A Glance Back to the Week of 4 October

So it has been an embarrassing two weeks since my last post. Funny, how everyday I thought about writing a new post, and promised myself I wouldn’t go to bed until I wrote another post, but never actually followed through. Rather than overwhelm you with a super long update, I am going to just talk about the week of Oct 4^th (or 4 October as they say it in England).

This week was a very intense and busy one for the BBC students. We attended our last Writing for TV class—how crazy is that when we still have 2 months here???—and set off to Evesham, which is north west of London. It was a long and uneventful 2.5-hour train. Now why Evesham? It’s a small town in central England. What could be there?

Well during the years preceding WW2, the BBC decided they needed a stronghold outside of London that would be broadcast ready in case any unforeseen events—i.e. German Takeover. Wood Norton, as the area is called, was set up as a boom proof, high security site for this purpose, and it is located in…can you guess? Evesham.

Although I never saw it, this building is the Wood Norton Mansion that the BBC purchased in the 1930s. 

Even though the threat of the Germans is long behind us, the BBC still uses Wood Norton…for training. We spent four very dedicated days in a Multi-Camera Studio Course at Wood Norton.

Now before I get into the details of the course, let me tell you the perks. 1) We each got our own hotel room. 2) The hotel rooms had TVs! Not a big deal to you, but when you live without a television in your dorm room for a month and a half, it becomes a major perk. 3) We had full meals paid for everyday…I had steak twice and fish and lots of deserts that I can’t even name but tasted amazing. All in all, the room and board was impeccable. Oh and we had cabs shuttle us to and from the BBC site…no walking!!!

Each day we concentrated on a different form of programming. Day one was an intro to the studio…lights, camera, sound, gallery and then we directed a short interview. It was similar to Sight and Sound Studio except the job of each student as the director was to frame and offer shots while the “vision mixer” chose which shots to go to when.

Day two was a bit more complicated.  We each directed the same short mystery drama. It was all action and no dialogue. The trick was picking creative and interesting shots that you could succinctly explain to your cameramen and make sure they could be executed. We rotated rolls from camera to floor manager to sound, ect. In the afternoon we were introduced to the BBC magazine style scriptwriting program. Each of us was given a partially completed script and we had to fill in different images and clips, organize an interview, and block the cameras and presenter. We also had the use of a plasma to show video and images alongside the presenter. It was an interesting mix, and the challenge was to figure out how to shoot the show.

I was the first up on the third day as director. And it was a lot of fun, although I was very nervous. I found that as long as my script was clear and correct, I pretty much sat in the director’s seat and watched the whole thing play. Sometimes I would ask for a tighter shot from a camera or cue the presenter, but it was a smooth run. That afternoon we were given another partially completed script with more elements. Now there were two presenters, an outside broadcast, a two-person interview, and many other small additions that added complication. And another challenge: the show could only run 13 minutes!

All the BBC students expect Stacy who was taking the picture.  We were about to leave.

The last day we rotated through roles, sometimes being an interviewee or a cameraperson. Finally it got to my time to direct, and sadly on the last day, I got caught up and confused and had to give up some of my more complicated sequences. Disappointing, but the show doesn’t seem to be messed up, and had viewers been watching no one would know. But it was too bad to go out in that fashion on the last day. Bright side: You always learn more when you make mistakes!

Got back to London late Friday night, and felt like I was playing catch-up for being gone. We went to a show at the National titled “Or You Could Kiss Me.” It was about the inevitability of death, and it was very well done. Weird though how many older people there were in the audience. You would think they would choose an uplifting play? Oh well.

Lots of BBC info…hope it’s not an overload. I promise my update for last week is much more exciting! Oh yeah…this was also the week I booked my travel plans for our Fall Break. Berlin, Amsterdam, and Bruges here I come!

:) Emily