Had a great lecture from the the venerable Nigel Dick who has held many key influential positions in the Australian television industry - including as senior executive and then general manager of GTV9, director of Crawford Productions and deputy chairman and founding board member of the Victorian Film Corporation, now FilmVic.
Nigel set the scene with an overview of the history of free to air television in Australia and then launched into a discussion about advertising/revenue growth patters - the snapshot doesn't look great - a couple of his slides below:
He made the point that while media outlets have multiplied (ie. between 1993-2008 we have 104 new radio stations) "additional services had no effect on increasing advertising revenue"... so the cake remains the same, the slices of it just get smaller.
He also spoke about Australian television drama - it's huge popularity with local audiences and its high expense compared with purchasing overseas programs... and it's importance in fostering the Australian film industry...
These two points resonate with an ABC Television Media Watch story called The Future of Teleivision view the segment or read the transcript HERE - it's from October 2008, but many of the issues and concerns are still current
Heard some good news from my students recently... makes me feel all proud 'n' stuff...
The fabulous Jessica Noske-Turner, has had her radio documentary In the Wake of Genocide picked up by ABC Radio National's Awaye. It's a beautiful program about Aborigianal rights activist William Cooper. I worked with Jess in Broadcast Media and then supervised her honours project in 2008.
and...
The indomitable Jonathon Hutchinson has just been awarded the position of research assistant for ABC's Pool funded by QUT's Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation... which will no doubt lead onto a PhD scholarship... read more HERE. I'm supervising Jonathon's honours project this year - and before that, he was part of my Radio Active Space studio and I also taught him in Broadcast Media...
Music is a powerful texture in an audio documentary. Its functions are many and varied - from creating drive and momentum to enhancing the emotional subtext to carrying key story information – so, finding the right track is key.
A primary use of music is to articulate structure; at a basic level ‘intro’ and ‘outro’ music tells us the feature is beginning or ending. In magazine-style programs a music ‘sting’ or breaker is used to signify a change in story or topic. The music acts as a highlighter pen because the change in texture pricks our ears and makes us listen closely – at these points we listen for and read ‘more meaning’ in the story. So, my usual advice to students is to make sure the last words before/after music are strong and meaningful – not to let them dribble off into something a little bit irrelevant…
In addition to turning the listener on music can be used to switch them off. The classic - ‘music sting’ as transition – also gives the listener a chance to think and digest the information they have just heard. The art of ‘talking to many’ in a time-based media is keeping them with you – so, especially in a long form piece, you need to let the material ‘breathe’ – and music is good at clearing the air of words and creating some space for your listener to think. Below is a short example of a music 'breaker' in a program I made for All in the Mind:
Probably the most striking effects of music in documentary is how it wraps around the other sounds and makes them much more comfortable together – I’ve often got lost just listening to the different rhythms and phrases that happen between a random music tracks and words… Like a warm light,
music can make voice and montage sections sound better… the only problem is that it can get addictive – a common trap for young players is to slap it under everything – and this essentially dilutes the power of music – the rush that you get as a listener when it comes in as well as that pointed silence and stillness you feel when it fades out.
For me, one of the effects of music is to lift the voice out of the grubby reality story and make the passage seem less real – I find that the soundtrack creates a more reflective space. I did this a lot in the program Toby Guthrie Coils the Spring – juxtaposing the reflective interview material with the observation action sounds… below is a basic example:
Music also works well as a leit motif – signifying a particular character or location – this is quite handy if you want to jump back and forth between different spaces without losing the listener....below is an example:
Music also enhances the more… ah… musical or formal aspects of your ‘documentary composition’ – emphasising the melodic contour of the spoken word or the rhythm of the environment. A very beautiful example of this working really well is Sherre DeLys and John Jacob's program, If which juxtaposes spoken word and improvised cello.
Getting into music is usually easier than getting out of it. There are several ways to do it: either fade up or fade down, use the natural start and end to a piece and enter it in a full volume or mask the music’s entrance/exit with a transitional spot sound….
Something to remember when selecting and cutting music is to think about both the frequency or pitch of the work and also the sonic intensity and how that balances with the spoken work or other sound you want to mix it with. If the music is low and you are mixing it with a low male voice, then the close frequencies make the voice seem
muddy. Likewise a really fat musical sound with many voices like an orchestral work or big band can feel too ‘heavy’ or dense when juxtaposed with a single talking voice. Lyrics mixed over speaking voice can also be very confusing and are best avoided. If the lyrics are important to your piece, you need to give them space in the clear so the listener can hear them properly. I usually cut around lyrics – recutting the instrumental parts together and repeating a phrase here and there.
We are often drawn to well-known and popular work when thinking about the music tracks for our programs… music usually carries lots of cultural baggage as well as copyright issues. Even if you are legally allowed to use a popular work – often the song has too much history and associations on its own for you to successfully re-orient those meanings in relation to your own work and the meanings you are trying to construct. The listener ends up tuning out of your piece and tuning into their last memory of having listened to that song…and if you are unlucky the listener will turn off your documentary and play the music album… However, purposefully using the cultural associations of music as a subtext and affect in a piece can work really well – a fantastic example is the example of the intro to CBC’s The Wire, episode 5.
If you are making a project commissioned by a broadcaster, then the company pays for the use of copyrighted music – but as a general rule, if you are producing documentaries it is best to source music with a creative commons licences so you are able to exhibit your work online.
FURTHER INFO
• For sites where you can find CC and copyright-free production music - go to my delicious tag, cc_production_music
• For links on editing radio documentaries and features - see audio_editing
RELATED SUBJECTS
• For general articles, links and references about radio documentary post-production - go to my delicious tag, project_post
A primary use of music is to articulate structure; at a basic level ‘intro’ and ‘outro’ music tells us the feature is beginning or ending. In magazine-style programs a music ‘sting’ or breaker is used to signify a change in story or topic. The music acts as a highlighter pen because the change in texture pricks our ears and makes us listen closely – at these points we listen for and read ‘more meaning’ in the story. So, my usual advice to students is to make sure the last words before/after music are strong and meaningful – not to let them dribble off into something a little bit irrelevant…
Probably the most striking effects of music in documentary is how it wraps around the other sounds and makes them much more comfortable together – I’ve often got lost just listening to the different rhythms and phrases that happen between a random music tracks and words… Like a warm light,
