I, Spy (Family Extra)

Hello, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the Internet! Well, yep, it is Friday and it's time for the blog post, so what have we been doing. Well, alas and alack (mostly a lack of Chris) we still have not been able to have a meeting as Chris is busy with work, so nothing much has been done, But well sort off as I on and off have been looking on YouTube to find a clip of a show I was once in. Yep, like Chris I too have been on the tellybox, as an extra that is.

The show was a kids show called 'My Spy Family' and all I can say (much like the BBC 3 S***com (I'm not being harsh - it really was that bad) 'The Gemma Factor' that Chris appeared) in it, well, it's not the best kids show ever. Let's leave it at that. Sadly since I didn't have Satellite TV at the time it was first broadcast I never got to it. With our more recent H&H escapades I got to wondering about that footage of me beaming through outer space and, after search on and off on YouTube, what do you know? I found the it and, after looking through some of the episodes, checking when I did the filming and a bit of guessing, I found the two episodes I was in! And now you too can play 'Spot the Harcourt'!



                                                                           

I bet you're wondering, why, why is this important? Or is it not important at all and are you just blog filling until somethings gets done? Well, yes. And no as my appearance in the show is also going to be interwoven in to Harcourt & Haigh somehow, so there.

And how are we going to put them in to the show? You'll just have to stay tuned to find out!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Black To Black

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's Friday and it's blog time again and this week we have actually done something practical relating to H&H. Yep, I know, a shocker compared to our recent posts! ;-) We met up for a second time this week to go out and do a test of one of the moving shots I have conceived of for Episode 6. It's a shot sequence that will start at black move across the gangs then back to black. For our start and end in black we used a fairly heavy grade black card that Chris already had (Low-to-No budget, remember) which he would hold while I filmed with our camera. It took a bit of practice, and will probably need a bit more too, but it worked. We tried a number of different ways and what seemed to work best was if the card was held in a curve so that it also 'hooded' the camera, stopping light reflecting from the surface of the card itself and creating a darker black in front of the camera. We will hopefully be using this technique to show intercut shots all of the acting 'gangs' in what will appear to be a continuous shot.

If we can get this shot right, it will lend a very movie look like. We also talked further about the shooting schedule and the difficulties of it, especially due to the summer nights getting darker so late it might just take a bit longer than we thought. Taking this weekend in particular we were hoping to get a short 'gang' sequence done but the lateness of the hour has put off the majority of the folks we were hoping to get together for it and, unfortunately, we can't do it without them. This has led us back to thinking about widening our reach for additional cast so we may be looking wider than our immediate circle of friends and family to get the extra bodies we need - time to get begging to those drama course students! We still do have some other things to sort out for the episode to keep busy on, but don't panic, Actings Fans, progress is looking like it might slow again but we will get there with this episode!

Well that's all for now,

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Waiting By The Phone

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans it’s Wednesday so you know that means, yep, it’s blog time! They really are starting to come around quick. Come on, own up! Who put the week on fast forward, eh? A brief reminder of what we have ongoing, we are still looking for actors/extras (so, if you know any out there, send them our way) and we are waiting to hear back from people. Once we know what bodies we can have then we can try to figure out when the best day/s to start organise a readthrough/s of the script, plus we are going need a few other people to help out with that as well.

This week then should lead us in to shooting some sequences for the episode that don't require the full cast, which are mostly establishing shots of various locations around Halifax and other pick up shots that are a must and, well, the stuff that the 2nd unit director would usually do. Alas, since we can’t afford an 2nd unit as a low-to-no budget production, we have to do this ourselves. And we would be doing it for ourselves - if it wasn't for this flippin' snowing! We wouldn't mind rain, heck, a few rain-slicked street shots would be just what the doctor ordered but once again I look out the window and the place has been given a light dusting of white. Grr.

Well, I thinks that’s all for now, sorry, there's not been a lot going on but is it taking time and well we'll get there. Trust us.

So now it’s goodnight from him and it’s goodnight from me

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt