Twin Town Takeover

The Twin Towners are all down this weekend so Rebecca and I thought we'd muck in and attend a PowerPoint presentation about immigration within the UK. A handful of the Youth for Europe crowd were there and it was good to see all of them again. Fast forward to the evening and we were all drinking and eating all kinds of food while getting ready to learn some Bollywood dancing. It was all a bit of a hoot, and disco dancing wit Rebecca afterwards was a definite highlight of the day.

Good Eating on Good Friday

Rebecca, Louis and I travelled down to Newbury today (first time I've been back since Christmas). Saw the family and met the Italians who are currently staying over with us for the weekend. Since its Good Friday and because we were entertaining for tonight, Dad prepared a big meal for everyone. As a result, I've eaten an absolutely abhorrent amount of food today and I really need to sleep it all off. Can't wait to go into a proper Saturday morning food coma.

Games That Take Us Far, Far Away From Our Comfort Zone

Found myself with a relatively free day to finish up my latest video, or so I thought it was until I was asked to do a half-day working from home. We are still on the lookout for Conservative MP's or counselors to bring onto our show, we had a Labour representative on a few days ago and we are looking for some yin to our yang. I called up and emailed a bunch more folks today but a lot of them are going away for the holidays or really want to make a head start on their campaign for the May election... surely if they cared that much about being elected then maybe they should be constantly leafleting and campaigning?

After making those calls, I got down to do some serious crunching on the edit - and it's all done and uploaded now! Can't believe this one is out at long last, feels like ages ago since I wrote it, just never got the chance to sit down and put some video to it. Here it is though: 'Games That Take Us Far, Far Away From Our Comfort Zone'. Really pleased with this one.

Soggy Shoot

Filming took us across the North of London, back down to Westminster and then over to Soho. The travelling would have been fine, aside from the horrendous traffic we got into thanks to the rain, in the mor I g we were shooting outside too so we all got pretty soggy.

Back in Bristol now though with a well deserved day off coming my way. I'm actually planning on cutting and posting my next video tomorrow so stick around for that!

The Irate Farmer Look

Back in the Camden offices to take advantage of their free coffee machine and also to do a little bit of work. This time I was on the hunt for some costume pieces on a good old fashioned charity shop hunt. We needed a irate farmer costume, so naturally I turned to The Detectorists for inspiration and tried my best to replicate this look (minus the crazy hair):

The charity shops ended up doing us very well and I even managed to one-up the jumper effort with this horrid argyle pullover I found. The whole outfit had that classic Oxfam smell to it too which I got a very good whiff of when I tried on the ensemble to show our director.

Think it'll be convincing enough once we get our actor in it; I ain't much of a stand in.

Interviewing All Sorts

Back in the Camden studios for a handful of green screen interviews. Anyone who ever bought a green screen cloth and had a play around with it when they were younger (looking at you Mark) would know that it cannot have ANY creases in the material for the effect to work. Since I'm bottom of the food chain, that meant I spent the morning steaming out the kinks of a very large green screen cloth. No bother though, it satisfied whatever fraction of OCD I have.

Our interviewees ranged from feminists, political scientists and even a member of the BNP. All walks of life on this show! Could have been a bit of a mission today, but as usual, the crew all pulled through to smash it out and we ended up having a really good day.

Spotted this action shot of me in Nottingham last week with a bunch of pigeons. This is my 'please be in our show' face I put on for the general public, would you trust it?

Dat Sourdoughnut

So we didn't succumb to the weekend trap of staying indoors and developing cabin fever, Rebecca and I took a stroll up Park Street to do a bit of charity shopping and coffee drinking. We popped into Pinkman's since I had a real craving for another sourdoughnut. They had a full spread of flavours today, but we opted for the very fancy looking honeycomb one - Mum would have certainly been a fan. The doughnut was so good it imbued me with some seriously positive vibes, the weather was so lovely today too, it felt like Spring had finally arrived and to mark the occasion, I bought some daffodils to brighten up pur flat.

Its always nice to do something a little fancy with Rebecca just before I leave to go to London again for a stint. I've been away for a little while now and I just want to settle back into something in Bristol. Be good to be around again to spend some quality time with friends there again and go to all the restaurants I've been dreaming of going to.

'For the Boys'

'Saturday's are for the boys' is a motto I wore on my sleeve today as Mark, Dan and I spent a fair old whole together gaming online. Rebecca joined in too for a bit for a classic session of Left 4 Dead, we remembered all the steps though and got through a taxing challenge together.

Saturdays are all about good food seeing as Rebecca and I both have the time to rustle up something nice for every meal. This means, mini full English breakfast first thing and s very nice falafel and salad dinner later on. We always do well for food.

Praise for Phonecalls

Worked from home again today and really worked hard to bring the team some good news. I managed to confirm an extra contributor for our show which was really excellent to hear, we've been struggling recently to book in a handful of people, but as it turns out, a lot of opportunities lie on the other side of a phonecall. Been getting some high praise from my colleges too so I think I've done alright.

• In addition to all that, I've done a bit more work on my next video. Did the audio recording and a bit of the edition done today during some free time. I intend to finish it up on my next proper day off so watch this space.

Cakes and Contributors

Did a bit of pre-production work for our shoot from the comfort of my home in Bristol, certainly was a welcome change of pace. I was mostly looking up and contacting contributors for our host to  interview, MP's are at the top of my hit list and it feels like I've emailed every single one operating in London, even the campaigning ones who didn't win seats. If I don't get any responses soon I may have to bust out a charming phonecalls or two.

Seeing how successful my coffee cake baking has been recently, Rebecca roped me into making a batch of fairy cake sized coffee cakes for her office bake sale tomorrow. They came out looking amazing too! Adorned with a lovingly crafted chocolate covered coffee bean too, you can't go wrong!

1 Month from Driving

Feels like ages since my last driving lesson, for the most part though, it felt like the break was welcome as the first half of my lesson went really well. Then it quickly got a bit naff again in the second half, but for a return lesson I guess that was to be expected.

Might be doing some work from home tomorrow as they need a hand prepping and gathering interviewees for the shoot days next week - more money in the bank for me I guess!

Nottingham Charm

Smashed through our day out in Nottingham thanks in part to what has been dubbed the 'Theo Charm'. Turns out, I'm pretty alright at chatting to the public and getting them to agree to be interviewed in our comedy show. Made the day go by quickly too getting plenty of good contributors back to back, tired now though, just got back to Bristol for a well deserved rest.

Nightmare Trains and Birmingham

As per, I got to our call location with plenty of time to spare, and as per, we hit a very early morning snag. Our AP got stuck between train platforms on her way to us and she had all our train tickets to Birmingham all pre-printed. Of course this meant that we I couldn't re-print our tickets, even after I threw myself at the mercy of the TFL staff, they wouldn't budge on that policy. So production had to cough up for a few more tickets to Birmingham at great expense, but at least we got there OK!

Rest of my day was spent chugging for interviewees in Birmingham high street. Took a little bit to get my spiel down-pat, but after lunch I was really pulling in plenty of folks. They were so chuffed with my efforts that they paid for my dinner this evening which was very touching. I'm just about to bed down in a hotel in Nottingham, ready to hit the streets again tomorrow.

Cosy Cushions

Set my alarm for 5:15 tomorrow which should give me ample time to head to my call location and maybe grab some breakfast. I'm back at Matt and Emily's flat in Tooting Bec tonight, sleeping on a rag-tag little bed I made up out of their sofa fusions, it way more comfy than I made it sound there and I'm really humbled by how accommodating and generous they have been to me over the past week. If they ever come down to Bristol the debt shall be repaid.

Dreaming of Cupcake Cases

The hardest thing I had to do today was go supermarket shopping, aside from that, it was a very slopey day. I bought these rather cute silicon cupcake cases with the intention of making some coffee cupcakes later on down the line. I had a runaway success doing chocolate covered fruits last month so I might try and prep some chocolate covered coffee beans to go on top of them too. If I'm feeling up to it, I might make a test batch if those tomorrow before I head back to London...

I'm Coming Home

Fighting my way past the commute is a jolly good time, but this time I had a bit of fire in my belly because I knew that by the end of the day, I'd be back at home in my flat. That thought really helped me sail through the day, and the MegaBus journey felt much shorter because I could literally envision walking in, taking my shoes off and going to bed. And that's exactly what I'm doing now.

Lidl to the Rescue!

Spray painting was in my agenda today, specifically a medieval helmet that we needed in white. Luckily, I have plenty of experience from my BB gun days, so spraying down a helmet shouldn't have in theory been too hard, bought some masking tape too so I could bind up all the gold detailing on the mask and preserve it. This is where it all went horribly wrong though. The paint pooled inside the masking tape and after I peeled it all off it left these awful looking white globs all over the golden bits and it basically ruined the whole prop. I spent the next hour trying fruitlessly to rectify it by peeling off bits of paint with my nails.

I took it back home with me to ponder over, but I was just about ready to give up on it. Matt and I went out to Lidl to buy some dinner and we decided to look through their fun little tat aisle, and lo and behold, they had some metallic permanent markers in gold! Lidl to the rescue! Took it home to give the helmet and face-lift and boy, using that pen though was like doing Photoshop in real life, absolute miracle worker.

Really pleased with the loom of it now, kinda like a guilded Storm Trooper helmet:

Theresa The Hedgehog

Got back on the Photoshop wagon and made some more mock-ups of various political figures looking a bit out of character. In the midst of all this, I got to make some calls to a costume shop and source a few additional props we'll need in time for Monday's shoot. We have ticked a lot of boxes so far which is great, but we are still falling slightly short on contributors, it'll all come together in the end though - always does.

Louis also did a very quick sketch of Theresa May as Sonic the Hedgehog for us that is intentionally meant to be a bit unsettling. Even a few hours after he did it I keep finding myself coming back to look and laugh at it. The longer I looked at it, the more it ruined my childhood.

Swapping houses a little bit now too. I decided to give Rebecca's parents a break from my lovely company and instead I'm staying with a few old course mates living in Central London (on the Northern Line too, bloody dream) I made them some of my infamous burgers and bought them wine as my way of saying thank you. That's the great thing about learning how to cook, there is always someone nearby willing to appreciate your meals.

Damn You, Image Copyright Laws!

Got my Photoshop on first thing today. The script called for various picture manipulations of both Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May to make them look like vampires, robots, hipsters, punk rockers etc. I actually ended up teaching myself a fair amount on how to use Photoshop through some internet tutorials and by late afternoon, I had some really good pictures done! It was only at this point I seriously considered the copyright ramifications of using some of the pictures I used so I took a trip upstairs to Viacom's legal department to have a little chat with them and it turned out I would have to change all the pictures I worked on which is a bit of a shame. But, I know all the Photoshop tricks now so my version 2's will be even stronger!

In my lunch break some guy handed me his mix tape and I since I was keeping my head down most of the day I figured some music wouldn't hurt. Listened to the whole album, and for something a randomer was handing out, I got say it was pretty OK. My expectations were pretty low so I was guaranteed to be pleasantly surprised, but I'm glad I stuck it on. I found the single on YouTube so I'll pop it below, production is really solid, the voice and lyrics are just alright, but again, it was free!

Getting in Touch with MP's

First day in the office of a real media heavy weight! They set me off reading the scripts for the upcoming bit of filming so I was all keyed up, familiar name wrote the scripts too so that put a smile on my face. My primary role today was actually getting in touch with local MP's to see if they wanted to be interviewed for the show, most of them turned on their heels when they read its for Comedy Central, but we are hoping one or two of them will be a little more open minded. May get to do some Photoshopping tomorrow, if your lucky, I might even put some of my monstrous creations up here!

I only wised up to the fact there was a full-on coffee machine mere paces away from my desk. You could get espresso, mochas or cappuccinos, all for free and they tasted excellent. I'll be taking a huge advantage of that as the week goes on I'm sure.

Happy Mother's Day 2018

Called up my Mum and wished her a Happy Mother's day. I did send a card too, albeit an identical one to last years, a detail I only realised after Rebecca flagged it to me. Didn't spend the day with Mum in Newbury though as I'm still down in London, hyping myself up for my start in the office tomorrow morning. Gonna have to join in with the London commuters first thing though, the thought of that already makes me want to take a bath, but a guess they each want to be there about as much as I do. Not actually too sure what they'll get me working on first thing, but if I go in there and give it all I got then I'm sure to turn a few heads.

Mini Date Day

Rebecca and I went out for our miniature date day out in Central London, I hadn't seen too much of her over the past week and a bit so it was nice to do something together again. We headed to the National Gallery, followed by The National Portrait Gallery where Rebecca geeked out a little over the Tudor paintings, I was more into the contemporary art sections, but found some joy in giving witty captions to the old art - if it had a naked baby angel in it then it wasn't spared from a little joke from me.

Bumped into Dad in a very pleasant turn of events, of all the people we could have met in London, Dad seemed like on of the most unlikely. Louis and I chatted briefly about coming back to Newbury soon, be good to spend some time with my folks again.

Casual Evacuation

Did my invoicing and my script for my upcoming video, I'll be working on that when I get a few days to myself. I'm back in London over the weekend now and ready to start work at the Viacom offices at the start of next week.

Most dramatic event today was the fire alarm rung for ages in our flat. I knew it was going to end up being a drill or a burnt toast situation so I carried the hot chocolate I just made down into the courtyard with me, it was a very casual building evacuation.

Final Day of Bingo

Spent the final day of my shoot at the Viacom offices in Camden which, as it turns out, is a pretty groovy office space. We were in their studio for most of the morning while I sourced and bought a sparkly red suit for our presenter. Got a real sense of an ending after lunch though. I was writing up my own release form last thing and had to write in my own address and all I could think about was home at that moment. I decided to surprise Rebecca by coming back to Bristol unannounced and she couldn't believe her eyes.

Penultimate Push

Smashed out our penultimate filming day after ploughing through the London commuters shuffling in. I'm still on release form duty, but more folks today were happy to be a part of it than usual, makes my life easier so I'm not complaining. I'm also not going to moan about the extra bit of money they offered to pay me for the job I did on Monday, gonna be rolling in the dough soon enough.

We got a bit if coverage of the anti-war demonstration at Downing Street too. While driving up though, we noticed an awful lot of armed police present so that was a little bit scary, we toned down the joke we were going to pull off there in case it didn't go down so well.

I finished off the day by sending through a batch of promo shots for the show I took over the course of last month and they seem pretty pleased with them. I believe they are hoping to do a press release to promote the show very soon and who knows, the pictures you see in it may well be mine!

Add in Another Ad

Another day, another shoot. Thus time I was down in Kingston helping out on another single day advert shoot. I started off organising parking for most peeps before I got a starring role in the background of our final shot, so if you squint, you might be able to see me in it! Really hardworking and productive day today though, we smashed through it, got to work with a lot of familiar faces too so that was lovely too.

Surprise Animals!

Woke up so early this morning that the Oscar announcement for best picture still hadn't been made. Travelled down to Brighton without any fuss and set up for am advert shoot with animals in it! This was very much a first for me, they brought in a dog and a cat wrangler and the animals did a few tricks and everything. Cats turned out to be a bit pants it the whole obeying commands thing, the dog was pretty good though. I was in charge of the telepropter for the duration which was a pretty cool job, worked closely with the client to make sure their precious, focus group tested script wasn't being tampered with too much. We ran slightly overtime because of a few quick resets and the usual gubbings but it was an interesting experience overall.

March 4 Women

Joined in with the London Women's march today and it was pretty dang cool. I was a bit anxious about our reputation because I thought our presenter might have ended up offending a whole bunch of people but we actually had one of the most civil shoot days I can remember. So many people turned up too:

I'm setting my alarm for an ungodly hour tonight so I have ample time to, get this, commute to South Wimbledon so I can then drive down to Brighton tomorrow morning. Gonna do a hell of a lot of traveling but it sounds like it'll be a good shoot.

A Pleasing Pie

Enjoyed the last if my free days before a big batch a filming. To thank Rebecca's parents for letting me stay with them I cooked them dinner tonight: my famous Sheppard's Pie was plated up, and if it were a trip advisor hotspot I think they'd be giving glowing reviews. Think I've done enough to earn my keep for at least a little longer.

A Pleasing Pie

Enjoyed the last if my free days before a big batch a filming. To thank Rebecca's parents for letting me stay with them I cooked them dinner tonight: my famous Sheppard's Pie was plated up, and if it were a trip advisor hotspot I think they'd be giving glowing reviews. Think I've done enough to earn my keep for at least a little longer.

When it Snows, Have a Pint!

Once more into the chilly fray I ventured. London trains were getting cancelled left, right and centre so I had to do the trip both ways via buses and tubes only which took a little while. Actual day of shooting was fine though, we managed to avoid the worst of the snow by waiting it out in a pub (best place to be) and got several interviews in the bag. Came back feeling more tired than usual, luckily I have a day off before 5 back-to-back shooting dates next week.

Considering Hibernation

My day off from filming was spent huddled up indoors with a borrowed laptop. With all the snow and wind outside it made it very easy to not leave the house, instead I focused on prepping myself for tomorrows filming and writing more for my next video. Absolutely smashed through the bits I wanted to with the script and it's nearly all finished, lord knows when I'll get a chance to actually produce the video, but at least the least tangible part of the process is almost sorted.