The Thumbs Have It!

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

That's BETTER!

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

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

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

TTFN!

Christopher Haigh

It's Halloween Time!!!!

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

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

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

Well that's all for now folks

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Takeover TV Terror

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

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

H&H's Hallowe'en Hinternet Hinfestation

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Cut Approved

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Submitted For Approval

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Back Filming the Elm for Halloween

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Making A List, Checking It Twice

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

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

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Keeping It Funny

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

Flippin' Time slippin'!

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

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

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Endings Game

Welcome fellow bloggers, Acting Fans and people of the world's Internet, yep, it's Friday and it's my turn to say whats been happening at H&H HQ. So first of all, we weren't able to film this week as planned, though did manage our usually meet up to discuss and sort out a few things and a few things we did indeed sort out int the end. We sorted out two things, two more endings in fact.

We got on talking about our up and coming Actor's Log Vlog and how it needed something else as, well to be honest, the ending didn't end well enough. It was rather an weak in the fact it just, well, erm...ended. So as me and Chris were talking and consuming coffee we did indeed come with an more H&H ending. Which is better and keeps more in line with us in actually being funny (if I say so myself). Now we are still keeping the first ending, just adding a bit more to it (confused? don't be, at least you won't be once you see it as I can't go and tell you the ending now can I. That'd be the end of it.) Trust us it will all make sense once done.

Now on to the second discussed ending this time on the Halloween special as I was telling Chris what I had written down (well, trying to remember it) I as got the end of it I realised and that it just, well, cut off. That and some of the hooks in the special were never really wrapped up or showed what happened. (I'm trying me best not give too much away here.) Fortunately Chris had an idea from our Halloween brainstorming that he just couldn't let go of and after bouncing it around between us (like a rubber ball, baby) we have come with a way to work it in that, well, ends it very well, if I say so myself. That in it's self fits the Halloween special that we have been doing and it might just might lead to another special (I said 'might'). Once again I can't say too much or else risk giving anything away as [SPOILERS]. Mwhahahahah All I can say is we did laugh over both of the new ending and once again in true H&H style made more work for ourselves, oh, and more prop buying (this low-to-no budget stuff gets expensive sometimes). Well, whoever said this was easy.....was obviously lying, and needs to be told that, and made to stand in the corner. (Or could they be more talented than us, nah, stick to your first instincts, Vernon)

Now as to filming it looks less and less likely that we will be able to get it done this month, so you lot will be with out your H&H fix (boo, hiss) and the vlog we were going will have to be re-scheduled. But never fear acting fans we shall be back on top soon! And you do have a special Special coming next month too. So not all is bad.

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Creeping Up To Halloween

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and the World's Internet once again Friday has rolled around. So, as a part of your weekend feeling, feel me as I update you on what's been happening. Lets get on with this like someone who gets right on down to point and doesn't pad things out with meaningless filler. Or shilly-shally. Or play for time. No way. Straight to the point, that's me. Not a single further delay, nossir!

Okay, so after the meet-up we had, racking our brains about what we should for this year's Halloween special, which as you may have read (and if you haven't read that WHY NOT?!) it did indeed take us a while to come up with something, mainly as the idea we originally had in mind we can't do this year (& it was a good one, believe me). Next year maybe but I will say no more on that. After going through soooooo many ideas, some of them well, erm, not so great, not so great at ALL and some were just okay but nothing that really floated both of our boats. It  took us a while to get there and the idea that we could work with, well, it came out of us scouring our dual knoeledge of Horror Films, in fact from a very cheesy horror film that you might or might not have seen. I must confess I've never seen it, just the trailer for the film. Because it looked TERRIBLE. And not the Good kind of 'Terrible' either, just straight up AWFUL. Of course ours will be much better!

At home afterwards I struggled to get it down into script form. We had the spine of the thing and some good, funny notions but trying to remember them as I get down to scripting is always the trick, well,  erm, the trickIEST thing to do. So as I put pen to paper, well, fingers to keyboard (y'know, that just doesn't have the same ring to it) and banged out a first draft of this year's special. I am pleased with it but I do think it could do with work.,so it emailed out to M'learnered colleague for him to have look over and have a poke at it with his thinking stick to try tease out any jokes that might not quite
be there.

Hopefully soon, within a few weeks, we will have a script we can use, hahahaha!!! As I need to get done as Halloween is slowly but faster than it appears (in true Horror Film style) creeping up on us like a thing what creeps around in the night. Erm, yeah.

Well, that's everything for now people, See you on the Future! *BLEH!*

TTFN 

Vernon Harcourt

Block Busters

Hello, Acting Fans, another midweek missive from H&H productions, thanks to no work schedule conflict this week. This also meant we managed to get our meet-up in a bit easier this week, though sadly work fatigue got in the way of our previously planned Sunday shoot. At least we know what we are doing now though as I managed a pass-over and bit of a re-jig of the upcoming Actor's Log, which m'learned colleague confirmed he approved of at our meeting.
Our focus this week though was to try and break the back of this year's Halloween Special. Which is where we promptly ground to a halt. Unfortunately, our initial idea is a little too complex and man-power heavy for us to get so, with the time and people we have to hand (basically us), we needed something a bit more streamlined.

We were well and truly blocked on the writing front, spending some time alternately staring blankly at each other or into space trying to think of something, anything. We tried looking at some old idea notes for inspiration, which gave us an idea for something humorous. Unfortunately the idea was something separate to H&H but after a bit of research, it may still end up on the H&H Productions plate. Sometimes, though, when you have an idea it can lead to more and maybe that notion loosened us up a bit, as we finally came up with something. It was still a bit of a struggle though. Running through a few classic horror tropes we hit upon an idea! Now all we have to do is, do it!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

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

 

Two Floors Up, One Post Down

Happy middle of the week, Acting Fans, it's H&H blog time again. First of all an apology, the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed a distinct lack of a Friday Update we're sorry about that but we hope to make up for it soon, it was down to a glut of shifts for me at work - that and the fact that the major part of H&H shenanigans went on the following Saturday above Legacy Comics.

Stairway to On Set

That's right, Folks, we managed to get together with our able assistants and co-stars, Hardy Boocock and Jake Broadhurst, to get the main body of the Halloween Special filmed this past weekend. And we managed to do it only slightly unnerving Simon in the process. Thanks for putting up with the bangs, scrape and yells, old chum!

Work in Progress

With the footage in the can this past couple of days I've been taking the odd pass at a rough cut of the Special, cutting like a ginzu chef in a frenzy to get the footage into editable chunks and myself and m'learned colleague will be getting together at the Editing Suite this Thursday to see if we ca get this thing bashed into a decent shape then it's just a matter of a little ADR and we'll be ready to go. Two men will enter, one Halloween Special will leave! Fings crossed, Internet Chums, Wish us luck.

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

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

Crouching Vern, Hidden Guest-Star

Happy Humpday, Acting Fans, it's the midpoint of the week and H&H Productions has continued ticking over as we approach the filming of the Halloween Special. Over the weekend and at the start of this week I've been in Hunter/Gatherer mode still, sourcing some additional bits and bobs of Proppage for the shoot. We can't always get away with just trawling the poundshops and I've had to dare the wilds of Ebay for a couple of items that are hopefully winging their way here now.
There's also been a little bit of tweaking to the script editing out a bit of a 'bump' in the narrative, a few additional lines and, after last night's meet-up with Vern, a rather musical enhancement to one of the scenes that he had an idea about after last time.
About last night, it was a little later than usual that we met up - after 8PM, actually. That wasn't just because of the intermittent bus service after 6, no, we needed it to be dark for our little bit of filming.

Mystery Guest

That's right, Internet Chums, we've already been filming for the Special with a previously-appearing Special 'Guest-Star', too! The sharp-eyed among you might recognize the above individual and be able to figure out the reason filming the sequence meant Vern had to take to a knee but I'm not going to say any more. It's more of a kind of 'Stock Footage' for the Special to be honest but a start has been made nonetheless.
Still on the cards: figuring out where we can actually shoot the interiors and, of course, getting it shot. Things are under way though, so it's up to us to keep the momentum up.

That's it for this midweek, Acting Fans, stay tuned for more details at the end of the week!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

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

 

Happy Halloween

Welcome, Bloggers and Acting Fans, to Wednesdays Spooooky and creeeeepy blog, Mwhahahahahahahaha, and, boy, do we have a treat in store for you!
No trick!
As today is Halloween (Or, if you prefer, Samhain) we have an HEXtra special seasonal mini, well, erm, Special for you of our unique H&H Madness - Mwhahahahahaha! Click below -IF YOU DARE!

Have you watched it? Good! Yes, this was the 'Something Special' we've been keeping secret. Now please don’t forget to share it with your friends and then get them to share it with their friends, then they can share with their Fiends, er, I mean friends and so on and so on.

Well, that’s about if for today so don’t forget to tune back in on Friday when episode four goes live, folks. Yep, you get the regular episode this week as well! We are indeed spoiling you this week aren’t we?

So good night out there....whatever you are - Mwhahahahahahahahahahah!

Oh, and keep them Halloween Lanterns burning - I mean it’s a good way to keep them pesky ghouls and demons away! And don't have nightmares!


TTFN

Vernon Sutcliffe