Media trip!

The last two days have been awesome. Along with my media class, I spent two days in London doing some really fun stuff and attended an American youth study day at BFI Southbank on Wednesday. On the Tuesday I caught the 8:11am train from Spooner Row; the only train that stops there all day on the way to Norwich, yes, its a quiet place. We all met in Norwich and from there we got on the train heading directly to London Liverpool Street at 9am. Excitement was high and we were all looking forward to what lay ahead. We arrived in London and then got to the accommodation, dumping off our bags before heading out to Oxford Circus, where we took in the sights and sounds of the busy London street. The HMV there is crazy, I recommend it. After having possibly the best sandwich ever (6" Chipotle Chicken melt) from Subway, we all headed to the BBC where we went on an excellent tour of the news rooms and the BBC radio rooms. 

      

 The BBC news room was so lively. There was so much going on, and as we all stared down on the news room, the guide explained what actually goes on down there as well as talking about how news stories are verified and how the news presenters are journalists that work 12 hour shifts, working for hours on producing 75% of their own news report. I always just thought news presenters just read the news, but I was wrong; they are journalists themselves, not just news anchors. After this we hit up the BBC One Show studio, which was smaller than expected, and we were told about how its filmed and then we had the chance to sit down on the famous green sofa and get our photo taken. After this, we headed to the BBC radio 4 studio where bands such as Metallica, Coldplay and individual artists such as Justin Timberlake have recorded and performed to audiences. To finish off the tour, we were all taken through to a room where some microphones were set up; this is where BBC radio drama is recorded and as expected, we were able to act out and record our own radio drama. It was great fun and I learnt a lot of things that I did not know about the BBC. On the Tuesday evening, we headed out onto the dark and dingy backstreets of Whitechapel on a Jack the Ripper tour. This tour lasted around an hour and a half, and although it was bloody freezing, the tour guide made the trip extremely interesting and engaging. Being a great lover of history, it was fantastic to go on a tour and learn so much about the mysterious murders from someone called Jonny (like me), who has been studying the subject for 22 years! It was clear to see that he was an expert on the subject. 

On the Wednesday morning we awoke to the comfort of a warm shower, unlimited coffee and unlimited croissants; score. After having far too much to eat, we headed off to the BFI for the American youth study day, which will I explain in depth in another post. After this, we headed to Camden Market to experience the excellent smells of exotic street food outlets and spend ages browsing through the various record shops. In the evening we caught the train back to Norwich and this excellent trip was drawn to a close. On the whole, the trip was really exciting and I learnt a lot of interesting stuff. 

Anyway, today I'm back at school and the never ending grind of sixth form life can continue. Good day.