Getting Foolish With The FOOLS FOR HIRE!

Where on earth has this year gone? Talk about a whirlwind!

I've let things lapse around here the last few months but it was with good reason - I've been busy as hell creating new content and some of it just launched on the "internets" in the form of the comedy webseries FOOLS FOR HIRE.

Way back in July I briefly mentioned a new project I was about to go into pre-production on. The series in question is very different from my last web adventure, Libelle, although one probably would not have existed were it not for the other.

I first heard about the concept for Fools For Hire back in the summer of 2011 when Nick Harrison, who was my Assistant Director/Stunt Coordinator/Actor on Libelle, told me about some of his crazy experiences over the years working as a corporate entertainer. At first I didn't believe half the stories he told me but I was nonetheless intrigued enough by his idea to take some of those exploits and develop it into a comedy webseries.

Almost a year later, schedules finally lined up and Nick introduced me to Mike Cavers, fellow actor and victim of corporate entertainment and just like that we were off making the webseries!

Nick and Mike had a gig coming up at the annual Lonsdale Quay summer festival where they would be playing their pirate characters and we all agreed that it would make the perfect backdrop for the first 2 episodes. Given the theme of piracy, we also thought it would be a great way to introduce the show's villain who ended up being played by Eric Breker in another cool Libelle connection.

Eric Breker filling in on slating duties at Lonsdale Quay

The scripts for Episodes 1-4 came together incredibly quickly as did the cast and crew - it helped that our crew was well... Minimal.

Hey! Isn't that sound guy one of the Fools For Hire?

On most days it was pretty much just me and the camera and a different volunteer doing sound each day of shooting with other roles being filled as needed by whoever wasn't in front of the camera for a particular shot.

Shooting the first 4 episodes was a great learning experience, it was a lot of work and it was a ton of fun. Portions of each of the episodes were only loosely scripted and relied upon the cast to improvise but since many of them were experienced in theater sports this came easy. There were a lot of takes that ended with me having to cut simply because I couldn't stop shaking the camera from laughing.

The real work however, was still to come. With almost 1TB of video files on my hard drive there was a LOT of footage to sift through. In addition, we were going to have to learn how to self-distribute our work and though I've dabbled plenty in social media etc. even I was surprised at just how much work this would end up being. I'll write a separate post on the distribution and branding side of things at a later date.

Here for your viewing pleasure is Episode 1 of Fools For Hire.



And here's Episode 2 of Fools For Hire.



Over the next little while I'll be sharing lots more on my experiences with getting Fools For Hire out into the world as well as what our plans may be for the future of the show. A lot of people have put a lot of work into making Fools For Hire possible and it's all for nothing if nobody sees it so please, please check out our Youtube Channel here and don't forget to click the "Like" button, comment and let us know what you think and "Subscribe" for more episodes! Also, please come and visit our official Facebook page here or find us on Twitter here.

As 2012 comes to an end I'm already thinking that perhaps my first New Years resolution should be to pay more attention to this little corner of my world and blog with more frequency. If you're still with me and checking back here from time to time, thank you! With any luck I'll have lots more to share over the coming 12 months.

Merry Christmas to you all and a very Happy New Year!

Happy Mother's Day!

What a busy few months it's been! Sadly I can't share some of the things I've been up to since it's still very hush-hush but as soon as I can spill the beans, I will do so.

The good news is I've been shooting lots of video lately and have even gotten back out there and snapped a bunch of photos. As soon I've had time to go through them and pick out the best ones I'll be happy to share them here.

In the meantime, if you've got 4 minutes to spare, check out this comedy short I directed with my fabulous friends Dan, Chad and Kim of BackIn4 Productions which was put together very quickly in time for Mother's Day (North American Mother's Day that is, British Mother's Day was back in March). As I write this, our little video has already passed 500 views on youtube which is a lot more than we were expecting for our first project out of the gate.

The BackIn4 crew are Dan Heinz, Chad Coleman and Kim Nachtigal all of whom are recent graduates of the Vancouver Acting School and this video will hopefully be the first of many. This short was shot in about 5 hours using my Canon 60D and took a day to edit. It could have taken a lot less time to edit but I had a few new things to learn including how to sync dailies with separately recorded audio.

Since my last shoot I've acquired a few more important pieces of gear rounding out my camera package including the SmallHD DP4 EVF and (finally!) a decent tripod in the form of the FC-04H. Both of these items were on special and although not that cheap they were significantly cheaper than anything else out there offering the same great features.

Of course, at the end of the day it all comes down to how well the gear performs and all I can say is "Wow! What a difference!" I can finally see what I'm shooting clearly, with no sun glare and I can judge exposure and focus accurately. As the for the tripod, I'm kind of a snob when it comes to these things having been spoiled with the top-of-the-line gear back in my camera assistant days but the FC-04H is pretty damn impressive. Best of all, with the tripod legs made of carbon fiber it is super light to carry around. Audio was recorded using the Roland R-26 digital field recorder and a RODE NTG-2 shotgun mic. For my first time using this, I was pretty surprised at how clean the audio turned out - certainly a lot better than that nasty, noise-filled, tinny sounding onboard mic that the Canon 60D has!

In the next few days I'll be busy editing a short behind-the-scenes piece I shot for the awesome folks at Descriptive Video Works then there'll be another comedy shoot with the BackIn4 crew the following week so look out for that.

I'll also try and put up some of the photos I've taken in the last few weeks - My parents have been visiting Vancouver so I've had a good excuse to get to know my inner tourist.

To my mom and to all amazing moms out there, thank you for everything that you do!