Well, hello there, Acting Fans and felow bloggers, welcome back to this the H&H blog for your usual Wednesday post. Let me tell you what have we been up to then over this week so far. Just sit tight right there and I'll tell you - that is if you keep reading, it IS a blog after all. Use your eyes!
Ok, Internet Chums so last Saturday we did indeed manage to get ourselves up to Manor Heath Park to do the experimental bit of filming and it was a sunny, shining success. It turned out we didn't end up going into the Jungle Experience to do it, nope, we filmed at a nice spot we found out in the Walled Garden area up there. We did sneak a peak at the Jungle Experience facilities but, well, while it might have had some nice exotic plants, it didn't look right. The 'Greenhouse' look of it seemed like it would be too hard to hide in the shots and we might not have been able to get as up close and personal with the Flora as we needed to, so we layed down on the grass in our ideal chosen spot, got out the [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] and went to work, and I must say having now reviewed the rushes that it does indeed look very good and should be funny. (Plus we saved TWO WHOLE POUNDS not going in, hey, every little bit helps on a Low-to-No Budget!)
Ooh, there's more............Yes, we have been busy!
Yesterday (Tuesday 6th August, 2013) Me, Chris and our good buddy Logan Darkholme (yes, that really is his name...legally) met up for a read through of the Summer Special script as we have found this is always good to iron out any problems with the script and change any lines that might not work or flow naturally the way we first wrote them (it does happen). It was a roaring success too, we laughed through it too, well I did - I'll have to put a lid on it for the shoot which won't be easy, it's pretty funny if I say so myself. All in all I am very pleased with how this script is turning out. You know it could be our best Special yet......could be. Though the other two out of three ain't bad!
Well, that's you lot for now we have now things to doing during the week but I leave that for Friday.
Salutations, Acting Fans, Wednesday's come around again and, as the Spring snow flurries past the window and we contemplate that maybe somehow we've ended up in Westeros by accident, let me tell you what we've been up to so far this week. First, I'm going to take a brief detour to the end of last week. As it happened after posting last weeks blog and heading into town for some lunch before my evening shift who should I run into by chance but my colleague-in-arms at H&H Productions himself! We took the providential opportunity to have a brief tête-à-tête about our plans and I mentioned an aspect of Episode 6's script that wasn't working for me. Vern agreed and we hammered out an alternative version of the scene there and then which he typed up and integrated into the script after we went our separate ways. The following Sunday, whilst doing a bit of a spit-&-polish on the script, my recent viewing of the film which the episode homages kicked in and I realised we could have a bit more climactic finish to the episode. I wrote the climactic confrontation in and sent it to my partner-in-crime, who weighed and measured the idea and did not find it wanting. That means our shooting script is pretty much there but we still want to do the semi-cast readthrough. Back in the Here & Now, Vern has been trying to organise the readthrough but the curse of the low-to-no budget production rears it's head again and we are still trying to get in touch with our principal cast members. Meanwhile at just H HQ AKA the Editing Suite despite working Monday & Tuesday I've managed to get on with one of the side projects needed for the Final episode of Series 1 - The Puppet!
Legs 11!
Right, said Fred
Getting Ahead
I've opted for a (hopefully) simple construction, making a core body & head from waste upholstery foam, old tights (not mine, well not ALL mine but they're all mine now) and elastic bands which I'll go on to 'skin' with some towelling fabric (I'm going to sacrifice one of my redundant Dressing Gowns). Wish me Luck! (With my sewing skills I'll need it!) That's it for Midweek, Internet Chums, tune in Friday to see what we manage to get up to the rest of this week! TTFN
Welcome back fellow bloggers and Acting Fans. Since last we spoke, well, blogged we have indeed been doing something, yes! Incredible, I know!
We, me and my fellow co-creator, have met up once again to go over the script with a fine tooth comb. Yes, we looked over the script to nail down exactly what we can start to film with just me and Chris as we are still need of those extra warm bodies to help out, our inbox remains empty. We decided to look at getting some people from other acting organisations in Halifax (the local amateur dramatic groups to be exact), so stay tuned in for the outcome on that. The email is winging it's way down the internet tubes as you read on.
We also read through the script, mostly just our lines, and did some minor tweaking to script, changing a few lines around and adding some things. What things were added, you may ask? Well I'm sorry H&H fan, that’s classified for now.
We also discussed something else, a little something that could be coming your way soon, very soon indeed but this is even more top secret than what tweaks done and I can’t say anymore on this subject, I really shouldn’t been even saying any this of which you are reading - so forget that I’ve even said anything on this. Just let it drift from your mind.
Well, that’s it for now acting fans. Oh, apart from me and Jo watched 'Warm Bodies' too and it was pretty fun, so yeah that's something you could do to fill the time while you wait for more H&H goodness. Do be sure to come back here after though!
Anyway, it’s goodnight from him and it’s goodnight from me.
TTFN
(Ssh! Remember - I didn’t say anything about top secret plans SSHHHH!!!)
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...
Welcome back, Acting Fans, it’s Friday and you know what that means it’s blog time - so let’s do this! Since last time we have been (well, when I say 'we' I mean mostly Chris) putting in the sound F/X to the first episode and doing minor editing tweaks to the episode (I guess you could call it a sort-of 'effects shot' but that might be over-selling it). Chris then brought some rough cuts of the episodes to drop off at my gaff (AKA: H&H HQ ) for me to look over and say 'yea' or 'nay' to. I'm glad to say they passed my approval with just a few notes for minor tweaking, such as the SFX sound levels and one or two bits & pieces here or there.
After viewing the episode roughs and making the few notes, we did a bit of re-writing on one of the next episodes, we’ve just added small changes inspired by the development of the format of the two filmed episodes. But what? I hear you ask well, well, that’s a secret you’ll just have to wait and see what it is exactly. Let's just say a 'running gag' (Maybe a clue or not...ooooh, what am I like?).
Anyway, it's no stopping for us yet just because two are down, it’s straight on with the next one I am going to be spending most of this week learning lines ready for the rehearsal next Friday. Friday? That doesn't sound non-stop does it but, yep, our next rehearsal is a week away, well, we have to do our day jobs in between these rehearsals, shoots and such - this web show of comic genius don’t pay for itself you know, well, not yet anyways! I think that's about it for now, until the next time we speak through the written word, keep them home fires burning and as always...
Hello, bloggers and Acting Fans, and what have been up to since Wednesday? Well, having edited the full first cut of episode 2, Chris has been sourcing and syncing some sound effects for it and that's about it, apart from a small wee bit of planning and me starting to learn my lines nothing has really happened.
I'd got it in me head (and the diary) that me and Chris were due to be meeting up today to have a line runthrough, though it appears I got the dates wrong in the diary and Chris was, in fact, working. Whoops, silly me! Flippin' day jobs! So I've made a pass on the script and have started to learn my lines instead.
We are hopefully still on for filming in the next week or so. So we are in fact still on schedule despite today's hiccup, and we should have two episodes down by the end of this month, only four to go. We might have even started the third, who knows. Fings crossed, Acting Fans!
Until the next and as always keep the home fires….you know.
Hello, Acting Fans, and welcome back, boy, do we have some news to report this week. And not just our usual stuff lately of hang-on-we've-got-stuff-in-the-works-going-on. What is it I hear you cry? Well, me and my Acting-Buddy-&-Co-Star Chris had an all planned out shoot for today. We were going to film a major part of the third episode (why the third? And why aren’t we filming the second next? More on these question much later on, i.e. not on this blog entry, mate. No, I'm not calling you a moron!) But, yep, as you may have guessed by the world “were” it didn't go quite according to plan - so what we went wrong? Well, todays attempt at a shoot went something like this:
Not exactly like that, obviously, as no zeppelins or hydrogen were involved (being a Lo-to-No Budget series we can't afford them) it was however like the above in that we had a major technological breakdown! The camera, after being used many times in the previous shoots and working fine, stopped working. In the later stage of the Pilot shoot we had had a few glitches in the footage but it seemed there was a chance that judicious use of a head-cleaning tape would stop the problem. Unfortunately now the heads appear to not be working right at all, the video camera doesn’t want to play back anything we film, although testing the tapes in our back-up camcorder revealed it was actually recording but just heavily corrupted footage. (Man, we just have all the luck, don’t we?) But, hurrah, some good news not all was lost from the shoot we did go out (with our trusty backup Emergency Camera, AKA Chris's Dad's Camcorder) and hung around the Calder Royal Hospital to get some stock footage of an ambulance for the Episode [SPOILERS] later on in the series. As we chased ambulances by not moving we ran through the lines for the episode that we were originally going to film today. Only to then almost miss our cue while doing so, when mid-flow a sirens-and-all ambulance showed up but luckily, thanks to my quick reactions (and the camcorder booting up just-in-time to catch it before it passed us), we got it the can. Groovy. We returned with our prize, and a little additional improvised outdoor stock footage, back to Chez Vern for a cool drink and a final line run - the dialogue's shaping up pretty well. Now we take stock and, yes, plan some more (always with the planning) what to do.
Until next time, which is Friday in case you don’t know,
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.
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...
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
