Keeping It Surreal

Welcome, Acting Fans, fellow bloggers and people of the worlds internet. It's H here again to fill you in, fill you in on what's been happening at H&H HQ, that is. No need to look so worried! Anyway, we got a second meet up in this week (just yesterday in fact Thursday the 30th of July - CRIPES! Where did that go?!) and got down to discussing our next moves, well, eventually after doing our usual thing of going round the houses, talking about our film and fiction geek knowledge. It even got a bit small 'p' political.

We did finally get on to H&H though, promise, and we ran through and planned out some ideas for next Actor's Log to be filmed and how we were going to put it together. Chris often takes us on more surreal tangent humour-wise and, while I'm okay with that, I prefer it if we get surreal without getting too much in to the realms-of-Noel-Fielding over the top surreal. After a bit of brainstorm and a laugh or two, we settled on how it was going to work and the general sequence of events. After that it was time to come up with a few ideas for key lines of dialogue. Just so we have a sort of notion of where we are going to be going with this one, but not a full script. Yep, with this one we are looking to keep it a bit off the cuff though not without a bit of framework to hang it off.

So now I have few things left to do before the shoot to prepare, like take some reference stills from a certain movie for some of the shots and put them on my phone for a bit of homaging that will be in this upcoming vlog. Well, I'd best get on with the prep work, so that's your lot for today folks!

See you in the FUTURE!

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Fear Not The Man Who Practices 1000 Techniques Once...

Helloooo to our Acting Fans and fellow bloggers, yep, it’s the weekend so that means another blog post - let’s get down to this!

First of all Chris has finally remembered to bring me down his DVD of the Sergio Leone film 'Once Upon A Time In The West' for some research. Hmm, you may wonder, what does a Spaghetti Western have to do with H&H? And why that film in particular? Well, that would be [SPOILERS!] We have also been doing some more playing about with our camera, no, wait a moment before you click on that 'X' button just yet! This time it has been very import!

VERY Important!

We are going out this Sunday night for some test shoots in costume to see how they come out in the night, and to see if we may need some other light source. This lead us in to wondering if we could possibly use the flash on the camera itself as a light, we even checked online to see if we could find a setting which would allow us to have the flash stay on during video capture. We did find some tutorial videos but, alas, we cannot use it that way. Oh, well. We even popped in to Janet Greens, the local camera shop,  but they didn’t have any advice or anything in stock that could help us even though they did use to stock video camera lights. So it looks like the test shoot will be a way to find out what we can do with this camera at night by itself and also with a bit of help from a certain everyday item that Chris has had an idea about too.

Block It!

We have also been going over the script with a fine-tooth comb, sorting out some of the finer details of some of the character appearances. Deciding when and/or where certain characters will or will not appear, cutting some of the lines back (so we don't spoil some surprises) and blocking out some the early scenes, so when the other cast member are present we know what we want them to do and where. We even blocked out a dance sequence, yep, we have a DANCE SEQUENCE but that’s all I am going to say on that matter (Yep, you guessed it [SPOILERS] again). Well, that’s all for now folks.

That’s it from me this week, so I'll sign off by saying, "Nan noo nan noo!"

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

What's The Word?

Salutations, loyal Acting Fans, and welcome once again to the H&H Productions blog Friday update. As promised, Vern and I have managed to get our planning-meet-up-and-line-run in before this Bank Holiday Weekend hits.

The Spoils of....er, Practice

If there's one thing we've learned during production it has definitely been the value of practice. Not just rehearsing to learn our lines but also the actual reading of the lines themselves, such as on our first line run for the episode being filmed next. It may be one of the oldest saws that what looks right read on a page doesn't necessarily sound right when said aloud, we'd have to agree though - as they say, sometimes cliches are cliches because they are true. Today there's been more than a touch of altering lines, striking out words (then putting them back in again after removing other words), re-arranging statements and generally messing with the lines to get them more natural sounding or to get a better cadence or rhythm.
As well as the line run, we've gone back over the notes of the last meeting where we solidified what the pre-title sequence would be used for this episode, added a note of it on the script itself and written in a new first scene (one that has a stronger tie continuity-wise with the earlier episodes than the one originally planned) that Vern will type up into a finalised script later.

That's pretty much it for this week, we have our next line run planned for next Tuesday, some organising to do inbetween and we may be up for some more location scouting too. Until next time, then, have a great Bank Holiday Weekend (or, if you're not in the UK, a grand normal weekend) and Goodnight out there, whatever you are...


TTFN

Christopher Haigh

 

For The High Jump

Welcome, Acting Fans, once again to this Wednesday blog. Let me tell you what's been happening since last Friday. Well, oh, hmm, erm, well, we did warn you - actually not a lot as happened. Really. I'm not going to lie to you. I’ve been learning my lines for the next episode (I have some loooooooot of lines to learn this time around) and Chris has been busy working away at his (part-time) daily toils.

Other than that, and doing some prep work for this Friday, there hasn’t been a lot going on but rehearsals are a very important task, and this one is going to take quite a bit of reading to get it right in my head and to keep up the high standards of the other episodes. Yep, that’s right folks. We have set ourselves some pretty high standards (we've a high metaphorical bar to clear, and I'm a solid bloke) which is always good as it keeps on making us try to improve our techniques.

That’s it for now - just a short stop to check in and let you know we may not be movin' but we're still travellin', until Friday’s blog keep the home fires burning and see you then (Well, sort of)

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

Planning Permission

Hello, Acting Fans and, once again, welcome back to the blog, it doesn’t seem two minutes since the last time we talked (Only last Wednesday, where is this Summer going?).

What has been happening since then, well, erm, hmm, as Chris mentioned on Wednesday actually not a great deal. I have just been getting things ready for the shoot next week like confirming the dates (and the availability of the flat with my flatmates), printing out the scripts for upcoming episodes ready to start read-throughs and making sure that everything is ticking along nicely. Just all of the small things that need to get done and sometime get over looked. This week I have pretty much been:

And this week has pretty much been this:

But without all the welding and heavy tools (we leave the really Heavy Tool jobs to Chris's little sister). That's about it really, I know it's not too exciting but all this planning has to be done in order for everything to run smoothly (or as smoothly as it can with me and Chris in charge). I do love it when a Plan comes together.

So, Yeah, until next time as usual: home fires, keep 'em, burning, etc.

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

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

 

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

Yes, Acting Fans, the wheels are still turning at H&H HQ but still prepping for launch so we thought we'd use today's post to celebrate the season of giving that is May. Now you may think 'May? Isn't that a little premature on the celebration front? I mean we're not long out of the last December!' but we're here today to talk about the OTHER season of giving. Yes, May 5th is the first Saturday of May so it's...

Yep, Free Comic Book Day. Check with your local comic shop to see if they're taking part, Our local Comic shop Proprietor (& location provider & Guest Star) Simon at Legacy Comics will be taking part. Doing his best to get newbies hooked on periodical four-colour fiction.
Even if you aren't fans of people in skin tight suits punching each other like myself and Vern, we urge you to pop in to yours - you never know what you might find (besides your usual big two (Marvel & DC comics) superheroes fare there's Atomic Robo, Finding Gossamer, Mouse Guard, to name a few*). We're set to meet with our colleague, Mr. Matt Birdsall, Esq. at this weekends extravaganza so hopefully we'll be taking stock on the equipment front (seeing if we can sort the issues with the DV camera with liberal application of a Cleaning Tape, or if more drastic action is required) and mapping out the next shooting schedule. Good Hunting.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

*= Subject to availability, of course.

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly

Hello, Acting fans, well it's that time again - Wednesday blog post day. What has been happening in the world of H&H, well, we are still rehearsing the next webisode scenes to be filmed. Trust us, this one is going to take some rehearsing. Hoo, boy!
We have also taken some photos to storyboard the shots for the same episode. Yep, we are all about the beavering away busy as bees but there's little to show for it yet. There's a lot of planning and pre-production the going in to each webisode of H&H, we said we should do more and we most definitely are, oh, and I've have also been busy writing a parody song that is to appear later on in the series. Listen out for that. So, yes, the wheel's still turning and we are keeping in motion. Keep 'em peeled...

TTFN

Vernon Harcourt

 

Runthrough

Greetings, Acting Fans! Once again Blog day rolls around, what? Already? Sometimes it really does feel like we're travelling at 67,000 miles per hour, so this is going to be a bit of a quick one.
Since the completion of the Pilot we've had a mini-test-screening and, so far so good, the Test Subjects* all appear to be laughing in the right places. The most recent gatherings of H&H Productions have been focused on planning the next phase of the series, Episodes 1-to-6B. Happy with the 10 minute total runtime established by the Pilot, we have done some minor retooling on the episode scripts, as when initially conceived we were estimating between 5-to-7 minutes an episode. This has also given us the option of re-introducing, or re-integrating in differently, additional scene ideas that we had originally not thought possible, yay!
This Monday saw us gathered Chez Vern to do a line run, dialogue tweak and basic runthrough on the next episode scenes to be shot and they're dialogue heavy so we're going to need all the practice we can get!
Unfortunately the next time our schedules coincide will be this weekend sometime so we're hoping to put all three H&H Productions heads together to hammer out the actual shooting schedules but, don't worry, there'll still be a little sumthin' sumthin' this Friday.
In the meantime, if you haven't already, why not drop by Channel H check out the decor and the first teaser promo - please take your shoes of before entering or, at least, wipe your feet first.

TTFN

Christopher Haigh

*= No Animals were harmed during the testing of this web series, cajoled & threatened, yes, but not actually harmed