May 2015 - The Diary

May had everything! Auditions, voice work, corporate filming and live appearances, with hundreds of miles of travel and the promise of more work in the future. A busy month began with more CAPTAIN MORGAN live appearances around Scotland's bars and clubs, with gigs in Ayr, Glasgow, Dunfermline, Coatbridge and Dundee, followed by my 42nd birthday! Delighted to land a role in the feature film 'STARCACHE' directed by former 'Gregory's Girl' star Douglas Sannachan and filming this in June & July 2015, more of which later.

Then off to Leeds for another excellent COLOPLAST UK Roleplay job and really enjoying this line of work and the great practical experience it gives the nurses in attendance. Looking forward to more gigs in London in September. I was cast in another corporate video for the TUC with Theatre& which meant another trip to Yorkshire and filming in Huddersfield. Really nice cast and crew and look forward to hopefully working with them again in the near future.

Back to Glasgow for an audition for a US Feature Film and live appearances with RPM before more voice work on commercials for Hamilton Food Festival,UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and Fan Duel.
The photo below comes from our STUC Corporate shoot in Yorkshire, with cast mates Julie & Kash.

This was followed by another audition for a huge television series, fingers crossed for this one! Just exciting even to be seen for this, hopefully more of which later. Managed to catch David Carswell's 'Hatches, Matches & Dispatches' and Peter McDougall's 'My Brother's Suit' at Oran Mor and Paul Moore's 'Lynching' at The Shed this month and catch up with old pals before heading off to lovely Millport for a Bank Holiday trip and a wee recce for possible locations for a feature film I have written. Last up was a final promo gig in Edinburgh for RPM as the inimitable 'Sir Henry Morgan'. Good month of work and pleased with my progress this year thus far.

April 2015 - The Diary

April saw the completion of my filming on the feature film 'CLEEK' in Paisley and Renfrew with some memorable scenes in various superb locations once again. Real pleasure working with this cast and crew and director Gary Hewitt and pleased to get all of my scenes shot in one chunk of time. Great fun!

More script writing, auditions and meetings for upcoming projects followed, more of which I will discuss in the future. I had more corporate work on this month with Peter Vardy and a live show in Perth as Quiz Show Host, 'Fun-Time Freddie' which went down very well!

Then back to more commercial v/o work with Westsound Radio for 'Lease 2 Buy', followed by a really fun shoot for Edinburgh band The Ok Social Club and their latest video, playing a 'Radge Dad' of the band and smashing up everything in sight. Great video directed by my old pal Andy Maaas at Freak Films, our 4th collaboration over the years. Top gig, top lads and looking forward to the release in May.

Then onto my next project, playing buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan with RPM around Scottish venues.
My Movement Director from 'KIDNAPPED'  got in touch and booked me for a series of excellent medical roleplays, kicking off in Bristol for Coloplast UK. Interesting and rewarding work and nice to be involved in something so worthwhile. Then more voice overs for The Scottish Recovery Network and the NHS training videos in Glasgow as well as shooting some showreel scenes for Regina Vereker with my old collaborator Fraser Coull. Rounded off April with a voiceover for Stagecoach at Clyde FM

Really diverse range of projects this month, worked hard and travelled a lot, but pleased with my output this year so far and been great catching up with old friends on my various gigs as well as working with some top people and making new contacts. May already looks busy!

Reviews

"Adults in the audience smiled at

 the Lord Flashheart-style

 bravado of Alan Breck (Simon Weir)"   

Twyford Advertiser

"Balfour and Simon Weir's Alan Breck,

 who struts the stage as cocksure as a

 young Iain Cuthbertson, form a 

 swashbuckling dynamic duo"      

 Glasgow Herald

"Simon Weir is enthusiastically swashbuckling

 as Alan Breck"                

 The Stage 

"David Balfour and Simon Weir as Alan Breck

 made a great team and deserve special mention.

 It was excellent...Alan Breck was like a 

 Scottish Musketeer"

 Journo Jan

"Simon Weir plays all the men's parts, each one

more hilarious than the last"

The Stage

March 2015 - The Diary

Having completed filming on low-budget Feature 'WIGILIA' (See photo below from the set)..

I had a lively start to the month with the release of the much anticipated short film 'DON ALFONSO CHADWICK' which we shot back in November and December.

Really pleased with the results of this student flick, directed by the very talented Jack Willison, which you can view here:
Don Alfonso Chadwick Also really enjoyed working with rising star Mark Barrett and we teamed-up again this month filming the feature film 'CLEEK' in and around Paisley. Night shoots, car and fight scenes and  all shot on location, this is a cracking low-budget picture and I'm currently having a ball playing aged Lothario Sam with another committed and talented young crew and directed by Gary Hewitt.

In between shoots I was back at Radio Clyde for more voice-over commercials and then back on set of 'CLEEK' which these photos are from, courtesy of Brian McGuire and Sonja Bliestschau. Great to work with fight director Carter Ferguson again, our 10th collaboration on productions since Aladdin in 2001!

March also saw me land some more corporate work with Peter Vardy on a corporate video, followed by ongoing work with Captain Morgan Rum and the announcement that 'LETTERS TO ABERLOUR' will be at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, which I am looking forward to immensely.

And here's a final photo from March from our corporate shoot in Glasgow and Renfrew with Peter Vardy...one to 'haunt your dreams' as Stewart McCheyne described it! You can guess what the out-takes were like...Enjoy!

February 2015 - The Diary

Another busy month of film and voice work and a flying start to the year. February saw me back at Radio Clyde to record four more radio commercials, an example of which you can listen to here: Scottish commercial radio This month I recorded ads for Glasgow Taxis, Solway Spa and Anderson Maguire and have now started building my own voice-over studio at home.

Then it was onto another Feature Film and a lovely ten minute completely improvised scene in Graham Drysdale's 'WIGILIA', shot in Glasgow with a lovely & talented crew and nice to be back working with Grant McPhee, who I last worked with on 'A SPANKING IN PARADISE'. Really interesting and enjoyable experience on this project and looking forward to seeing the finished product later this year. I was then delighted to be asked to play corrupt businessman Alistair in Duncan Airlie James' new  action short film, FANATIC and once again a great cast and crew and old faces from previous projects.

The rest of my time is spent on a writing project and hitting the gym and tons of running in order to really get in shape for 2015. We had the first readthrough for the Feature Film CLEEK in February and again great fun catching up with old pals on that one. Going to be a tough but interesting shoot soon! The photos on this page are all courtesy of Chris Quick from Gilnockie Films & Projects Productions.

January 2015 - The Diary

Off to a bright start to the New Year with a really enjoyable Forum Theatre corporate gig at the wonderful Perth Concert Hall, packed for the Peter Vardy annual conference, followed by a return to voiceover work at my favourite station Radio Clyde.

Then a wee jaunt to London to meet up with my lovely agent and also my old KIDNAPPED pal Stewart McCheyne before another voiceover in Glasgow. I also caught up with my CASE HISTORIES co-star Brian McCardie on his birthday. A great month and some exciting opportunities ahead in 2015!

SAMS PREQUEL Promo for CLEEK Feature Film 2015