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The CrackYou are in: Cumbria > Local Radio > The Crack > The Crack - the recording.  Squeezing into a bedroom! The Crack - the recording.Belinda Artingstoll Behind the scenes as the five winning radio plays are recorded. Find out why they were recorded on location rather than in a studio. And where a fake tortoise and a blocked loo fit in! On a wet Sunday in Bassenthwaite tights were being pulled out of toilets and tortoises (*) were being dropped on desks. All in the name of art! This is how it went on the day of the recording of our five winning radio plays.  The first read through. 9.00 -Ìý I arrive with John McIntosh who is our sound engineer for the day. We have the first of many cups of coffee and chat through the plan for the day with director Stefan Escreet. It wasÌýStefan's idea to hold the writing competition. 10.00 - The first actors arrive. We're using seven in all, with some of them playing more than one role. Some of the writers have also joined us to see how we are bringing their work to life. We have a read through of the first play to make sure that everyone is happy with the script.  Yet another coffee John?! 1020 - In the house we're using for the day, we set up the equipment in a bedroomÌý to record the first play. It's all set in this room and so as the play is only 5 minutes long we decide to do it in one long take, rather than dividing it up. We end up doing it several times to be on the safe side. 1120 - Coffee break. The writers tell me they are very excited to see their plays being performed and recorded. I think I underestimated how exciting this might be for a writer!  Recording a scene in the kitchen. 1140 - We move the recording gear into the kitchen for the second play. I am tasked with doing the sound effects which include opening a window, rustling some clothes, turning on a microwave and dropping some cutlery! The actors can't do it themselves because they're already holding their scripts and trying to turn pages and open a window is tricky! 1300 - We move across the road to the church hall for a scene in the toilets! Here I have to bash around with a toilet brush and pull a soggy cloth out of a washing up bowl to make it sound like the actor is pulling a pair of tights out of the loo!  1400 - Lunch break. We're all starving! I bought loads of sandwiches and other food yesterday so we've plenty to last the day. The schedule has slipped a bit this morning. It's surprising how long it takes to record some of the scenes butÌý we must get this right. We can't come back and do any of this again as the actors all have other commitments elsewhere already.  Standing on the stairs and listening. 1430 - We're now ready to record the third play. So it's back to the house and into another bedroom for the first few scenes.Ìý Anyone who's not needed for a particular scene stands outside on the stairs watching and listening. We have to stay very quiet when the recording is taking place whichÌý is pretty hard sometimes! 1600 - Back to the church hall for another scene....the hall is doublingÌý up as an entrance hallway for the Wordsworth Trust in this scene. It's also stands in as a classroom in another of the plays!  Stefan Escreet looking for inspiration?! 1630 - Stay in the church hall to record the opening scene from the fourth play. I have to walk behind one of the actors with a walking stick tapping it on the floor as she plays an old woman shuffling to her front door. 1700 - Back to the house and the living room next.Ìý We could have stayed in the house and done all the relevantÌý scenes from all the plays in one go and then gone to church hall and done the rest but it means some actors would have been hanging around even longer waiting for their scenes....so we do it play by play instead, hence all the to-ing and fro-ing with the gear! There's a piano in this scene so it takes a while to get the levels right on this....the piano is drowning out the actors at first but we get it sorted.  Waiting for her next scene! 1730 - Back to the church hall for the fifth and final play. But then we realiseÌýÌý it's too echoey for this first scene andÌý end up taking all the gear back to the house and doing the whole play there instead! 1930 - We finish theÌý last play and we're only 30 minutes over schedule for the whole day which is amazing! Â鶹ԼÅÄtime! Phew! *By the way...it wasn't a real tortoise! last updated: 22/05/2008 at 13:09 SEE ALSOYou are in: Cumbria > Local Radio > The Crack > The Crack - the recording.  |
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