Filming for Oxford University

I usually publish a blog every Tuesday but for the past few weeks I have been in the South of England filming, so I haven't had any time to write anything. The job I am doing just now is for Oxford Uni and it's a video for students in Italy to learn English. As well as filming we have been doing photographs as part of the textbook that will go along with the video.

 We started in Eastbourne, which is at the very bottom of England so it took me a whole day to travel there. I firstly started in Dundee then got off at Newcastle which is pretty easy because I know both stations quite well but then as soon as we got to London things got a bit tricky. We got off at London Kings Cross Station and had to cross the road over to St. Pancras which are both incredibly busy stations. Getting my wheelchair across the busy streets of London was not easy but I managed and made it onto the next train to London Bridge. The trains in St. Pancras have a step free access meaning the trains were aligned with the platform edge so I could just push my wheelchair straight onto the train without the use of a ramp. I liked this because I always think using a ramp can be quite embarrassing because I have to hold up other passengers on the train when getting off. 

 Once arriving in London Bridge we were on the train to Eastbourne and the next day we began filming! We were right at the pier and got a beautiful view because it was such a nice day. We filmed in a nice little cafe and then we were done! It was a pretty easy day and then on the Thursday we went home. It was another long day travelling but we made it in the end.

The pier at Eastbourne where we were filming.

 The next week we filmed in a place called, Didcot. Didcot wasn't far from Oxford so luckily we only had to go on two trains that day but it was still a long day travelling. All week we were filming in an all boys school in Didcot and because it was English half-term the school was empty. The hotel we stayed in was great as it was very accessible and had a wet room so I could use the shower without any difficulty.

 Finally our filming days ended in Oxford last week. We were filming in a new location every day so we needed to use a lot of taxis to get us around Oxford. Some taxi drivers we had were quite nice but most of them were actually really rude. They completely spoke over me as if I couldn't speak to them and that really frustrates me because I can speak for myself. 

 Most of the locations we filmed in were pretty accessible and had toilets I could get in but one of them didn't. I had to use a roller ramp to get around this house we were filming in and it wasn't very dignifying and with no downstairs toilet I had to go to a coffee shop down the road and that was the nearest disabled toilet! It was really inconvenient but at least it was only for the day.

The weather hit nearly 19 degrees in Oxford and it felt like summer in the end of February so we had brilliant weather for filming in the outdoors.

  At the end of this week I'm going back to do some extra photos and some small videos and then we will officially be finished! It's been a long three weeks but it's been good to see new places and meet new people.