Author: suzy

Congratulations to Euan Simpson, this year’s winner of the Mediaspec Radio Prize.  This new prize is awarded to the individual best 4th year radio student and takes account of both group production work an individual  essays.  Euan achieved first class grades in both his radio drama and documentary modules. He was presented with a fabulous audio software bundle on 6^th May from Eric Joseph, Managing Director of Mediaspec. Congratulating Euan, Eric said he was very happy to be able to present the prize in person: “Stirling University has established an impressive reputation for developing talented students and we are delighted to be able to support those students. We hope that the software and interface prize will help Euan go from strength to strength in his audio engineering abilities.”

 

You can listen to this year’s student radio work here at The Audio Seen and also on Resonance FM http://resonancefm.com on 1^st and 2nd June when we have a whole hour to showcase documentaries, dramas and features.

Emeritus Professor of Radio, Sean Street visited CMC on 25th March, and gave an inspiring talk on producing creative radio.  Emphasising the power of “active listening”, he talked about the poetic ways of using sound, voice and silence in radio feature making, using emotive and at times experimental clips throughout.  Earlier in the day he talked to some of the 3rd year radio feature students (pictured here), and later on chatted to the 4th year documentary students about their project.

I listened to my first radio drama in third year and I was immediately hooked. Up until that point I had mostly been interested in video. I was a member of Videoworks (the predecessor to AirTV) and usually found myself behind the camera or in the edit suite. I imagined that I would graduate and go off to work in TV or film. That all changed when I finished listening to that play.  By the end of it I realised that unlike TV, in audio there are no limits to what you can create. If you can imagine it and you can find a way to make a sound effect for it, you can produce it. This was confirmed on my two week placement in the BBC Scotland Radio Drama department. Shadowing the Content Assistant, I spent my time either working in the office or in studio. I was very lucky as during my placement, they were in studio recording “Lanark”.

“Lanark” is set in two very different worlds – Glasgow in the 1950’s and Unthank – a strange, timeless Glasgow-like city with no daylight and a host of bizarre residents suffering from strange diseases. The producer, cast and audio supervisors had three days to turn their studio in Glasgow into a believable representation of both of these worlds. Not only that, they had to tell their story – an adaptation of four books, in 90 minutes.

Watching professional actors bring to life – (spoilers!)  – being swallowed by a giant mouth in the earth, transforming into a dragon and back again, descending into madness and eventually watching their world break down in an apocalypse of fire and flood, with the help of costumes, make up and visual effects would be pretty impressive. Watching them do it in a recording studio with a handful of props, steps, some doors, ladders and a selection of SFX is nothing short of amazing! For me, the most impressive bit of SFX work was when they had to create the sounds of a dragon’s armour cracking and falling away. Listening back to such a dramatic scene you would never guess that it was the sound of eggshells being crushed!

Not only was I lucky enough to spend three days in the studio watching the recording, I was also able to sit in on the edit and watch them carefully put everything together. Deciding what takes worked, laying down the SFX and the music, tweaking scenes by seconds to get the pace just right…it’s an art form. Even after all that, when it came time to gather in the edit suite and listen to the finished piece for the first time, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had watched them record the dialogue, seen the various set ups and props, I had even helped with a spot effect.  Listening to those 90 minutes though, it was like I was there, in Unthank with Lanark.

I listen to as many radio dramas as I can and the variety on offer is amazing. The most important lesson I have learned is that whether it’s an epic 90 minute play, like “Lanark” or a 45 minute two-hander set in one location – if you have that perfect mix of writer, producer, cast and crew and, if you can find a way to make a sound effect for it, you can make some truly magnificent radio drama!

 

Claire Simpson graduated in 2001 with a degree in Film & Media & Psychology. Building on a love of radio drama, which began at University, she spent a year working as a producer at BBC Audiobooks in Bath. After moving back to Scotland, she worked as an Assistant Producer on the BAFTA award-winning short film Breaking. She also spent time working for a production company on various commercial productions, including a million pound Sony Bravia TV ad and organising a shoot for Subway off the coast of Miami. She now works as Campaign Planning Co-ordinator at BBC Scotland and during her time there produced the short film “To A Rose”. Claire has continued her keen interest in radio, working on such BBC Radio Scotland programmes as “Desperate Fishwives” and “The Guessing Game”.

BBC Senior Producer Mark Rickards visited the CMC radio students this week. Talking to both the 3^rd year features students as well as the 4^th group in the documentary class, his lively session focused on the BBC commissioning process, interview and recording techniques as well as the use of transitions using music and sound. He played clips from several of his programmes, ranging from the restoration of the fire-damaged Glasgow School of Art, Iraqi translators now living in a Glasgow estate, and the work of Irish poets W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney. Mark has travelled extensively and he treated the class to many anecdotes such as the very near miss with a pouncing puma at a Bolivian animal refuge, and the fact that the recording session with second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, took place in a little corner of a large hotel-like reception area while people wandered past to the pool. Afterwards there were plenty of questions about his work, with one or two students saying “I want your job!” He also spent some time talking to the 4^th years about their documentary proposal. Several students have already arranged to go and see Mark at the BBC in Glasgow during the editing process of his next programme.

 

To hear a selection of Mark’s work:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04p87r5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c241n

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048jj9j

Radiophrenia – a temporary FM art radio station broadcasting in Glasgow during April 2015, announces an open call for sound and transmission artworks.

We are seeking soundscapes, spoken word pieces, radio experiments, found sound, innovative approaches to drama and documentary and radical and challenging new programme ideas. The station will be housed in Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts with a broadcast schedule including live shows, pre-recorded features and a daily series of live to air performances. Radiophrenia aims to promote the medium of radio as an art form and encourage experimental approaches to making radio that are not catered for by mainstream stations.

There are 4 categories for submissions:

Live to air performances and presented shows of 30 / 60 / 90 /120 minutes duration.
Pre-recorded radio programmes – including documentaries, radio plays and crafted features of 30 / 60 / 90 / 120 minutes duration.
Shorter radio or sound works of under 20 minutes duration that will be compiled into longer shows.
Experimental, long-form radio pieces of over 2 hours duration.

Please note that this project is intended to feature material and approaches that are not already catered for by mainstream programming. We are therefore unlikely to consider DJ mixes, music shows or other conventional genres unless there is a clear and distinctive conceptual basis that differentiates them from broadcasting available elsewhere.

How to submit:
All radio works and programme ideas should be submitted either as completed pieces (for existing works) or as a detailed written proposal. Not all submissions or proposed works will be accepted. Priority will be given to works that are created especially for the medium of radio and that respond to radio’s unique attributes as a means of disseminating ideas.

Audio submissions should be uploaded to dropbox (accounts are free) or via a free online file sending service such as yousendit or wetransfer. Downloadable links to Soundcloud files are also acceptable. Please do not send audio files as email attachments. The preferred audio format for submissions is high quality MP3’s (256kbps or higher). Please send links or share dropbox files with info@radiophrenia.scot.

Please include with each submission; the title and a short synopsis of the work (100 words max), a brief biography and your name and contact details. The call is open to artists, musicians and producers at any career stage. We regret that there are no fees for contributors.

To be kept up to date join the mailing list by sending an email to info@radiophrenia.scot.

Deadline for submissions: February 28th 2015.

Broadcast: April 2015 (exact dates TBC).

Supported by Creative Scotland.

http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/5460b8537932e9a376000129