Interview with Radio National's Brent Clough

Interview with ABC Radio National's Brent Clough by kylabrettle


Radio Eye and The Night Air presenter/producer Brent Clough speaks with Kyla Brettle about what Radio Eye looks for in proposals.

Brent Clough: I think what we are looking for is something someone has thought through in an audio sense pretty clearly, they have thought very clearly about what elements that are going to put into a piece and they know where they are going to record them or if they have recorded – and they have a sense of the shape and the ideas of the program.

It’s not often strictly a story – but a picture, I suppose – we call ourselves Radio Eye for the documentary show, so we want in some ways a kind of clear and interesting audio picture of some thing or some time – it’s finding something that is convincing… It’s an idea or a set of people or a place that will stand to be made into something interesting which will maintain a listeners attention for up to around forty minutes.

Kyla Brettle: How thoroughly does the idea need to be worked out?

Brent Clough: I think you need to be pretty clear about what sounds and what treatment you are going to give to those sounds. It really comes down to knowing your talent, know the possible sound sources you are going to use, whether you are going to use music, field recordings, wether you are going to structure the program in particular ways that are unusual – it may be a mixture of drama and actuality – you need to have a fairly clear grasp of the way you want to tell the story and the way you want to present the feature.

So if you are musician for instance you may well have a clear musical structure to the program and that’s something we encourage on the Night Air – and we often we work with musicians who have a very good sense of the musical approach to the piece. For Radio Eye I think you really do need to know your subject too – you need to know the are you are researching it can’t be superficial it often really needs to be quite deep

You often need quite good relationships with the people you are going to speak with too. You need to be able to get good voices and get good accounts from people – so that takes a little bit of work sometimes – yeah you need to put some effort into finding good people and places and sounds.

Kyla Brettle: How important is it that a proposal is well written?

Brent Clough: It should be well written – it’s an indication of writing skills and you are probably going to need those in the program. So, it needs to be clear, it needs to be strong, it needs to be confident and well-written. You need to be able to use language or at least convey the way you are going to make your program effectively - you may not use many voices it may be all field recordings – but you need to be able to explain and evoke what you want to do pretty clearly in the proposal, I think. It can be very simple though, a simple proposal can be fine too, but it does need to be clear and it should be pretty well written, I think.

Kyla Brettle: What makes a potential story engaging for you?

Brent Clough: For me, I suppose I’d be interested in the sound sources and seeing how rich and interesting the sound sources were. I guess that’s something I’m particularly interested in. But I know people are interested in features that show some kind of transformation – we somehow get to witness a change, some kind of transformation. That’s not necessarily saying it’s a narrative with be beginning, middle and end, but it is something that’s an experience – that you go through a listening experience that takes you somewhere and maybe changes you as a listener.

So yeah, the sense of being able to transform listeners, or have a story that often deals with transformation of characters or a place or an idea – I guess that’s very attractive in any kind of idea

Kyla Brettle: Have you got anything to say to budding young feature makers out there?

Brent Clough: Well, I’d say go for it – really listen to what’s around and what’s available – I think a lot of people don’t realise that radio can be really creative and is an art-form. There are so few examples of that kind of radio around – you hear a little bit community radio and in college radio – but people forget that the ABC is still a basion for radio drama, for innovative uses of radio, creative features – experimental forms of radio too - that’s certainly what I think The Night Air is.

So, maybe people who are radio students or working in sound – they need to listen to what is out there in radio and just go for it because there are unlimited possibilities. And it’s also weirdly more free, in some ways than images, you have the chance to be more intimate and more playful with ideas.

So it’s the medium of the imagination, I suppose and I would really encourage people – if they want to make imaginative media in some form – to listen to radio, it’s still a strong and interesting area to work for.

also posted to ABC RN Independent@gLOBE