thor's Day

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

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

Be Careful What You Don't Wish For

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

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

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


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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

K.B.O.

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

Weapons of Choice

 

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Mystery Play

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

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

WARNING: Not for the Cheery Hearted

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Guest Appearance

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

Guest Star

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Objects in Motion, Objects at Rest

Welcome to the midweek checkpoint, Acting Fans, and it being a post-Bank Holiday weekend Wednesday you would be forgiven for thinking we have nothing to report but you would be WRONG!
Yes, despite the Bank Holiday or Vern being Mid-Move (and me cutting several rugs with my dancing shoes the prior Sunday night) we managed to meet up for a bit of H&H business. As it turned out this Bank Holiday Monday was a bit of a lull in Vern's Transdomicileular Relocation with Vern and his flatmates, er, I should say HOUSEmates (or is it New Landlords? We'll have to ask their preference) having managed to move all the stuff they could do themselves at the weekend (even with yours truly popping by to help out by doing very little, if anything at all - hey, I had a cover blog to do and my second job to go to! Anyway it's the thought that counts. And I thought I could get away with it!). The burly Moving Men being booked for the following Tuesday (let's face it, hiring movers on a Bank Holiday Weekend is sheer madness - think of the EXPENSE!) he had the day free and a busy Tuesday & Wednesday to look forward to so he texted me about getting together first thing this week. A text I got much later in the day whilst heading out on an ultimately fruitless search for some Granola (they only had 'Tropical Fruit', BLEH!), after my cereal failure I met Vern at what seems to be becoming our local haunt coffee-wise, Halifax's 'Nero's'.

Missing Cereal

After our usual chinwagging, we eventually got back down to the business called 'Show' and hammered out a few things about our upcoming Actor's Log ideas and scripts, including the potential titling of a couple of them but more info on that would be [SPOILERS]! We realised we've been lucky with our judicious choice to shoot a quick and dirty 'sequel' Actor's Log so we didn't end up missing one this month and May being a bit of a 'longer' month the way it's fallen this year, we have a decent amount of time to prep for our next shoot whether we're ready & able to shoot at H&H HQ2 or not. More plans for Total Internet Domination were mooted and even a poor unfortunate Barista who drifted too close to our conversation got a business card and an invitation to become a willing victim contributor to the H&H Media Machine. We do, after all, need them additional warm bodies. And with that, and an awful lot of unpacking ahead of him, Vern & I parted ways - so that's your lot for this mid-week stay tuned for a weekend update from m'learned colleague this Friday and,

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Pad & Pen

Yes, Acting Fans, you've made it to Humpday once again and, before the swift slide to the weekend really kicks off, here's the midweek status of H&H Production. The wheels are well and truly in motion at H&H HQ with furious effort being put into the preparation of places for the Big Move. Fortunately Vern was able to break off from the relocation activities to once again meet up wit me at the local Nero's, we'll end up regulars if this keeps up. Importantly he had also brought his H&H notepad & pen, of course.

The new format meet-up with the addition of proper coffee is proving to pay of dividends too, as after a bit of a catch-up and chatting about this & that we did in fact get around to actual H&H business. And, boy, did we do the business! Yes, we ended up with 4 or 5 more rough ideas for upcoming Actor's Logs, meaning including last weeks efforts we now have 8 or 9 ready to move into development and that's not even going into the possible new format shorts we look at!
Since that Tuesday get-together Vern has had his nose to the grindstone (well, to his PC Monitor) and his shoulder to the wheel (okay, his fingers to the keyboard) and has expanded 3 of the Actor's Log ideas into first drafts, which I am currently giving the once-over. Which I shall now be leaving you to get on with, so that's all for now, Folks...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The World of Tomorrow...

Welcome to the Wednesday blog post, Acting Fans, where you find the H&H team wondering about where to go next as we follow Time's Arrow. If you haven't had the pleasure already, please make your way over to our channel to check out the latest Actor's Log, number 9, and the last to be filmed at our former HQ, the fanfare for Flat 2:

Now as we wait, we wonder. We have already mentioned we do have plenty to do for H&H in the Future but besides more videos (including the still to be filmed final episode of Series 1) what we haven't mentioned on the blog is that we have also mooted other things. We wonder about doing something a bit different next. Should we do something rather more radical and daring than simply posting videos to Youtube, something a bit more...alternative?
It just so happens that recently I have come across something that might fit that, and I have communicated the possibility to m'learned colleague. I don't want to say exactly what, just yet - especially as it may not come off - but the 'Mystery Opportunity', as I shall refer to it for now, will be the main thing that we discuss at this week's H&H tête-à-tête. For the moment I shall have to leave you wondering...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Weekend At Vernie's

Welcome Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and all people of the Worlds Internet. Yep, it's Friday once again and it's blog time. So here's what else has been happing over here at the H&H HQ.

Well, after our meet-up earlier this week as Chris tweaked (tweaked, not twerked that's a different thing entirely. Chris doesn't do that. Hmm, well, Chris doesn't do that sober) I have been writing some more Actor's Logs, well, writing up the Future ones me and Chris were talking about, getting the ideas wrangled down into a workable script. Something that in it's own right can quite difficult, especially when we have talked about so much - it can be hard to remember it all, so remember budding Youtube Producers you can never have too many notes!

Lastly we are going to be filming the next Vlog at this current location of H&H HQ, yep, one last one before the big move. A Final Filmic fling and a farewell to the flat. That shall be next week in fact and, fingers crossed, it shall becoming to your eyes very soon!

Fortunately for us, this one it isn't as props heavy as the last one (well, we *might* be cheating to save on messing about making a prop we'll probably only use once) but sadly there won't be any tasty treats for me this time either (Mmm...braaains!), so it should be quicker for us to do.

Well that's your lot for today, I'd best get back to writing!

See you in the WORLD OF TOMORROW!!!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Coffee & Cake

Welcome once again, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and the people of the Internet! Yep, it's Friday let's once again get down with it and DANCE! Only kidding, of course I mean BLOG!

So at last we got this week's H&H meet up (today in fact), yep, me and Chris met up at the flat for some Internet Security protocoling before heading to a local coffee shop (like the writers that we are) where over some cake and coffee we had a good ol' brainstorm. And what a Brainstorm session it was! What about, you may ask, well, just sit right there and I will tell you.

Image via Twinfoods

One of the thumbnails attached to a recent post of H&H we did suddenly inspired Chris to have a great idea about a new kind of short we could do, one harking back to a regular series of Two Ronnies sketches but with a H&H spin. He was so excited about it he texted me straight away (this was the other day, before our meeting) and I had to agree it was a pretty good idea. That was what we talked about first and so it was born from the seed of Chris's idea and with some additional notes & ideas this ongoing future project took shape and will hopefully be coming fairly soon to your screens. After much laughing and drinking we also came up with more vlog ideas too. (These vlog idea idea are getting a bit easier) and all I can say is some of them are indeed going to be very funny indeed. Hopefully one of them is something that we all can relate to as well (and it's not just me) but I'm sorry, I can't really tell you any more about that at the moment.

In fact we had lots of great idea and it was quite hard in keeping up them and writing them down too but wrote them all down I did. So now all we have to do is all work ahead of us to get them down in video but it will be worth it though, as they are very funny ideas to boot.

We even got to planning out this years Halloween Special too, which I so can't wait to film and get out there. Once again nothing else can be said about that - sorry. Tee hee. 

So that's your lot for this week so you in the next week

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Winter (Soldier) Is Coming

Well, he's already been for me. Welcome to Midweek, Acting Fans, and back to our fully operational and on time (just about) Blog! I'm now feeling a lot better but today's meet-up was delayed due to my attendance (and consequent sleeping-in) of the local Vue's last Tuesday showing of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', to get in on their sweet Super Tuesday offer it's the only one I could make. I did not, however, check the timing too well as by the end of the film (hey, I have to see those end credit scenes) it was 11:30. 11:30 which is after the Last Bus so it was a scenic walk home on the cards for me, AND I'D DO IT AGAIN!!! I am, after all, a Yorkshireman (like the Scottish but less generous ;-).
That exhausting act of full frontal nerdity was exacerbated by me going out on a bit of a scouting mission, successful as it turned out, for a further bit of nerdity - this time of the collectable variety (alright, alright - it was a Transformer). Though I did get home in time for a nice late lunch, it was later than I intended (thank you, Brain, for insisting there was a quarter past train at Sowerby Bridge station, you were, in fact, quite wrong). By way of apology I offered to meet m'learned colleague at the coffee shop of his choice, for a meeting with coffee provided by me.

After regaling him with my tale of miscalculated film times and recommending 'The Winter Soldier' (okay, okay geeking out) it turned out Vern himself is off to see it tonight with his flatmates. Coffees in hand we headed upstairs to get down to H&H business. We got on with planning out the next phase of getting the next vlog filmed which we'll hopefully be able to get sorted next week, as unfortunately filming this weekend is out (though the 'why' we can't film isn't what you'd really call 'unfortunate', but more on that on Friday from m'colleague). Despite still having a working delay, we realised we needed to have another idea in the bag for a vlog after the next vlog is done. Vern had the idea of looking over the prior vlogs to perhaps think about a sequel or semi-sequel to one. And a rather good idea was formed, which Vern will be writing up the basic idea of tonight!
With the planning done and a next idea in hand, we had a bit more nerd chatter over our coffees as we finished them (ranging from Marvel films, to Star Trek, to good & bad series endings, to 'Hard Time On Planet Earth' - a new one to Vern it turned out) before heading home our separate ways after finally getting back to H&H business. Now to get some stuff filmed, wish us Good Luck!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Good Omens

Hello, Acting Fans and the rest of you - you know who you are! Yep, it's Friday, Friday, friday gotta get down a blog about what else has been happening since Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. Well as Chris is busy working away, we haven't had a second meet-up (as we've tried to get into doing two in week, it seems to help us stay in the groove and get things done) so other that some preparation for the next Blog not much as been happening at all I'm afraid.

Other than me learning some of my lines for the next Vlog, oh, and doing some research of my own into some plots of the ol' movies. Why look back at old movies for the next blog? Well, this isn't actually for the next blog but further ahead - it is in fact part of the Top Secret, For Our Eyes Only, Ultra Classified Furture Plans of H&H, which have spun out of what we talked about in last week's blogs. This is something that may be quite a bit  of the way down the line but we need to start to get things sorted out for it as it could be a big project, well, for H&H Productions anyways.

Me and Chris shall be meeting up again soon which will involve a costume test/fitting and a line run through, then it's of to film the vlog and, fings crossed you all should be seeing it very quite soon, soon indeed. You see, we've had a good omen today as our required bit of proppage for the vlog that we'd only just ordered turned up on Chris's doorstep this very afternoon (it's lucky his Mum & Dad were in to meet the postie too), how's that for service, eh? As to what it was, well, here's a clue...

Mystery Prop!

Enough, that's your lot for this week!

Until next time - TTFN!

Vernon Harcourt

 

Signs Of Movement

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, and it's good news on the H&H front this week, as a break on the work rota front has meant we have been able to do our usual knocking together of heads at H&H HQ. I also managed to put my tweak, spit and polish to the next vlog's script, which m'learned colleague and myself went over yesterday. Vern did have a few notes on the additions I'd made and, as the old adage goes about great minds, he said exactly what I had in mind for the specific sequences - the H&H Machine is running A-Okay.
There was only one problem, as usual we had another idea to make the next vlog a bit more interesting. Yes, as usual we made the rod for our own backs and this new bit would require some additional proppage, which has sent me on an internet shopping search today. Luckily the necessary item or items was/were a reasonable price on Ebay and should be winging their way to us now. Fings crossed in time to get the Vlog done this month! We've also gotten ahead of ourselves and got a prop for a later vlog on order too!

With the current upheaval at H&H HQ when it came to shooting the next Actor's Log we thought it might be a good idea to consider using an alternate location. Once again our good friend and professional Comic Book Shop proprietor, Mr. Simon Shaw, Esq. has once again generously come to our aid. Now all we have to do is await our package.

"WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOOOOOOOOX?!"

Vern also gave me back my DVD copy of 'Once Upon A Time In The West', with the upcoming move he didn't want to lose in the shuffle whilst transporting his collection to the new HQ (and Vern has a LOT of DVDs to get stuff lost in, he's an OFB - Original Film Buff). Before we set off to Simon I forced Vern to watch the final gunfight on Youtube as, at one point in episode 6, I want him to channel some Bronson and a bit of Fonda.
Today I also finalised another bit of H&H 'Research', being as it was so nice out I took a short daytrip out to Leeds to pick up our tickets for Matt Berry's concert in the city in April. Like we've said before, learn from the best!

Now with the script agreed there's just a waiting game for our additional equipment, oh and a bit of a costume test yet to do. That's all for now though.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

With Teeth

Hello, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the world wide webs. HELLO, yep, it's Friday and time for us to update you on whats going on down here at H&H HQ.

Well at last me, myself and Chris finally got to get a meet-up done, (YEAH!) and, well, Chris came armed with an idea about extending the background for H&H, something about our two criminal actors' acting careers, which led to us compiling a list of fictional movie titles that both of them have starred in and, well, I'm not going to give too much away though I will tell you the idea is a take on a certain famous British film studio. Oh, and these fictional movies are going to big overseas but to tell you why would be [SPOILERS]. And, boy, how much did we laugh at the titles. I do indeed think you will like them, we even talked about maybe evening filming some of the trailers for these movies (Man we do like to make this hard for ourselves, but who said it was going to easy)

On a completely unrelated note (alright, alright, it might be a bit of a clue) Chris also brought down the 1958 Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee Dracula as some, erm, research...yes, that's it research into fine acting! After our Richard Harris viewing went so well, we thought we'd give a film a go and see what it brought up ideas-wise. As we watched it we were reminded that Peter Cushing is just one of the finest british actors to grace the silver screen, proper "ACTING!"all capitals. He was indeed that good, his line delivery seemed sometimes more modern and sophisticated compared to the actors around him plus his subtle facial expressions were amazing, brilliantly showing the passion and emotion behind a polite, stiff-upper lip exterior. Why is this important to H&H? Well, if we're going to learn, why not learn from the Best? Looking over old actors and looking at how they did it can still teach us a thing or two and listening to their off screen antics can be handy too. You never know what you might spot though.

In Yesterday's feature it was the two or three scenes in it that suddenly went broadly comic, in a way that western movies don't tend to do these days, it reminded us a bit of the way they still shift tone, even in more recent films, in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. We also spotted the more static use of the camera in the shots, with more panning than camera movement, especially when it came to movement between two tiers, and less inter-cutting than more modern films. Lastly we realised neither of us felt we'd be as comfortable dashing around in a cloak as Sir Christopher Lee, he surely must have fallen over a few times - never mind leaping over tables! And all without the aid of a stunt-man (as far as we could tell). Crikey! All in all it was an eventful and funny day. We got quite a bit done, because sometimes a little world building is just as important and can add more to the characters, even if it's just in our heads for now.

Well, that's all for now folks, so...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

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

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

 

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 Long Way 'Round

A warm Wednesday welcome, Acting Fans, here comes your midweek H&H blog. This time it's a bit about process. The hardest part is always staring at that initially blank page, wondering where to start. And, because we're gluttons for punishment, we've decided to set ourselves that challenge more frequently by starting the regular (at least monthly is our target) Actor's Log.
Now quite often it's come down to Vern & I meeting up at H&H HQ and knocking our heads together until something resembling an idea falls out but the past two Actor's Logs 'Snog' and 'Flog' both seemed to emerge almost organically from the conversation we had during one of our H&H get-togethers when we hadn't explicitly met up to do some writing, just a bit of forward planning was the original intention. With that in mind, we decided to try a more relaxed approach at this Tuesday's H&H Pow-wow. Starting with a cup of tea and a chat about an upcoming gig we're attending (Matt Berry from I.T. Crowd, in case you were wondering) we got on to film and got around to Hong Kong cinema (we often get around to Hong Kong cinema, it is Vern's area of expertise after all). Last time we'd met up the conversation had turned towards 'Infernal Affairs' and it's (IOHO* unnecessary) western re-make 'The Departed' and Vern had re-watched it as we weren't entirely sure we remembered exactly how it ended. This and discussing how it had a more 'straight' plot-driven approach than most HK films reminded me of something I'd been meaning to tell Vern. I had been hoping to attend an event in Liverpool the Sunday before to drum up support for a play based on Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger, unfortunately I wasn't able to get there but it being in the back of my mind as we talked reminded me of Ken Campbell's tale (in a 'Video Letter' to Wilson) of how he got turned on to Jackie Chan. After making a hash of the story myself, I thought I'd get Vern to watch it on Youtube instead:

Greatly amused by the tale of the ghost of Sir Laurence Olivier naming Jackie Chan the greatest living actor, I recommended he watch a great interview with the late Richard Harris (who it turns out is Vern's preferred Dumbledore) and to be honest I wanted to watch it again too.

All four parts of Harris ended up giving us an idea for some background for Harcourt as well as a few bits and pieces that may turn up later H&H stuff. What has all that got to do with the Actor's Log, you may ask? Go on then - ask!
Well, with our thought turned to Harris and such contemporaries as Reed and O'Toole the idea for the next Actor's Log emerged, almost of it's own accord. To say any more would be [SPOILERS] but I guess we're going to have to try this again, the long way 'round seems to be working.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Falling Off & Getting Back On The Horse

Welcome back, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and Peoples of the Internets! Yes, its Friday so it's time for our embloggening. Or rather it's past time for our embloggening, yes, as some of you might very well have noticed there wasn't a blog post on Wednesday as, well, we're still getting back into the swing of things and well we just forgot about it. Whoops, sorry. I mean we are only two humans and we can sometimes makes mistakes.

Though we did indeed forget all about the blog, while Chris was having a clear-out (instead of blogging) he did come across an odd little item. Yep, he found a Pre-Harcourt & Haigh in an old Dandy comic from his youth called Ham and Egghead, about two kids who after watching some detectives shows decide they'll be detectives of course hijinks ensue. And I have to agree they do indeed look very much like a young H&H (well, in sorta kinda way). See for yourselves...

Forget what we forgot to do though, let's get back to what we HAVE been up to since we last spoke, well, we haven't been totally on our laurels (or Hardy's either)! We have written the next Vlog script (Some do indeed get written, it's not all seat-of-the-pants y'know) and me & Chris met up H&H HQ to have a line run and did a bit a re-writing as sometimes not all of the dialogue can flow right on the first draft of it, what reads right doesn't always sound it out loud. We also have penciled in a shoot date for it too and, Shatner Willing (he's like a god to us) maybe even a second Vlog post too! But, sshh! I can't really say much more about that. We also got on to discussing the episode 6 of series one. Don't worry it's still coming, we are going to be looking in to start filming that as soon as we can.

And that's all for now acting chums

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt