Author: suzy

Congratulations to Martin Rowbottom, this year’s recipient of the Mediaspec Prize for Best Radio Student 2016.  Following his graduation ceremony on 30th June, Martin then received his prize of audio software from Eric Joseph, Managing Director of Mediaspec.  Eric spent some time chatting to Martin and his family about working in the creative industries, and passed on some highly useful advice!

Martin has a few projects he’s working on this summer, including sound production for an event at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, so we wish him every success for the future.

 

Congratulations to Maria Craig, Josefin Dahlin, Jack Ferguson, Joel Rock and Alan Thurston who are this year’s winners of the Jonathan Witchell Memorial Prize for Best Radio Feature.  Their piece “Laughing Matters” was produced as part of the 3rd year module, FMSU9D6 Radio Feature Production, focuses on how laughter workshops – and even laughter yoga – can be used for all sorts of health benefits.  The piece is not only informative but also guaranteed to make you smile.

The winners will collect their certificates and prizes in September when they return for their 4th and final year.

Congratulations to Martin Rowbottom, this year’s winner of the Mediaspec Radio Prize.  The prize is awarded to the individual best 4th year radio student and takes account of both group production work and individual essays.  Martin achieved first class grades in both his radio drama and documentary modules, and has also contributed to the sound art installation accompanying the Jon Schueler Art Exhibition in Pathfoot Building this spring.  He will be presented with his prize on Graduation Day from Eric Joseph, Managing Director of Mediaspec.

Production staff and students from the Division of Communications, Media & Culture have collaborated to create a specially commissioned piece of sound art to accompany the Jon Schueler exhibition currently installed in Pathfoot Building.  Final year radio students  Regina Mosch, Elizabeth Ross, Martin Rowbottom and lecturer Suzy Angus produced individual soundscapes inspired by themes found in Schueler’s life, art and words, before bringing them together to form the final 36 minute piece.

The exhibition runs until July 2016.

https://soundcloud.com/theaudioseenatcmc/schueler-sound-art%20

It was a busy time for the audio students this February as they began the research for their assignments, gathered some preliminary recordings, and presented their treatment pitches. Not only that, but they were lucky enough to have two inspirational guest speakers from the radio industry visit Stirling to talk about their work.

 

On 1^st February honorary professor Mark Rickards gave a lecture on his role as a senior producer of radio features and documentaries at the BBC, and then spent quite some time answering a variety of questions from both the 3^rd and 4^th year students. Mark has been a regular visitor to the audio students over the years, and in his session he played lots of clips from a selection of his programme output, stressing the importance of storytelling through compelling content. He also reminded the students that a car is like a mobile studio, and that conducting an interview in such a confined space can help resolve a lot of issues with tricky exterior acoustics!

 

 

On 15^th February oral historian and radio programme maker, Alan Dein, spoke about his work on BBC Radio 4’s Lives in a Landscape series. Suzy and Janieann have continually encouraged their students to listen to these programmes , so it was a real treat to welcome Alan to Stirling. He played many clips from Lives, as well as several from his other programme series, Don’t Hang Up and Just Off the Plane. He described a lot of his work as impressionistic or constructed features and, like Mark, emphasized how important it is to make people feel comfortable when you are interviewing them. It’s also possible to encourage contributors to “up their performance” within their interviews while still retaining authenticity. Alan also talked about how crucial the first opening seconds are in any feature or documentary, reminding the students that “you don’t need to say a lot, to say a lot”. He later spent around 30 minutes with the 4^th year audio documentary students discussing their programme ideas, a fun session that was of huge benefit to the three groups.

 

 

On 18^th February, Suzy Angus and three of the 4^th year audio students attended a lecture by Stirling Art Curator Jane Cameron on the abstract expressionist painter Jon Schueler. It’s 100 years since his birth and several galleries in Scotland will be exhibiting his paintings. To accompany the Stirling exhibition there will be poetry and prose produced by our Creative Writing masters students, while Suzy, Regina Mosch, Martin Rowbottom and Elizabeth Ross will create an audio soundscape inspired by the various themes in the paintings. The exhibition will be displayed in Crush Hall from 2^nd April to 29^th July.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006rcd7.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sz4p8

https://www.jonschueler.com

By way of introduction, I have recently been appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities at Stirling University and I wanted to offer a brief outline of my background and experience. I am a senior producer at BBC Scotland, starting my career in television and making a relatively unusual move to radio. Most go the other way. The attraction of television is pretty obvious, perhaps less so the appeal of radio. There has been a constant questioning of its relevance in the 21^st century – with streaming services online and on mobile devices, does anybody want to listen to radio now?

The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. The listening figures for BBC radio remain at a record high, whilst the television market has fractured with the arrival of multiple channels and viewing options. There’s still a huge demand for TV, but it’s no longer a medium that’s controlled by a few major suppliers.

 

In terms of speech radio, there is a great appetite for both drama and documentary, and the great attraction of creating this in audio is the simplicity of production. I am involved in making radio documentaries around the world, and I carry a small digital recorder in my pocket. Sometimes people can be very disappointed – ‘You’re from the BBC and all you’ve got is that?’ Well, the answer is yes. It’s all you need.

 

Used with care, the new digital recorders can achieve extraordinary results, and document events unfolding in the moment. I was recently in South Korea following the story of female divers, women in their 80s who still plunge into chilly waters to dive for seaweed and shellfish. We had no idea what would happen, and at the last minute a couple of them decided it was time to enter the water, as – to my surprise – did the BBC presenter. So they all jumped in. With a close mike the sounds are fantastic – a real sense of adventure in the choppy waters of the East China Sea. Yes, it could have been achieved with a small digital camera, too, but not so easily. Ironically, it is often the sound that is hard to capture if you are concentrating on getting the best images.

 

I hope to be able to talk to students about all aspects of the media, not just radio. We hear a lot about how everything is changing in the new digital environment, and every day it seems there is a fresh technical development for us to respond to. But the fact is that we are still storytellers, and what is changing is the way these stories are delivered and seen, read or heard. I hope I can encourage you to find not just the right stories, but also the right way to tell them.

The Jonathan Witchell Memorial Prize for Best Radio Feature 2015 has been awarded to Louise MacGregor, Jide Olanipekun, Elizabeth Ross and Martin Rowbottom . Their winning piece, “The Art of Storytelling” was produced last semester as part of their third year module in Radio Feature Production. Their six minute feature focused on the tradition of storytelling in Scottish culture, taking in the legend of Rob Roy MacGregor as a starting point within their narrative.

The prize is awarded in memory of Jonathan Witchell who was a Media Management Masters student at Stirling in 1997, and is donated each year by his family and friends. Jonathan died in 2007 of a rare form of cancer.

 

 

Tom, Chloe and Giles Witchell sent their congratulations to the group, and commented on the lovely sound effects, excellent pace and good use of music within the feature. They were also impressed by the narration, saying it “really pulled the listener in”, making them feel they were on the journey with the reporter.

 

Student Elizabeth Ross described how much she enjoyed the production process: “Until the opportunity to make a feature arose I did not know what I wanted to do when I left university – now I know it is exactly that. This module allowed me to realize what my strengths and passions were.”

 

The prizes were presented by tutor Suzy Angus on 24^th September.

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Louise MacGregor, Jide Olanipekun, Elizabeth Ross and Martin Rowbottom, the 2015 winners of the Jonathan Witchell Memorial Prize for Best Radio Feature.  Their piece “The Art of Storytelling” focuses on the tradition of storytelling within Scottish culture, and uses the myth and legend of Rob Roy MacGregor as an example of this tradition.  The Witchell family and Jonathan’s friends commented on the lovely sound effects and excellent narration throughout the 6 minute feature.

The prize, donated by the family of former student Jonathan Witchell who died suddenly in 2007, rewards outstanding student work in the field of radio features production, as well as providing inspiration for students wishing to pursue a career in broadcasting. Jonathan was a graduate of the MSc in Media Management in 1997. After graduating from Stirling Jonathan moved in to radio from where he started his BBC career at Radio Devon, before moving on to Radio Lincolnshire. He then joined BBC Radio Kent in 1997 where he worked for nearly a decade.

The winners will receive their prizes and certificates in September when they return to university for their fourth and final year of study.

National sound art radio station, Resonance FM http://resonancefm.com will be broadcasting an hour long programme of our students’ documentaries, dramas and features on Tuesday 2nd June at 8pm and again on Wednesday at 9am.  This is a great chance to get some publicity for our production students and what’s going on the division.  The Clear Spot will feature two documentaries and two dramas produced by present and also recent 4th year students as well as the top graded feature from this year’s 3rd year module.