Behind the Scenes Photo & Diary For Sketch 10/6/21

When filming Oisinn and Anne... and err Barry, there is a way of directing it that gets the most out of Hog. You can't have it too tight, or Anne can't improvise. This is a character sketch, and as much as you've put hours into a script, you just have to leave room for new lines, that come in the moment. More importantly, in order to get the best out of the lines you have, you can't be hitting marks, or be too precise, at least initially - to allow for those natural intonations and physicality that make it funny. You also can't have it too loose, or it takes bloody ages to film anything, and everyone gets tired and the poor editor has to sift through hours of nonsense to get to the key lines and he definitely remains patient throughout and rarely curses out loud.  We haven't always got the balance right, but I think we did today. 

How do you direct Foil in these situations? Well.. he's more of a reactive character so there's not a huge amount to be done in these sketches.  In general though, he's also quite a reactive actor . Foil likes to act in the moment, having the preceding line fed to him so he can match the energy and tone needed. Kind of the opposite of robo-actor. 

How do I like to be directed? I'm not sure, i guess that's for the lads to say! 

"Ugh he's so tall, we have to move the camera EVERY time"

"He's always knocking things over with his clown feet"

If we ever make a bigger project, sitcom or movie, I really don't know how we'll hand over directing duties... I mean, if we can't get the best out of each other at this point, who will? 

Translation: Foil arms and Hog are difficult to work with? I wouldn't know, we've never really worked with anyone!!

We had a lot of fun writing and filming this, as we always do. There's just so much material - not sure how it can be cut to 2 or so minutes. I guess you guys will see most of it anyway so no loss there!

Speaking of seeing... you may.. or possibly not notice we have bought a new light - all thanks to you fine folks on patreon. This one is POWERFUL, and gives us that natural daylight look, which we have struggled with, what with having not much of it in our office/freezing cave. Foil was tinkering with his new toy all morning, and I think it looks great. Foil reads these diary entries so I would have to say that. 

We finished shooting this week at a respectable time, with the cleaners squeaky hoover only coming through the last shot - so we were able to grab a few beers before heading home instead of collapsing face down on the couch and waking up on Saturday.

Hope you enjoy it,

Arms