Today was the one of the best days I've had on this course so far.

With a class with Barbara in the morning we covered some important points about the world of being an exec producer and she's faaabulous. We looked at two very different types of programmes, discussed how they were commissioned/broadcast and what audiences they were reaching. First up was Sea of Souls (which I watched with my mum years ago when it was aired in 04) and it's just as good now. Being a mainstream programme it had all the ingredients there so to expect a large audience/following. Dawn Steele is a popular and local actress who had just finished Monarch of the Glen (which I also adored) and so she will have pulled in a high rating, likewise with Bill Paterson with the older generations. The narrative was really gripping: a character's dreams start to project themselves out into real life. It was interesting to know that it was initially intended to be a film but then was turned into a series, which I think works better as more parapsychological events could be explored, which was done, rather than just one and relationships could be developed between the central characters. I was really surprised to read later on IMdb, though, that the series has been sold to over 40 countries as of December 2005! I had never really thought about it properly before today, about selling a programme to other countries to air, but it's a bit obvious really. It was also really encouraging to hear from Barbara that the whole series was filmed in Glasgow – makes me feel happy that shows I've watched, way before coming to RSAMD and before I was looking into this world, were home-grown.

THEN I got introduced to Generation Kill. It now has a new devotee. I think the editing is excellent: snappy, but artistic at the same time. I was completely compelled by the action: it's a world I'll never see firsthand and so it's the closest I can get and its a world which fascinates me…the morals, the conversation, the no tv, no showers, no skyscrapers, no trains. No kids, no goldfish, no carpets. No highlighters, no alcohol...just a pack of smokes and letters. And a healthy dose of crude, lewd school boy jokes and slurs which are so un PC but somehow are not offensive?! Was interesting to see and talk about it....it's a programme I really liked but it's a very niche genre so it's not as “mainstream” as Sea of Souls, even though its budget is way much more!

Did you know that Rudy Reyes was played by himself?! The man is a god! I'm not talking about his face (though it's nice..) but he's a Buddhist, a top martial-arts fighter and a member of the First Recon. Barbara said that generated a lot of press by casting a real Marine fighter, which helped since none of the (numerous) actors were very well known and so it was difficult to attract huge audiences. I really really liked how they didn't rush to introduce the main characters. They were there on the edge of the screen and then brought in, or rather, shoved into your face – just like it would be in real life. Men came and went and milled about and lay on the floor. The main character – Evan 'Scribe' Wright played by Lee Tergeson – was introduced about 15 minutes in but it felt natural and fluid. Generation Kill is genius and I am so buying the box set.

I'm going to write about our guest speaker (Colin Cameron) tomorrow..