{"id":37546,"date":"2023-01-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/?p=37546"},"modified":"2023-01-22T13:05:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T13:05:13","slug":"exclusive-interview-class-stars-greg-austin-jordan-renzo-and-blair-mowat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorwhocompanion.com\/2023\/01\/23\/exclusive-interview-class-stars-greg-austin-jordan-renzo-and-blair-mowat\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Class Stars Greg Austin, Jordan Renzo, and Blair Mowat"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

You can now re-enter the world of Doctor Who<\/em> spin-off Class<\/em> with a new audio story from Big Finish, Secret Diary of a Rhodian Prince<\/em>, starring Greg Austin as Charlie Smith and Jordan Renzo as Matteusz Andrzejewski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWC caught up with the pair — alongside writer, producer, and composer, Blair Mowat — to discuss the new production, getting back into the role of Sixth Formers, and how writing music compares to scripting dialogue…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWC: Blair, obviously you were composer for the Class<\/em> TV series, and have now written Class: Secret Diary of a Rhodian Prince <\/em>for Big Finish. What’s the difference between writing a musical composition, which is essentially telling a story by writing, and with a script that has dialogue and various other notes for the actors? What\u2019s the biggest challenge in doing that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blair<\/strong>: One of the similarities is that dialogue has an internal rhythm and pace, and if you listen to certain writers like Aaron Sorkin, he will talk about the dialogue and writing being like a piece of music. Where you put the commas, where you put the punctuation, it is musical in the way that people speak. And people don\u2019t always necessarily speak exactly how they would do in real life, but certainly his belief is that good writing is like a piece of music. And I think always remember that when I\u2019m constructing scenes, that they have this internal flow and this internal rhythm. So I think there are similarities between writing music and composing, but what I try to do is actually wear completely separate hats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, occasionally, I will put in things about \u2018music here\u2019 or \u2018music there\u2019 in the script, which I\u2019m usually told off for by my script editor. Because most writers wouldn\u2019t do that, but of course I know I\u2019m going to be composing it so I almost put it in there to remind myself. But when I come at it as a composer, I take off my writing hat and I make completely different decisions that I might have done then when I was writing the script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And once I hear it, what these guys have done with it, and what our director Scott Handcock did with the directing — it changes things. And I originally didn\u2019t envision any music over the diary entries; I thought they should be straight like an audiobook, and then when I heard them I was like \u2018no, actually some of these are quite sweeping and cinematic and they need something underneath to support that\u2019. So that journey of being both a writer and a composer, and being the first thing and pretty much the last thing that goes on, it\u2019s really intellectually interesting and something that I really, really enjoy. And I think I would be terrified to hand it over to somebody else to write up the music. I\u2019d love to do that one day, but I don\u2019t know how I\u2019d feel about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWC: So if you got this production opportunity again to do both roles, could you write the music first? Or at least write the scenes with the music in your head first, and then the dialogue after, if you know what story you want to take the characters on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Blair<\/strong>: Well, I sort of did do that! There\u2019s a few instances where I knew exactly; I\u2019d be writing something, and I\u2019d think \u2018gosh, how are we going to do that in a short space of time? How are we going to segway that?\u2019 — and I just knew that it was going to be that piece of music. And sometimes it would be something that I had already written [as a composition] and it was just a case of adapting a melody. And the opening actually of the whole script relies on music for humour; the music coming in or coming out helps punctuate certain jokes or things that we do. So I think knowing that in advance of what\u2019s possible, especially on our budget which is limited obviously by not having a TV budget, it\u2019s really helpful to know what tools we have at our disposal upfront [that we can use to aid the storytelling].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWC: And because for this release you\u2019re writing it, writing the music and also producing it, what additional tasks have you had to do\u00a0 in building this whole audio together?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blair<\/strong>: I mean, contracts are really boring! Hahaha. About 50% of a producer\u2019s job is really boring, and oh my gosh…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg<\/strong>: Lots of budgeting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blair<\/strong>: Yeah, budgeting and contracts are really quite dull, and I\u2019d say that I ended up almost producing it out of necessity, really. Also having that extra layer of control was nice, in knowing how we were going to go about things, how much time we had to do things. Because I had to fit it around all my music writing as well, so a lot of this was written on international flights or moments where I just couldn\u2019t actually be with my keyboard in my studio writing music. And so had I not been producing it, I might have had to write it a lot quicker and maybe it not be as good. So that was really nice. But I produce my own film scores all the time; I\u2019m literally booking musicians, booking recording spaces, scheduling things so that they happen on time, so it\u2019s really no different to doing that, apart from the fact that there\u2019s a lot more contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DWC: Greg and Jordan, this is a show set in school years, and being at school I think is one of the most unique experiences\/mindsets in life, nothing else quite comes close to being a student; how do you try to get yourself back into that mindset? When people develop so much further from the anxieties and the stresses and particularly the agitations and the relationship with authority when you\u2019re in that setting and at that age? Obviously as adults now in professions where everyone\u2019s got respect for each other, but your tolerance for authority and understanding of others\u2019 responsibilities as a sixth former is a lot different. How do you get back into sixth former mindset?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg: <\/strong>Well I\u2019m 30 now — I\u2019ve just turned 30 — and it doesn\u2019t feel happy. It\u2019s terrifying, and playing a teenager into your 30s… well, that\u2019s every actor\u2019s dream I suppose. I\u2019ll take it as long as I can do it. It\u2019s such a weird time in everyone\u2019s experience, that transition as seeing the world that\u2019s something under control and that the adults know what they\u2019re doing, and I suppose that\u2019s the first real time where you start testing that theory and realising that \u2018oh, hold on, if I\u2019m getting close to being an adult, I\u2019m a young adult now, and I still don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, maybe no one else does either\u2019. So with respect to authority, that\u2019s when you\u2019re really challenging it. And especially for Charlie, it\u2019s something — he has just had all the authority in the world taken away from him, so it\u2019s particularly interesting for him trying to reestablish his own authority on Earth and understand where he lies in the social order of things. It\u2019s a very interesting thing to try to portray, and as an adult it\u2019s really hard to remember what being a kid\u2019s like. It\u2019s really hard to remember what life was like a year ago, let alone half a lifetime ago now, but that\u2019s the eternal challenge of being an actor. It\u2019s trying to find those emotions and trying to portray them as truthfully as possible. That\u2019s the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n