Christmas Closedown

Festive Greeting, Acting Fans!!! Yes, after all the skirting-around-the-issue-because-Dammit-it's-not-close-enough-to-Christmas-yet the Season has sprung it's steely jaws on us and we can no longer deny the tide of Christmas! Luckily, as some of you may already know, we have our bit of annual festive fun ready in the form of the latest, and last video of 2014, Actor's Log Vlog:

I mean, what could be more festive than a visit to Antarctica and Santa's pre-Christmas holiday hideaway? Anyway the keen-eyed among you will have spotted the key phrase 'and last video of 2014' that I went and slipped in there and, yes, I'm sorry, it's true whilst we run about like headless chickens looking for that last-minute stocking filler, picking up the party booze, doing both the Christmas Wrapping & the Christmas Rapping and stuffing our faces with mince pies and other Festive Treats the H&H Youtube channel and this here Production Blog will be having their annual Winter Hiatus Hibernation. Don't worry, it's only sleeping and we will be back with you in the 2000 plus 15!

Until then Happy Holidays and the very Merriest of Christmases to you all, do it the thespian way and all of you break a (metaphorical) leg, all the best for 2015, We'll see you in the World of TOMORROW!!!

TTFN!

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh

Taxing Times

Hello Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the words Internet! THIS! IS! FRIDAY!!! Once again it's time for my Brando-style ramblings, the horror, the horror! First there is one thing to say, and that word is sorry! Sorry for no blog on Wednesday, folks, but Chris has been very busy at work, in fact he has done and 8 days straight through the weekend (blooming day jobs! Boo! Hisss!). So that we have not even had time to get in our weekly meet and chat aways. He did manage to get his Tax done during this time though, thanks to this world of tomorrow's online returns filing, which means the old Haigh brainspace can be put back to work on more H&H stuff now, Groovy!

That leaves me to tell you what have we been up to, well, as apart of trying to get a few more views, I did a bit of a big Facebook cross-post of last month's vlog. I thought it was worth a go as it was in limbo at only about 11 views, I am pleased to say it worked and it has now bumped it up, at least a wee bit. I have also been working on some idea for the TOP SECRET project we very briefly talked about a few weeks back. In that I have been doing some research on to a list of idea that we can use for them. and how to make them into what we want them to be. Yes, I know that sounds very, very cryptic too but I really can't say anymore on this as it still in a very early stage of development. Trust me, they shall becoming your way soon.

On a different note (a C# in fact), we did kind of come up with another Actor's Log vlog idea via me and Chris talking by text which is sort of a nod to an very controversial film (and play), well, for it's time. This could be a very controversial vlog, well, maybe. But first we have to find a willing actor to do this vlog for us, and it could be a darker vlog! Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!
Erm, where was I?
Erm, oh yeah, the vlog, yeah, so that's one more idea. To be beaten around and into shape, while we drink our warm milk, trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with it, and just how to go about it...mmmm warm milk plus....OH! Erm, I think I'd best leave that there for now.

See you in the Future!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Winter Wonderland

Seasons Greetings, Acting Fans! Welcome to the last H&H blog of 2013 as Vernon and myself enter the spirit of the season and our very own Winter Wonderland, yes, a Winter Wonderland where we spend the Winter Wondering what exactly we do next in H&H. Of course, if you feel we've been good this year you could always give us the best pressies - by heading over to Youtube and giving us more views and likes! Especially our seasonally-apt vlogs right here:

Anyway, internet chums, keep yourselves warm with the thought that, despite our usual hiatus at this time of year, OUR thoughts will mostly be on what WE can do for YOU next year (apart from when we're too full of booze and/or food and/or both). We've already met up this week to do a little planning about the basic shape of what we'll get up to next year as well as a bit of brainstorming, yes, we even managed to figure out what happened in Bangkok (but we're still not going to talk about it for now, [SPOILERS] and all that)!
Now the weekend just before Christmas approaches (and, somehow, I find myself working every evening of it - bah, humbug) and as I said we'll be signing off on the blog until it's time to welcome you all to the world of tomorrow - or until we actually have something to tell you about H&H related, of course.
To all of you Acting Fans, Internet Chums and Fellow Bolognauts out there on the interwebs and beyond both of us here at H&H HQs wish you the very merriest of Christmases and a very Happy New Year (of course it'll be a Happy New Year - there'll be more H&H)! If you've been good we hope you get your Christmas wishes and if you haven't, well, we forgive you but do try to do better!
And, of course, don't forget after the Doctor Who Christmas Special, the Queen's Speech and any turkey tryptophan-based comas to get tuned back in to H&H for any updates. Happy Christmas to you all and to all a great time!

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

 

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

 

Blooomin’ SNOOOOOOOOOOW?!!!

Welcome back to fellow acting’s fans and bloggers to the Friday update.

Image source: propertycasualty360.com

Well ,at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, it's just like Wednesday. Thanks to the freak snowfall that we've had (and are still having it seems, stop it, damn you! Has it stopped? Let's hope so!) once again we have been Snowblocked! Damn blooming snow. Jack Frost is not on our side! We haven’t had much chance of getting together with Chris's hours this week to sort out things (like the cast readthrough) but I did by chance bump into one of my fellow acting buddies from the Actor’s Workshop and had a quick chat about using the Actor’s Workshop space once again.

I have also over the past week been trying to get in touch with Mr Jake Broadhurst and my other fellow actor Ross Galloway, Esq. but I have not quite managed to get a hold of them as of yet. I do know that the over the last couple of weeks being involved with the Actors Workshop they have been rather busy of late with upcoming shows and dance classes but my acting buddy assures me they haven’t forgot about us which is damn good thing, too! With any luck (and little Energon) we should be hearing from them soon so we can film the next major scene for Episode 6.

And that’s all for today, sorry it isn’t much more exciting but, well, the woes of no-low-to budget
production sometimes prevail. We are unfortunately at the mercy of the weather -  Bloody Snow!
Be safe out there, and have fun if you can!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Awkward (Planning) Phase

Yep, We're stilling planning around.

Welcome back, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers it’s Friday and this is our blog post. So, Well, Erm...yes....what, um, what have we been up to since Wednesday? Well not a lot as it would seem. We are still in the very early stage of planning away, we're getting back into our swing but it's a slow swing (and there's loads to do on this episode) but, as we said in the Wednesday post, we can’t do much with all of this snow around at the moment. Never fear though, we are working on our Plan of Attack!

It only LOOKS like a nail (Source:mhcyoung.blogspot.co.uk)

I’ve been reading through the script and trying to storyboard some of the sequences but, well, let’s
just say my drawings are not very good at all, so that’s hasn’t really gotten us that far. It is just a matter of getting ourselves back in to the swing of things, picking up that swing and coming up with a plan of ACTION. So far though it's slow and steady as she goes.

Well, that’s it for Friday post, a whole lot of nothing that will eventually lead up to something, so it’s good night from him, and it’s good night from me.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Snow Blocked

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans, it's Wednesday so let me tell you what has been happening down here at the H&H production HQ. Well, other than a bit a planning and looking for materials for making props, not a lot.

As we feared before Christmas whilst filming 'Money' the winter weather has turned against us. Yes the snow has reinforced our current hiatus and put a bit of a stop to the production at the moment. We can’t do much as of yet, while not about to shoot a full episode we did have our fingers crossed about getting some additional coverage footage in the can. We still have loads to do. Like location scouting, finding other actors to help out, etc. but with all of this snow we can’t really get around. (Blooming snow).

So that’s it for now acting fans - keep warm, it’s bloody cold out there!

Now it’s goodnight from him and it's good night from me.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Previously on Harcourt & Haigh...

Welcome back, Acting Fans and Fellow Bloggers, and a belated Happy New Year to you all - are you ready for more Harcourt & Haigh shenanigans?

 First of all a, for those of you who came in late (& a reminder for those with poor memory skills), we are H&H Productions the producers of 'Harcourt & Haigh: Actors at Large', a web-based free-to-air comedy show on YouTube. We consist of Vernon Harcourt & Christopher Haigh the West Yorkshire based Actors/Writers/Whatevers and the brains, bodies and other associated limbs behind the series. This is our production blog on the progress of the series thus far. We are also have a fan page on Facebook and a Tumblr page as well.

Chris and I both write, star, film and edit the episodes, we are a Low-to-No budget production. We've managed to recruit a small rotating crew that help us out (Thanks, you guys!) as and when they are able to. So far we have 5 episodes live at this very moment on our YouTube channel. There are also a few trailers we have shot for the series up there (a couple of which are short skits themselves) and a pilot episode (you can see the joins a bit), there is a link on this Blog (just below, in fact) to Series 1 so far so feel free click (and catch up if you're not already exposed to our felonious thespians). I do hope you enjoy the series as much as we have enjoyed making it.
Filming itself is on hiatus right now, that is we're taking a pause to marshal our forces (we need plenty of bodies for the series 1 finale) and also because the winter weather has moved in and has made it a little too inclement to shoot outdoors. Expect regular updates on our behind the scenes progress.



Oh, and as we don’t want to leave the YouTube channel without something new going up during filming hiatus, we have a welcome back present video to post this Weekend - so  tune in to see what it is this Friday!

Until then it’s good bye from him and goodbye from me,

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

It’s CHRIIISTMAAAAS!!!

Hello, Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, welcome to the Wednesdays blog post the LAST BLOG POST OF 2012! Let me tell you what has been happing down at the H&H production HQ? Well, actually nothing, nowt, zip - yep, you heard that right, nothing.
Production has ceased for 2012 - pretty much out of necessity, what with Chris busy doing his day job at the theatre. It IS Panto season you know (OH, YES IT IS!) and I, well, I'm thinking you up stuff like when to schedule the start to the shooting again next year. And of course it's CHRISTMAS well soon - next Monday in fact (I'm pretty sure you knew that already though), so we have been winding production down to get ourselves ready for the festive things to begin. We even contemplated leaving series 1 at 4 episodes for 2012 at one point and continuing with episodes 5 & 6 in the New Year but, after putting our heads together and having a long discussion about it, we decided to give it a go a getting episode 5 done and, well, you saw the (pretty darn great, if I say so myself,) results last Friday and if you haven't yet here it is again:

So, yes, this will be the last blog post of this year too, I know you're all sad but don’t worry we WILL RETURN!! In the New Year and (eventually) with the last episode of Series One (and if I said 'Money' was a big one, wait until you see the Series One finale). So from both myself and Chris and Harcourt and Haigh, here at H&H HQ, we would like to say thank you for all of your support throughout the year and for watching and enjoy the series and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And we will see in the WORLD OF TOMORROW!!!

THANK YOU!!!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

&

Christopher Haigh

SEE YOU IN 2013!

  

Movin'

Welcome back, fellow bloggers and Acting Fans alike. This. Is.  FRIDAY!
And, yup, it’s BLOG time - let’s do this!

So what's been happening this week? Well, Erm, actually, as said in Wednesdays blog I was helping my lovely ladyfriend (in the interest of personal safety & privacy I won't even tell them your name, Jo - Oops!) to move to a new location in [CLASSIFIED] and what a busy day it was!
Everything went well with only a few bumps 'n' scrapes and everything got moved, well just about everything, Erm,  everything that is except the few boxes of towels and blankets in that one cupboard I forgot to check *Ahem*. Anyway as always it helps when have such an EPIC TASK to get a professional or two in (I do prefer to pay someone to help you move, especially as they can then do most of the hard work and lift all of the heavy stuff, I see myself as more in supervisory role, after all I AM a Director). All we had to do was move the boxes down for them to take and load up.
On a side note it was the opposite of The Cookies Bar shoot, where we didn't have even a single box, there were loads of boxes, so many in fact not all were used to put stuff in, heck we could have made a box fort out of what was left (but sadly we didn't have the time - I'll miss you, Fort Neverwas *Sniff*. It's just Jo really wanted to get to her new place).

Ok, Time to get back on track to H&H what is happing next with the episode and I bet you're all wondering where it is and is it done yet? Well, erm, the answer is not here and no, it’s not finished yet. We did warn you that episode 5 would be delayed. though even we didn't realise by exactly how much, but we are going to be filming the remainder of the scenes over the course of next week and it should be done, in the can and ready to go into the editing suit for the long editing day ahead of us. We will lock ourselves in the room and get it all down (Well, we hope) and up for all of you to watch as soon as possible. Wish us Luck!

Well that’s all for now so keep the home fire’s burning and...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Man At Work

It's midweek and here we are again, Acting Fans, it's time for the Wednesday update and, well, unfortunately there's very little to update. As we've mentioned before Life finds a way to get in the way at this time of year, especially when it comes to getting filming done. We've had one cautious eye on the weather this week but my shift pattern has meant that, even if the going had been good Monday/Tuesday, I was unavailable. Now today the clear blue sky taunts us as it's Vern himself whose unavailable but why?

Well, Acting fans, let me tell you, as it turns out chivalry isn't totally dead, just sort of badly beaten and lying in the gutters bleeding, gathering it's breath - it'll be okay, just give it some time to rest and collect itself. Vern is unavailable over the next couple of days as he's helping his good lady Jo to move in to her new living quarters like a proper boyfriend/partner/whatever-your-preferred-term (&, let's face it, the exercise will do him good).
This isn't entirely terrible news for the production as at the moment I seem to have a bit of excess goop on the go, which I'll hopefully manage to shift by the time we get to filming again, which looks like it may end up being next week. So that's it for this week - nothin' doin', I'm afraid. Stay tuned for Fridays post when we'll be able to let you know some actual stuff!

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Weekend Break

Hello, Acting Fans, and welcome to the H&H Productions regular Friday update. Chris here, whilst we've been in the midst of editing the first two episodes of the series and during preparation for the upcoming next phase of shooting Vern, Co-creator, Co-star & Big Tease, has been taking on the brunt of the bloggination duties as I slaved away at the editing desk (alright, me Compy) so he's earned himself a bit of a break, a break he's on right now in fact.

As I write Vernon is accompanying his lovely lady, Josie, on a weekend break to the Big Smoke. That's right - he's headed waaay Darn Sarf to our post-Olympic capital however, just like Inspector Gadget, our Collossal Acting Talent is 'always on duty' - he'll be keeping his eye on the prize and checking out the competition by taking in a performance of 'Rock Of Ages' to see exactly what those West End Thesps are made of. He'll be the judge of whether or not they can truly 'Rock'.

As for this week's endeavors well due to our work schedules this week, and a touch of bad weather Tuesday (boy, those Heavens sure did open), we haven't shot anything more than Vern's 'Dave' footage and, of course, kept up with our line-learning. Besides that the only other eventful happening in production this week is that I found a toy from my childhood which we'd been planning to buy an updated version of for use in one of the upcoming episode shoots, as usual it turned up when I was looking for something else entirely!
That's about it for this week, ah, well, there is one more thing that got done this week...

That's right, folks, as the Big Tease himself teased in this Wednesdays post, we're about to air the first episode of Series 1 and, you read it right, it'll be going live a week today! (Brief side note: I'd like to say a big thanks to Matt Austin of Austin Brothers Films for pointing me in the right direction for a decent sound effect for this teaser.)
As I'm sure Vern would write at about this point, Boy, We sure do spoil you lot!

So be sure to tune in next week for our regular Wednesday update and then be prepared to feast your eyes on our Brand New Episode. Do try not to get too excited in the meantime, go on, make yourself a nice calming cup of tea and then have a good sit down to steady yourself, there's good chaps and chapesses.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Shop Around

Hello, Acting Fans, welcome back we’ve missed you. So you may be wondering what have we been up to?
Today here at H&H production, well, we haven't been here at all today - we went out and did some Retail Therapy (Retail Therapy on a Lo-to-No Budget? Yep, window shopping)!

What were we out looking for? Costume? Yet more props? Gullible impoverished actors?
Nope, something far more important but what can be more important than the above mentioned?

Wishing on a falling star...

"I know how to make an entrance!"

"Too literal? Nahhhh."

"Wow, These Alarm cords are really sensitive! Honest officer, just ask the shop manager. Where is he? Oh, he's a bit tied up at the mo."

Yes, Acting Fans we were out scouring for information on a potential new camera after the last one died on us (it is an ex-camera, it videos with the choir celestial). And we can’t show you the show without a camera to record it with - I mean it would have to be some sort of live show or something and that woul……… Hang on a minute, hmm, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.

So, erm, anyhoo as always stay classily,

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Give Us Our Props VI

Greetings, Acting Fans, it's that time of week again and we're still getting ourselves organised for the rest of the series shoot, Post-West Yorkshire Premiere that is (The audience verdict: actually not terrible).
As we mentioned earlier besides running through the next scenes (& filming & editing a brief Premiere-only intro) we were going to take on a bit more prop making to try get one of our more complicated doodads finished, at least in the major construction phase. Before you you can see the fruits of our labour:

Yes, major construction on the [SPOILER] has been completed, though of course we're remaining cagey on it's function, any of you as old and haggard as us here at H&H Productions may have an inkling what it's function is. Particularly if you have a fondness for 'sticky-back plastic'. It's not yet fully complete, mind you, it still requires a few touches or retouches on the decoration front.
We still await with baited breath a reply from Valve but so far nothing (which, as the saying goes, may be good news.
Stay tuned for Fridays Blog post, as despite the lack of filming we do have something to submit for your approval.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

Inaction But Still In Action

Hello, Acting Fans, here we are with the lastest what-what on exactly what has been occurring in the world of H&H Productions. Bad news, everybody, we were counting on filming this week but at the moment our handy cameramanperson is unfortunately unavailable so we will be doing some more rehearsing as this episode really, really needs it. We will also be taking the filming downtime to finishing off some prop builds for the show. (One of which has been in the process of being built for a while now but the door was afar, yes, I said 'afar'.)

Then we have the West Yorkshire Premiere of the Pilot Episode, an especially vacced-but-not-Red Carpet event for friends and family at the weekend as they have put up with me and Chris going on and on and on (and on) about it for ages now (and in my Flatmates' case they've even had to put up with me using our home as a main set). For nigh on, well, about two-ish years I think it is by now. Time to let them see exactly what we've been up to.

We will see you on and Friday and we maybe might just tell you about this thing-what-we-are-building that has taken an age to make.

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year...

As the festive season is starting to kick in for reals, all of us here at H&H productions would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will be starting the New Year with hopefully more 'Bang' than 'Whimper' with a lot more of the filming, blogging and general high jinks in the coming months.

Until January the Blog will be on a seasonal Hiatus while for us its back to planning, looking through what we have shot and editing. Now, H, pass me some more of the Eggnog and wine. See you on the other side,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Stay classily, 

TTFN for now.

Vernon Harcourt

"Did that keep them occupied long enough, H?"

"The Good News: It turns out they were out last-minute shopping anyway."

"The Bad News: All they had left in the drinks cabinet was half a bottle of Gallo and an opened vodka."

"Hang on, H, that does it!"

 Oi, you lot! Next Christmas get some proper booze in for us to nick, you gits!!!