I had a very busy week this week, spent a week in London attending the BBC Upfront course. I must admit I was slightly cynical about attending the course, and when i found out that The Office was filmed on the premises in Marlebone High Street, I couldn't help but think that maybe the course provided the inspiration.
It turned in to a great week, perhaps it's was the people on the course that made it interesting, but it was a very enjoyable experience.
We got a chance to make a piece of radio drama, it was an adaptation of Jack & the Beanstalk. The radio production process was one I had never thought about much and it was a fascinating insight. My job was sound effects, 1/4 inch video tape scrunched up was used to give the noise of walking on grass, apparently this technique is used in the Archers quite a lot. Simple things like entering and leaving a room were covered, this is a very visual process, so in order for it to work on radio the actor has to face the microphone and continue talking as they walk backwards towards the door.
We also got the chance to make a 5 minute TV programme in a live studio. I took what I thought was the easy option and voluntered for camera work. The whole process was nerve wracking, the director ran through the shots he wanted in the rehearsal and you had to remember the sequence so you had the right shot when he cut to your camera. This wasn't too stressful until he wanted live zoom and you could see that the light was red on your camera.
The instructors on the course all come from within their own jobs in the BBC, and they are rotated. This means that you get people with up to date skills, except perhaps in the web design class, where I was forced to make a website using a front page template, I felt filthy afterwards. ;-)
I met some really interesting people from across the BBC, some with jobs that sounded so appealing, particularly those from the Natural History department in Bristol.
I spend one week in 3 in London at the moment and every time I go over I get a burst of energy and feel like it would be so great to work there, I come back slightly unsettled and think I really should move. Then I get back to Belfast and the two weeks settles me and I realise that there are more important things than work, which means I'm never really content with where I am and what I'm doing at the moment.