Hi everyone!
It’s been a loooong time since I posted an update. 2017 has been a year of contrasts. I’ve worked on a viral campaign for Cheetos that should be out soon, and I had the pleasure of working on a proof of concept short called Dead Air. Think of it as “Gremlins On A Plane!” I’ve also continued to move forward with my voice over career. I hope to be able to say more about that soon. For the last couple of months I’ve been waiting to hear about a future project that would be very exciting.
That got me thinking.
99% of my time is spent looking for the next job and promoting myself. Yet it’s a part of the job that rarely gets talked about.
As a self employed performer, I have to push myself to find the next job. I’m lucky, in that I have an agent, but even so you have to work hard to make connections. I’m at a point now where a majority of the work I get is because of word of mouth. I’ve done enough that my name is probably on some lists somewhere. However, I never take that for granted. Every job I apply for I assume I’m starting from scratch. That way I work harder to land it.
The more I put into finding work, the more I feel I have at least some control over the path my career takes. It’s much healthier than sitting at home and waiting for the phone to ring!
So if you want to be a puppeteer or an actor, don’t rely on others to do the work for you. Get out there and start connecting!
A
ANDREW JAMES SPOONER TWITTER FEED
THE OFFICIAL GERRY ANDERSON WEBSITE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL TWITTER FEED
THE BBC IPLAYER (for the latest Furchester episodes)
Hi everyone!
It’s been a while. What with Christmas, New Year and work commitments, I’ve not had much time to update you all.
So here we go!
Late in 2016 I flew to Holland to shoot a pilot for a potential new puppet TV show. As coordinator and principle puppeteer I had my work cut out for me, but it all went extremely well and everyone involved seemed happy and energized by the end product. It’s a crazy mix of music, adventure and comedy. I look forward to seeing the final product soon.
2016 ended on a high with the broadcast of The Furchester Christmas Special on BBC 1. The show was received extremely well, as have all the new episodes so far. Thank you all so much for watching.
A new batch of episodes started airing on CBEEBIES on February 6th and runs for a few weeks.
The other big bit of news is that the first 2 seasons of the show are now available on NETFLIX in the UK and USA.
This gives our friends in the US a better chance to see it than ever! It’s also broadcasting on THE SPROUT CHANNEL in America if you don’t have access to NETFLIX.
As always there are plenty of episodes still available on the BBC IPLAYER.
The last couple of weeks have been full of activity as we create content for the new Furchester attaction at CBEEBIES LAND/ALTON TOWERS. We’ve been shooting new footage for commercials and the attraction itself, as well as recording the audio for a brand new Furchester adventure. It’s all under wraps at the moment, but I’ll let you know more closer to the opening.
It’s the beginning of the year (just) and the rest of 2017 looks like it could be very exciting. As usual there is very little I can say about ANYTHING at the moment. I’m about to shoot a series of commercials for JAYWING, which will give me a chance to work with the ever brilliant KIM SCOPES again. I’ve worked with her in the past on NEWZOIDS and the music video CHUNKY for the band FORMAT:B.
Work on GERRY ANDERSON’S FIRESTORM continues, and I hope to have positive news to share about it in the not to distant future.
As usual there are some other projects hovering in the air, we just have to wait and see where they all land.
I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store.
Take care!
A
ANDREW JAMES SPOONER TWITTER FEED
THE OFFICIAL GERRY ANDERSON WEBSITE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL TWITTER FEED
THE BBC IPLAYER (for the latest Furchester episodes)
Hi everyone!
Again it’s been a while. The Furchester shoot has ended after 60 days and over 600 hours of studio time. We’re all very proud of the 51 episodes we shot and can’t wait for them to be released into the wild! As far as I know the new episodes will start airing on CBEEBIES around October/November time. I’ll let you know more as and when the information becomes available.
I’m particularly proud of the special Christmas episode.
Since I’ve been back I’ve been catching up with over 4 months of paperwork (boo!) and finishing my tax return (double boo!). However, it’s not all been receipts and invoices. I’m prepping for a short pilot I’m shooting in Holland later next month. It’s still early days, lot’s of time looking at scripts and storyboards, figuring out how many puppeteers we’ll need and how certain shots can be accomplished with the minimum of fuss. Building the foundations for a successful shoot.
The trailer for the pilot minisode of Gerry Anderson’s Firestorm has been released to the Kickstarter backers and, it has to be said, the response has been phenomenal. If this is the reaction we get from the trailer I can’t wait for people to see the full minisode. The trailer will be released to the public soon. More information as and when.
And finally I’ve completed my performance reel! It’s taken a while to get to grips with it but here it is! It’s longer than my Sizzle Reel which was designed to give you an idea of the projects I’ve been involved with. This reel concentrates on a few key scenes that (hopefully) show off my performance skills. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share.
That’s all for now!
A
ANDREW JAMES SPOONER TWITTER FEED
THE OFFICIAL GERRY ANDERSON WEBSITE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL TWITTER FEED
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE TWITTER FEED
THE BBC IPLAYER (for the latest Furchester episodes)
Hi everyone!
It’s been a while since an update and I apologise. I’m knee deep in production on seasons 3 and 4 of The Furchester Hotel. This will keep me pretty much tied up until late August.
I’m writing a piece about the first block of shooting on the new series and I’ll post that up here as soon as it’s finished.
I’m on a dark week this week so took advantage of the time off to get some new headshots done. Normally I find this experience to be akin to pulling teeth, however, Nicholas Dawkes did a fabulous job. The atmosphere was calm, relaxed and he guided me through the whole process with confidence and humour.
I’m VERY happy with the results.
Why not check out more of Nic’s work at www.nicholasdawkesphotography.co.uk.
As well as The Furchester I’m also in prep for a pilot tv show shooting in Holland in September. Can’t say much at the moment, but I’ll keep you posted!
A
ANDREW JAMES SPOONER TWITTER FEED
THE OFFICIAL GERRY ANDERSON WEBSITE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL TWITTER FEED
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE TWITTER FEED
THE BBC IPLAYER (for the latest Furchester episodes)
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL (only available in the USA)
Afternoon all!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Spooner Towers. As is the way with this rather odd business, I was all set to work on a job when it suddenly evaporated!
Hey ho.
It’s just the way it goes. So I took all that disappointment and channeled it into making a new showreel. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while anyway. Over a couple of weeks I looked through all the footage I have available to me and edited and edited and edited.
In the end, rather than have a reel that was trying to accomplish too much, I decided on creating a “sizzle” reel first. I’m not sure where I heard the term “sizzle” before but basically it’s a short reel designed to grab your attention and give you an idea of some of the projects I’ve been associated with.
I will be creating a longer “Performance Reel” next. This will consist of one, or maybe two full scenes and will give a better feel for my acting and voice skills.
Being a puppeteer meant that getting a professional to make this reel was out of the question, WAY too expensive! So I pulled my socks up and did it myself. I rather proud of the end result.
So here it is!
The ANDREW JAMES SPOONER “Sizzle” reel!
I hope you enjoy it.
More to the point, I hope you hire me!
A
PS. Oh, and I just landed the lead puppet character in a pilot for Disney. That’s all I can say though! When I’m free to speak about it I’ll bring you up to speed.
ANDREW JAMES SPOONER TWITTER FEED
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE FACEBOOK PAGE
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL TWITTER FEED
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL MAGAZINE TWITTER FEED
THE BBC IPLAYER (for the latest Furchester episodes)
THE FURCHESTER HOTEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL (only available in the USA)
Hello all!
The site has been a little quiet over the last few weeks as I’ve been concentrating on my Twitter account. 920 followers and rising! If you’re one of them thank you so much for your support.
I’ve not been ignoring the website though. If you take a close look at the tabs along the top you will see things have changed slightly. My CV is now a sub section under the “about” banner, which, in my head at least, makes more sense. In it’s place on the main page is a new tab entitled “interviews”.
Over the last year I have been asked to do a number of interviews due to the launch and success of The Furchester Hotel. I decided that these should be placed in a section of their own, rather than being buried in another. At the moment there are 2 interviews available but I will gradually add more over time.
The first is a chat I had with the guys at The Box Set Pod. This was the first long form interview I had ever done, I was EXTREMELY nervous. Luckily the guys were great and made me feel very relaxed. Also my love of TV and geek culture helped me along nicely. I even managed to talk about my love of John Carpenter movies, especially “Big Trouble In Little China.” Not many interviews let you do that!
The second is a great chat that I had with J.D. Hansel of the Muppet Hub website for his podcast “Eleven Point Collar.” I really enjoyed this one as I was a little more relaxed. There’s a little bit of crossover with The Box Set Pod at the start, but then we branch out into more specific chats about The Furchester, Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets Most Wanted, Newzoids and much more.
So here they are! I hope you find them entertaining and informative.
You can follow The Box Set Pod and J.D. Hansel on Twitter at @theboxsetpod and @jd11pc
Both The Box Set Pod and Eleven Point Collar are available on iTunes.
Go on!
Subscribe!
A
(UPDATE) Oops! I forgot something. On the right hand side of the screen you will see 4 little widgets. They are direct links to my Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo and SoundCloud pages.
The Furchester Food Game has now gone live on the CBeebies website!
I had a blast recording the voice over for this in a rather chaotic and exhausting 3 hour session. It’s strange when you get to that point where the line “oh look at that great pile of cakes!” can reduce you to tears of laughter.
I love doing voice over work.
Don’t forget that there are still episodes of The Furchester available on the BBC iplayer. If you are in the USA you can get episodes on iTunes or on the Furchester YouTube channel. Links below!
A
BBC iplayer (for the latest Furchester episodes)
US Furchester YouTube Page (only available in the USA)
There is a lovely little article, about my good self, that’s popped up on The Muppet Mindset website.
For those of you who don’t already know, The Muppet Mindset is one of the top Muppet/Henson sites around. It’s an absolute treasure trove of information. It’s also run by a really nice bunch of people and has a great feel to it.
The author is Jarrod Fairclough, and it’s the first part in a series of articles on lesser known Muppeteers.
Until recently I never considered myself a “Muppeteer”, I was a puppeteer that was occasionally lucky enough to work for the Henson company.
I guess Furgus has changed all that.
It was actually my wife that pointed it out after I had finished the first block of filming on The Furchester Hotel.
“Does this mean your a Muppeteer now?” she asked.
It actually stumped me for a moment because I hadn’t really thought about it.
“Nah.” I replied.
“But it’s a completely new character, he’s Elmo’s uncle!”
“Well…. I guess!”
It’s not a title I would ever use on myself. You’ll never see me handing out business cards with “Muppeteer” on them. However, when people call me it, I can’t deny that I get a little shiver down my spine.
What an honour.
The little kid who grew up in the Kent countryside done ok.
Thanks to Jarrod for writing it, and thanks to all of you that have sent me such positive feedback after reading it.
A
Happy New Year one and all!
I wish you all the best for 2015!
May you all be happy and prosperous.
a
Well, after sitting at this desk for what seems like an age the site is up and running.
Just.
This is the bare bones, there will be a lot of tweaking over the coming weeks to tidy things up and make it sleeker, but I think there is enough going on to unleash it!
I hope you like it.
If you find any blips let me know.
Andrew
