Never in my life had I woke up at 6 AM. Maybe I'd witnessed the time from the other side following a leisurely morning stroll after a house party or two, but to wake up for it was brutal. Applause is due for all people ever who regularly get up early. Because on Friday June 23rd I was off to Bristol for the Blast national arts training weekend. Haven never been to Bristol, I had that old feeling of not knowing quite what to expect from a never-visited city. I have a friend who's going to university there from September but that's as close as it gets. On the train there I did some panic annotation of my A2 play script, a thrilling read called 'The Beggar's Opera' which haven read about 6 times by then, I was getting scarily familiar听 with - god help me I was starting to feel indifferent to it, a big switch from weeks earlier where I was about ready to drop it from a cliff. Somehow the weekend had placed itself directly between my last 2 exams and that was good timing by my watch. Bristol seemed a nice city as soon as we arrived and 大象传媒 Bristol was in a league of its own in terms of what I had expected - a HDTV, sofas, a huge reception desk and TV projection on walls - as well as Spooks-like pods to get into the main building - gave an extreme professional first impression, and over the next few hours we started to get acquainted with the rest of the reporters. I had this misconception that 2 days would barely cover the basics of social interaction with the rest of the Blast reporters, but what I didn't account for was that we all had close to everything in common. We'd all applied for the same job, just in different locations - we all liked to write, to be creative, to be social - it was easy to get on, make some new friends and even though nobody was able to talk to absolutely everyone equally, the 10 or so I spoke to all seemed to end up part of a dysfunctional 'family' of cousins, brothers, sisters, uncles and even a cardboard cutout daughter we dubbed 'Susie' who we found in the stairwell . | "I find that when I become 'the director' though I become possessive, controlling, snappy and stubborn" | | Ryan O'Riordan |
We had workshops in writing style, photography and how to use the system itself over the 2 days, as well as a session in Video Nation on the evening of day 1 - we buddied up to shoot each other's introductory videos and I was in my element, being able to find the best angles possible with the nicest backgrounds in one room! I find that when I become 'the director' though I become possessive, controlling, snappy and stubborn - they aren't great traits, but I'd argue that I get the job done, but nevertheless, I'm sorry to Kerry for any annoyance caused. I was more open to ideas and I checked every shot with her though, so at least I'm improving. The best bit about it was being able to use the HDV camera I had jealously pined for several months earlier, before settling for a regular DV camera. Waking up to some dodgy French children's show on day 2 was the perfect reminder that I wasn't at home in Derby, and I went for a quick treck of the city before everyone donned their Blast T-Shirts to climb the hill back up to the Bristol office from the hotel. We looked like a parade and of course there were intrigued pedestrians wondering what we were all up to (and obviously why they weren't involved). After the morning sessions and some lunch it was time to leave our Hogwarts on the Hill as everyone bundled into taxis to return to the train station and begin our return home. A lot of us were on the same train, but there were more goodbyes at the station as 'the family' went their separate ways with one final resounding word - see you at the reunion in September. | 
