I Do It To Myself

Though sometimes I get a little help.

Greetings, Acting Fans, another late missive on the H&H production blog from a tired co-creator and, frankly, spent editor. You see, despite me spending all of my only full day off this week editing the next part of our extra special seasonal vlog, m'learned colleague was kind enough to remind me it was MY turn to blog today. So nice of him to volunteer. Volunteer the information, that is. Thank you so very much, Vernon.
Yet I can't hold too much of a grudge against my fellow actor at large as ultimately it's my own fault. Yes, it was me who, whilst showering, suddenly had the phrase 'A cartridge and a late fee' pop into my head whilst musing on the upcoming season of good cheer. Bah, humbug. After staring at an all-too-blank blog screen wondering exactly what to write, I have fallen back on that old adage write what you know and this is it.

I know the first part came together all too easily. This part, not so much. To be honest, I'm thankful for some of the tricks I've learned in the progress of H&H otherwise Thursdays travails would have taken so much longer. After a day of wrestling with both shots and doubts I got a first cut done in time to run it past my colleague with some time for me to do more editing if necessary. Happen a good job too as on our mutual viewing it soon became apparent that, despite my rather ruthless approach to cutting, the first cut still needed more ruths removing from it. Back to the editing suite went I and, if I say so myself, did a great job of cutting it down to the quick. Showing no mercy, I got Part 2 down from an unwieldy 8.17 minutes to a sleek, sexy 6.29 minutes and done in one day - all it took me was a skipped lunch and innumerable cups of tea.
That's right, Acting Fans, the task was completed - so keep your beady little eyes peeled this Monday for Vlog#4 Part 2! That's all from H&H Productions and me this week - I'm off to write a letter to Father Christmas to ask him for a decent computer and editing software. No , not for me. For Vern, that'd be a great gift for me.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Christmas Presence

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

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

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

There's nothing to it...VOGUE!

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

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

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

Working Girl...I mean BOY, er, MAN! Working Man!

Welcome back, fellow bloggers, and, well, you should by now know who are whomever is reading this (if not, TO THE ARCHIVES, they're RIGHT THERE! ☛)
Once again we are going to taking a brief pause from the H&H stuff (Don't worry, not for long though).

As you should also know, I have started working full-time, this very week in fact, down at an [Entirely Legitimate Insurance company mentioning no names to avoid being suddenly unemployed again for bringing them into disrepute, etc.] and, well, I have been busy with my on the job training. Trying to get to grips with all of the insurance jargon and the various policies and believe me there are quite a few of them. Quite. A. Few.

Heck, we haven't even got on to the main bulk of what I'll be doing just yet, we've been doing mainly talk about what type of Insurance there is out there, how they affect us all, why they are needed and about other less obvious insurance stuff, like how to possibly spot people who might be lying to us. Yep, I may have to occasionally wear my Detective Hat (it's a metaphorical hat, they don't like actual hats in the office - I'm kidding).

Yep, like I said their is a lot of stuff to get used to and learn.

Well now, back to H&H. Despite not getting a physical meet-up we did get a sort of get together (Well, by text so that still counts right. Right? In the 21st century it counts, surely?). Anyway me and Chris did have a text conversation about some possible idea for some things that we can do while the nights are too bright to film in/people aren't available. With the new One Channel layout on the tube of You there's an option to make a channel trailer for new viewers so we are turning our tiny minds to thinking how to get one done while we try to get production geed up. Chris has also taken the time to spruce up the ol' Youtube homepage with some new channel art and as a Brucey (or rather Chrisey) Bonus he's made a forum friendly version that falls roughly within the 500 x 300 pixel rules which, if any of you Acting Fans are so inclined, you can download and use as a forum signature for any message boards you are on to give us a bit of the ol' publicity. So please do it for us, Internet Chums!

That's it for now acting fans, see you on the flip side...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Message In A Bottle

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it's Wednesday so that means another blog post - here we go. Here's what have we been up to since last week.

We have been trying to come up with a few ideas for some shorts of H&H for us to make over this Summer, just in case we can't manage to film the last episode due it getting dark much later, and the availability of friends and other actor volunteers (an aborted attempt at one of series 1's earlier 'Previously' segments, that had to be abandoned due to none of the additional folk needed turning up continues to prey on our minds - plus it is getting dark pretty late now).

Speaking of actors, we've made an attempt to reach out for more warm bodies, my co-creator Chris has sent an email to the local college asking the head of their Performing Arts course if any of the students would in interested in helping us out (or if they'd like to get in touch and/or have a meeting with us to suss us out and see what we do first). You know, by starring in some of the additional roles and/or helping behind the scene's as we also need people behind the camera as well. So fingers crossed we get to hear something back from them.  If it's an 'Aye' then we can hopefully get on with this episode. We did say that this was a biggie, and it sure is. Wish us Luck!

Well, once again that is it for now, good folk of the interwebs, so...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Brick Wall

Welcome back fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, well, what can I say....erm, well, we have come to bit of a stop at the moment. (No, we're not stopping forever. Don't panic) It’s just that, once again, this week between Chris's regular day job and me busying about trying to sort out mine has put the kibosh on things. Getting the things I need in place, like finding & sending of more ID and other administration information has stopped us getting together, even when Chris had an unexpected free day last week, darn it! And now thw Waiting! Waiting to start with my start date next month now! And then there's been getting a sort of new PC - so I’ve been busy sorting out the programs I had and re-finding some of what I had on my PC (note to self: next time write down what I have and use). All in all we've hit a bit of a Wall these past few weeks.

So we haven’t had much of a chance, none at all in fact, to meet up and sort out things. Heck we haven't even had time to meet up for Chris to give me his upcoming rota! (CHRIS: Ooops! Sorry, Vern - I'll get right on it!) I mean, don't get me wrong, we're not giving up, we will get there with it and it will be done and filmed and up as soon as possible. We just have a lot of others things going on at the mo. So I'm sorry for this hiatus on H&H's progress for now. It will pick back up soon I promise.

Yours apologetically, 

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Master of Puppets

Greetings, Acting Fans, and welcome to this brief and belated Blogday post. Not much has changed since Wednesday due to my shift patterns and Vern having a job interview! Yes, Fings crossed, Internet Chums, if all goes well our Low-to-No budget might just end up with a slight, tiny budget. Good Luck, Vern! What have I been up to in the mean time?

Between shifts I've once again had my seamtress, er, I mean seamster hat on and I have finally skinned the main puppet. He now has a lovely pelt of blue fur as you can see here:

And that's the last time you'll see the little fella for a while as to flash his finished features would be [SPOILERS]. I can tell you, however, that getting the fur on his blue bonce was a brainscratcher for sure. In the end I just kept on sewing, even when I thought it wouldn't work, that and the judicious use of a pin or two here and there got me through. Anyway a seamster's work is never done, after his [SPOILER] face is finalised I have his supporting puppets to stitch - so that's your lot for this week...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Dealing The Hand You're Dealt

Hi there, Acting Fans, it's a late one this Wednesday. What with the outdoor conditions not conducive to filming (and me being a social butterfly this Bank Holiday weekend past) not much has changed since last week but Vern & I didn't want to let it lie. We wanted to get something done so we decided to organise a meet up today to do a readthrough of the script by ourselves, just to sound it out loud again and see how it flowed. At first we had a bit of a chat and a catch-up in the course of which we remembered there was something we needed to test on camera for the series involving these:

That's right, an ordinary deck of playing cards. Which is all I can tell you, besides the fact that I was the patsy on-camera and Vern was working the Magic off-camera. Oh, I can also mention that the Ace of Spades is front and centre at a certain point in the episode and, despite having TWO packs of cards, we had to use the one Vern was displaying on his wall as the other had mysteriously VANISHED (Woooooooooooohh!). After a few practices we got the desired effect and we know it should work how we want when it comes to filming the episode. Job done.
Having finished our experiment successfully we then managed to get through the readthrough just in time for Vern to head out for his appointed destination at Half 3. Parting ways, I headed to the Pound Shop and then the 99p Store to see about getting more cards (you can never have too many cards, especially the way we were using them, even moreso as they seems to be disappearing) and managed to snag two additional packs, along with 5 dice and a box of dominoes. Why the dice AND the dominoes? Well, they all came together for the princely sum of 99p (no prizes for guessing from where), BARGAIN! That's all so far this week, Internet Chums, stay tuned for Fridays update, until then...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Outlaw

Hi there, Acting Fans, and if like us you're somewhere in the ol' UK (especially if you take a look out your window) you can probably guess that, yes, the suddenly Scandinavian weather has put the kibosh on filming. That AND my four days straight of day job workshifts this week (that is with only Sunday between my last workday and the run I'm having this week including today and tomorrow), well, we've got the motive but not the opportunity. That's not to say our week has been entirely uneventful, you see Vern may have gone a bit 'method' with his role in H&H - he's broken the law.....
of Facebook!

Yes, Acting Fans, Vernon Harcourt has become a Facebook Outlaw - banned from posting to others' walls for a whole TWO WEEKS! What did he do? Well, It turns out Facebook don't look too kindly on a chap doing a mass posting to his friends unless you cross their palms with moolah (hence those relatively new 'Promote' buttons). Vern has copped the wrath of Zuckerberg's minions for having the temerity to share OUR Easter Egg of a comedy short we made OURSELVES with our own brains and hands and stuff with all his FB friends by posting it to their walls himself. AND HE'D DO IT AGAIN FACEBOOK BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sadly, yes, that's it for this week so far Internet Chums, fings crossed we have more positive tales to tell on Friday,

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Anatomy Of A Puppet

Greetings, Acting Fans & Blogonauts, and welcome to your regular Wednesday update from here at H&H HQ!
Chris here and while we're still in the slow phase of gradual planning, to use a bit of a train metaphor we're still getting the boiler up to steam, I thought I'd take the time for a brief musing on what goes in to getting the episodes made. You see I've got a bit of a background in Art, education wise - My degree was in Art & Design - but I haven't been what I'd consider a proper practicing artist in a while. That's where 'H&H: Actors at Large' has been a bit of a boon. One of the things I've really enjoyed is getting to exercise creative muscles I haven't used to their full capacity for a while by dreaming up some of the ideas we have for the series and then having to make them into 'real' objects. More on that at another time, I think though.
Another pleasure is having to teach myself how to do new things out of necessity for the series, like muddling my way through Audacity to sort out some sound issues for 'The Experiment' episode (darn that traffic - see 'Behind The Acting: Outtakes). It just so happens that the Series 1 Finale, the upcoming Episode 6: 'Anabasis' is going to require a bit of both and that's one of the things I'm looking into at the moment.

Source:garyhausplayers

Yep, I'm going to need to make a puppet! Or possibly more than one. That's where having a sister who runs her own Puppet Street Theatre Company might come in handy, eh. WHY exactly do I need to make a puppet? Well that would be [SPOILERS], so you'll just have to wait and see...

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

The Elsie Whiteley - You’ll never find a better place for networking, we must be cautious.

Hello, Acting Fans and fellow Bloggers, it’s Friday and blog time once again.

So - what has been happening down here at H&H Production HQ?
Well, as you know, we wrapped on the next two episodes earlier in the week. What else could we have been doing in the mean time before we get to the editing?
Well, we've been concerned with 'Bidness'. Yes, We went up to The Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre for a Creative Calderdale-organised meeting and multi-media talk from Frank Boyd, Director of the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network, and to hopefully do some networking.

And it turned out to be a good evening, we got some tips and a load of information on digital media, not all of it directly relevant to what we're up to but some of which could be a help to us, and we got to meet a number of like-minded people and do a little networking of our own. We got some good interest in the series and, maybe, some more people to help us out behind the scenes.
Most importantly there was FREE BOOZE AND FOOD (you could say we were sort of 'in character'). Awww, and what a damn fine curry it was, mmmmm, it was very tasty indeed, mmmm! So good, in fact, I had 3 plates, yes, that's right 3 Plates (Well, they were only small plates and waste not want not - there was still plenty of curry left after) and, anyway, we are poor impoverished actors - we need all the free stuff we can get, teehee, but it was a very informative and eventful evening though - even without the curry (though the curry was really good, oh yes).
I think that's it for today’s blog. I don’t think I’ve missed anything this time, or have I?
Hmm…I'm sure there might be something else to say but, damn it, what was is it?!
Oh yeah -  NOW I remember! Yes, Acting Fans and Blogonauts, today is the day that the SECOND EPISODE OF HARCOURT & HAIGH IS LIVE!!! In fact it’s so live just click below - such are the wonders of internet linking!

Ok, that really is it for today, so enjoy the second episode and, please, pass it on and tell all your friends about it (and get them to tell all their friends and so on and so on - help us get those views up).

Until next time, keep the home fires burning people!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Suh-Suh-Studio!

Hello, Acting Fans and Blogonauts, once again it's the first Blog day of the week at H&H Productions. We're coming to you with a later posting today as we've just finished an on location shoot for Episode 1 (which, if you've been keeping tabs you'll remember, we are perversely filming second). We've spent the day here:

The Suh-Suh-Studio!

We had been having problems figuring out where in the flat to shoot a certain scene in Episode 1 before realising that we could use an alternate location for it. The question was where? My sister Beka had already kindly allowed us access to her studio space in Sowerby Bridge for some of our prop making and it dawned on us that it would be a great set for the scene, so we approached her again about filming there this week and she kindly permitted it. Lucky for us she was between making things.

Having finished for today we've packed up our things and headed back to the flat with a prop that is a major part of this episode (and that I finally got around to finishing off *Phew*) to leave it at it's new home. My room seems a little emptier now the little guy's gone. As I type about todays machinations Vern will charging up the camera to download the rushes (we really must have hammered the battery today) then he'll have a first pass at selecting the best shots for use. Fings crossed with todays shoot we'll have the entirety of the main middle scene done, leaving us with just the top and tail scenes of the episode to shoot at the flat this Friday.

Wish us Luck!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

In The Can (Well, Almost)

Hello, Acting Fans, it’s Friday, it’s blog time, let’s do this!

As you well know we have been filming what is currently pecilled in as the second webisode of the series proper (episode order may change at our whims) and I can now report all the main parts of it are done. That’s the main talkie bit, a more physical comedy sequence and few other things that were needed. All that is left to do now are just two shots and this one is in the can!

So what’s next? I'll be going over and reviewing the rushes to see which shots are the best to use (Trust me, there’s quiet a bit to go through with the Lumix (my precioussss!) boosting our shooting capabilities) and then it’s on to planning, sequencing and filming the next webisode which will hopefully be the first one. (Yep, we are doing them out of sequence. We like to mix it up. Also Chris needs to get his skates on and build a prop for episode one!)

Well then, Acting Fans, I’d best back to it so, until the next time we meet and chat, as always keep the home fires burning!

TTFN

Vernon Sutcliffe

From Rushes, With Love

Hello, Acting Fans, it’s Friday and we're back, so let’s do this!
Soooo what have we been up to since we last wrote and talked and filmed?

Well, let me tell you and you will find out. I have been sitting through the dailys, or rushes if you like, looking to see which of the takes so far are the best to use (Note to self: I really need to re-name them after I put them on my P.C. - I'm going number blind) and I can safely say that it is looking very good indeed. And funny, yes, even the outtake of me whacking myself in the face with the gun.
I've been doing something else too, I have been practising with the camera using some techniques that I found online to simulate tracking and dolly shots as some of these shot styles might be useful in future episodes. So I need to get up to speed on these and get them right, hmm, then teach someone else too. Oh boy, I don’t think I have thought this through. Damn it! Oh well, back to it I guess.

As always stay classy and keep the home fires burning and we'll see you next time.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

The Plan of Plans

Hello, Acting Fans, and welcome back for the Friday’s blog and what has happened since Wednesday's blog well, erm, to be honest nothing (whoops), Tee hee. Chris has been working on his 'Producer' credit by earning his daily (well, Part-Time really) crust with his nose to the grindstone at his day (and occasionally night) job, these Lo-to-No-Budget productions don't finance themselves, you know, and those ridiculously proportioned burgers don't come cheap.
We're still putting a cunning plan into action, it's so cunning in fact that even Baldric, nay, the Blackadder himself would be impressed by the cunningness this cunning plan - cunning like a fox in socks sneaking up on a chicken box with a forged key for the locks.

And what is it? Well I'm afraid I can’t tell you that as we could be getting into [SPOILERS], I’ll just give you a hint it involves us (well, duh) and a gun or two, some swords, a sickle sythe and some duvets!
No, no, no, nothing 'kinky'! Mind you, you never know what will turn up in Fan Fiction, alright then - nothing 'kinky' in Canon that is.
What could it all mean? What is going to happening with all of this? And have I been up drinking all night again or have I just lost the plot. No, wait, the plot's right here where I left it on the coffee table, I told you we were getting more organised.
Well, acting fans and blog readers, tune in time to the H&H channel to find out what is going up.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Special Delivery

Well, Folks, It's that special time of year when nights have drawn in, the stars align and where we contemplate the sacrifice, the wonders and the miracles that have been, as well as those that have yet to come. The celebration of an entrance into the world, an unusual birth. What?! Christmas? Nooooo!

Aww, Isn't it cute? 8 Gigs of Acting Prowess!

We've got our footage together!

And we're ready to get editing a rough cut of the first episode! Now bear in mind there'll be a lot of re-shooting yet and this rough cut will be for-our-eyes-only as we figure out which shots to change, where we need new composition and what we've missed. Over the festive season we'll be beavering away behind the scenes (and between the festivities) and hopefully (fings crossed) we may have something to show you over the yuletide season/early new year.

Until then we've got someone in to take care of our Precious Cargo:

 

 

Thanks, Goku!

TTFN,

Vernon Harcourt
&

Christopher Haigh

Learning Curve

They say the it's possible to profit from calamity, so here at H&H Productions we're hoping to put calamity to good use - we're good at calamity (not so good with profit so far, though). We're on a learning curve here and what we've learned thus far is:
We need to learn more.
What better way is there to learn than by doing and what we have done is look back at our filming so far and then realised what we haven't done, not enough rehearsing, not enough shot planning and not enough storyboarding.
We also experimented with the use of ambient natural light on the first shoot for a 'grim-up-'North' ambiance, this has proved, however, that it's TOO 'grim up 'North' (for shooting indoors at this time of year that is).
A plan of Action is required and that's exactly what we've got:

1. More rehearsing
2. More Storyboarding
3. Reshoot the Flat footage, with lighting, after rehearsing.
4. Keep learning
5. Get on with it

So we may be abandoning the first flat-shot footage but it hasn't been a waste, we've learned. In that senses we guess we've already profited from calamity. Now to get down to profiting from success!

Stay tuned, Acting Fans.

All The Best,

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh