I cried. I was
sucked under and into the mayhem and I was a complete, blithering mess by the
end of the piece … but I’m getting ahead
of myself - let me start at the beginning …
The work
examined the events during and leading up to a flash flood that devastated the
small town of Grantham in north Queensland that killed twelve people…
The piece
started with the scratchy, flat voice of the producer, clearly a hard-nosed
investigative journalist - a voice steeped in experience that doesn’t give too
much away. My first thought was - why this piece was on 360documentaries rather
than the more newsy (and often more earnest and worthy) Background Briefing?
The lone producer link intro is a journalistic convention and a singularly
undynamic way into the story, ideas and sonic framing of a work … That was what I was thinking at the start -
by the end - the cool voice of the producer and her expert handling of the
interviews brought relief and contrast to the warmth and feeling of the
participant responses - and the narration intro an elegant and understated
thread taking us into a rich and complex tapestry of the story world…
The work
covers dramatic events that occur within a tight timeframe. The image of the
build up, the event and the aftermath provides a meta structure - a slow,
powerful, evolving story anchor or undertow. An ensemble cast of witnesses
bring this image to life, their stories intersecting, weaving in and out of one
another. The spoken words are powerful, deeply moving and poignant - the voices
and narrative threads strong and individual enough to move between without confusion.
The whole is framed or bookended by the more reflective question of why this
happened, who was responsible and how the handling of the event could have been
improved - an effective (though a little didactic)
journalistic device to bring the story out from the level of personal to the
national/political sphere
Crisell, an
influential voice in radio studies, writes that stories in sound need to be
“relatively simple” (in comparison to screen) to be coherent and legible. I
disagree strongly. Stories in sound can be highly complex, and “The Day that
changed Grantham” is a strong example of a detailed and nuanced work with many
voices and narrative threads that doesn’t struggle to make sense… why … I think
(like good storytelling in general) it’s about getting the right balance
between convergent and divergent story elements - ‘narrow focus - deep view’ -
is one rule of thumb that can get you there.… balancing the many voices and
threads is the depiction of a tight chain of events that unravels gradually
over the 50 odd minutes of the show - so the surface of voices and subplots is
set against a slow moving background. Also helping to give clarity to the
narrative is that all characters are essentially the one character - the
witness or experiencer of the event - like David Issay’s most wonderful Witness
to an Execution, this common connection creates a framework for understanding
and draws attention the shades of the difference between characters and
viewpoints.
A few other
things I noted … the sound design and music was sensitive and well
crafted - though to my ear, very limited in range. SFX were used tastefully
with great effect - and all the clichés avoided but few surprises too. I would have liked a stronger
aural depiction of place - particularly as it was such a key element and
character in the story … use of more field and observational recordings,
particularly at the beginning, would have grounded this work in the tone and
tenor of the town. Also, many of the interview recordings were a bit messy
(though perfectly clear), recorded from too far away, in boomy rooms etc - too
much ambience for a deeply intimate sound but not enough ambience to carry meaning in and of itself…
So where was I ... yes, crying and listening (a great combo like coffee/cigarettes and red
wine/chocolate) … I recommend this work
to others and think it was a beautiful story for the medium of sound - partly
because the spoken word was foregrounded and such a key element of the work -
tapping into oral history and storytelling … But also because as sound-only the
story transcended it’s context (and the repetition of the inevitable images
that would go with this story) - it became not about a terrible and traumatic
event - but about the human spirit, who we are when pushed to the edges of
being and fragility and balance of life. (An interesting comparison could be
made with this work and ABC Local’s online coverage of the Victorian Bushfires
- where lots of audio works have been set to visual recreations … but I think
that would need to be another blog post)
image: from ABC Radio National website -http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/image/3584692-4x3-700x525.jpg
image: from ABC Radio National website -http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/image/3584692-4x3-700x525.jpg
