After my morning lecture tomorrow morning I’m going down to Bristol with uni. This is all part of our Radio Drama module – we’re going to visit the Christchurch Studios.
Just getting there will be a test of my organisation. I’ve got to make my own way down there and back again afterwards. Not having my own car, my best option is to get the train.
Unfortunately though, the weather forecast isn’t good. As we all know, trains in the UK seem to stop running the minute one flake of snow hits the track. Not being a regular train traveller, this worries me slightly – but I would like to point out that I am hopeful that First Great Western have contingency plans for bad weather and that they will run a service as reliable as those provided by Deutsche Bahn and the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn in Germany. Last time I was there in snowy weather (February 2010), they were running a normal service.
Assuming that FGW are as reliable as I need them to be, I’m quite looking forward to getting a change of scene. There’s something also quite fun about travelling round the country by train.
Getting to the studios will mean getting a train from Cheltenham to Bristol Temple Meads at lunch time, then changing at Temple Meads and getting another train to Clifton Down. Seems simple enough. I just hope that the train is going forwards this time. It was very weird turning up in Worcester facing the wrong way last time.
Once the train arrives, the studios are a ten minute walk from Clifton Down, and I’ll be using the sat nav on my phone to get me from the station to the studios. I’m not sure what to expect when I get to the studios, but it will be interesting to see what the equipment in a proper radio drama studio is like. The studios at uni are OK, but their setup is taylored to a self-op music based show – which makes it slightly harder for us when it comes to producing our dramas.
We are now at the stage of production where the scripts have been written (although our group hasn’t yet selected one). Once our group has chosen our script, we’ll be able to start producing it. Turning it in to something that will sound good on the radio. I’m looking forward to that. It’ll be challenging but hopefully interesting at the same time too.
Getting back from the studios will be the challenging part tomorrow. I’m not going back to Cheltenham – I will be heading back to Cirencester for the weekend, as I always do. Doing so by train from Bristol means changing trains twice. Once at Temple Meads, and then again at Swindon. I’ve arranged for Dad to pick me up from Kemble when my train arrives there at approx 19:07.
Trying to remember where to get off the train, what platform I need to be on and at what time is going to be hard. Its all written down on my phone, so I should be able to get it right. I will try not to get lost.
I’m off to uni now. No lectures, but I need to use some of the Radio Production books in the library.
I’ll write again soon.
FH.
