kyla brettle... B L O G S

2011 National Film and Sound Archive fellowships

2010-08-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Now calling for applications.

This is a great opportunity for scholars and artists wanting to work with the archive - I think the only downside is that you have to go to Canberra.

Application deadline: September 30, 2010

See website for details http://www.nfsa.gov.au/about_us/sar.html

Where am I at... in Jul_10

2010-07-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

The year streaks ahead - a blur in a complete tizz - even just watching it can be exhausting sometimes.

Semester 2 teaching has just started. Luckily I'm out of the fray for the next six months working of a few research projects. While I enjoy teaching and generally get a lot of satisfaction out of making courses and working with students - it's good too to have a bit of a break.

I've relocated my primary office to the country - the main challenge is to resist the lure of the garden and its associated temptations of building drystone walls and weaving baskets to grow my potatoes in. Other than that, it's a great place to snug down, focus and get stuff done.

And that is, hopefully what I'll be up to over the next six months.

Does this mean I can call myself an artist?

2010-07-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

Or how about a sound designer? Maybe not, as I've already been made fun of for the pretension of calling myself a 'media practitioner'.

Whatever you call it - I've just delivered an audio piece for a work by artist, Lyndal Jones. It's called 'whispering wall' and is currently constructed over the disused fountain in Melbourne's Town Square. It looks like an untreated wooden wall with little orange holes in it (the speakers are inside the holes).

The audio was quite fun to make - Lyndal and I went off an interviewed about 50 people on the subject of climate change - and then I scurried off alone to a darkened edit suite to devise 12 tracks of audio. It was really refreshing to think of how the piece would be heard across space as well as time - and to a non-captive audience.

Do check it out if you find yourself in Melbourne city (I hear the piece will be travelling to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary art too).

000 AMBULANCE in the dark

2010-07-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I received an interesting request - an English fellow asked me if he could play my piece, 000 AMBULANCE, in a home-style 'listen in'. It was organised by an organisation called In the Dark. It was sweet of them to ask for permission as it would have been very easy to just do it without consulting me.

The whole idea of people gathering in a darkened room to listen to audio features is quite lovely ... it would be great to start up a similar club here in Australia.

Anway, it appears that the listening session has happened - as I was sent lots of very nice feedback about the program:

EXTRACTS FROM COMMENTS:

Love the rest of the pieces. particulalry ambulance. V. Moving. Felt v.
real, he was so honest and straightforward.

COMMENT:
"Really liked the evening - sitting in a room with others. Like
storytelling"

COMMENT:
000 Ambulance - Great, very moving

COMMENT:
"Utterly fantastic- I enjoyed it immensely- its so unique an experience to sit in the dark and listne other people to a doc, i've never done that before and yet I adore audio. What it forces your imagination and concentration into is completely absorbing and revelatory and JUICY.

000 or whatever the number- loved it utterly but as with almost anything it could have entered later! and left earlier. There were a
couple of natural endings before it did end. And less stuff before irish
guy emerged would have made it stronger.

COMMENT:
Gripped. morbid, but gripping. Cried all through the ambulance one.Who wasn't - and the dawning realisation that the irish man had been the ambulance center on the kids call that he had described in the third
person. Immensely moving. Looking forward to more of these.

COMMENT
this was lovely, particulalry the waxing vignette and the ambulance
piece- that lovely man carried me through. My only thought would be for a ten minute break between the documentaries.

COMMENT:
Really enjoyed that, it felt so real and so human. Its easy to feel
identified with the ambulance show people .

Student Internships at Radio National

2010-07-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

It's really nice getting to give opportunities away, it makes you feel good. I've just had an internship for a social media producer at Radio National as well as a radio producer for the Book Show to offer a student. The social media producer one went to Ross Richardson, from this years PP1 group - and I recommended ex honours student, Jessica Noske-Turner for the Book Show gig. I'm confident Jess will make the most of the opportunity as she has recently produced a strong short feature for 360documentaries.

TOBY GUTHRIE COILS THE SPRING on air

2010-06-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

Not on the airwaves but the air itself - flying high, sort of stuff.

A show I made some time ago was selected for presentation on ABC Radio National's Qantas in-flight entertainment audio channel.

A novel little windfall.

PP1.10 students present their convergent media objects to Pool

2010-06-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

Find this year's batch of Production Project 1 (COMM2322) student projects on the Pool; here. Unfortunately these are significantly weaker than they were last year.

Project My Tribe is launched!

2010-04-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is the participatory project I am working on.

It represents a huge and messy collaboration between me, ABC Radio National's 360documentaries, ABC Pool, Tribal Productions (aka RMIT Media Program staff and students teaching involved in the course COMM2022), Circus Media at Fed Square Screens and the research project 'Future Makers Future Markets'.

My role as an independent is to design the structure, author the project blog and make a radio show for it. I'm also the one kinda responsible for keeping it vaguely on track until it officially closes on July 30.

I'm expecting to get blog, communication and general social media fatigue - so don't be surprised if I basically stop writing here and only write there for the next few months.

THE TROUBLE WITH RICK noticed by the [un]observed

2010-03-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

A little radio show I made a couple of years ago just got picked up and published by a new radio magazine - the [un]observed ... nice to have some life breathed back into the project - but even better to have a new outlet for interesting audio on the scene.

*** thanks to Sound Rich this story gets seen and mentioned on http://hearingvoices.com/ - they describe themselves as "the largest collective of independent radio producers this side of the semi-planet Pluto."***

students make the most of opportunities on ABC radio ...

2010-02-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

2009 graduate Eliza Hull recently scored one of the few rather sought after internships with Triple J - she achieved this on the on the strength of her Production Project 1 assignment (Darwin Started it) and the industry contacts she made during the course.

Also Tom Roberts and Ariane King (2009 Broadcast Media students) will have their radio assignment 'The Sound of Fire' broadcast on ABC Radio National's 360documentaries program on Saturday Feb 6. The brief was to make a program 'suitable for broadcast on 360' - so clearly they have done very well - both are rather chuffed about being paid for a school assignment. I just ran the course and gave lectures - so congratulations also goes to their tutor, Rohan Spong.

Where am I at... in Jan_10

2010-01-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

Had a lovely summer - went on a most enjoyable trip to New Zealand and spent the rest of the time at our cottage; sitting underneath the mulberry tree imaging the wonderful things I will do with our sprawling (and not a little daunting) garden. My mother gave me some sound advice (as mothers are want to do) "start close to the house and wend your way out".

Anyway, the shrubbery is now on hold as the working year is winding up for action - I can almost hear it stretching back like a rubber band - ready to let go a big (batman-style) Ka-PoW...

In semester one I'm teaching into the RMIT course, Production Project 1 with my esteemed colleague David Carlin (always a pleasure to work with). This year students will not just be contributing to a participatory media project - but actually managing it from the inside - which is a bit of a special opportunity.

I've orchestrated a collaboration with ABC Radio National and Pool and RMIT to produce a project called 'my tribe' - it's basically a call out to the public to contribute creative works dealing with the theme of 'identity and community'. These works will be developed and exhibited on Pool and the 'best of' will be broadcast or presented as part of an online feature on RN's 360documentaries or hit the big screen at Federation Square in Melbourne. I'm hoping to get other organisations on board, but I think we have a good start.

As you can imagine, this is a HUGE thing to organise - and wouldn't really be feasible without the contributions of another great colleague, Marius Foley and the Future Makers/Future Markets project - I think I mentioned this project last year... basically, Marius and I have gained the support RMIT's Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund to revamp PP1 and do a bunch of research into learning and teaching in the public space via social media.

In addition to all that, I'll be making a feature length documentary for 360 to the theme of 'my tribe'. The show will be developed 'in the public' via a blog - upon hearing this my executive producer, Claudia Taranto said "you're brave" - I think the odds are better in thinking that I'm stupid. Anyway, I've committed to doing this now and have to give it my best shot. I'm going to make the audio program and development blog part of the project component of my postgraduate research.

... so, three birds with one stone - sounds great in theory - I'm just hoping the one stone is not too big to carry.

got me a grant!

2009-12-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

Quite excited just received some funding from RMIT's Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund for the project Future Makers/Future Markets. This is a project I've been working on with Marius Foley ... check out our project website HERE. (I took the banner image at Hong Kong airport - think the green looks quite cheery)

star student - Recommended listening

2009-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

This project took a long time in the making ... I supervised Jess as she produced this work for her honours year at RMIT - am very proud and pleased to see it find airtime and make it to the end of the full circle.

ONE BLOOD

The story of William Cooper: a voice raised in the silence

First broadcast: 5 December 2009

In late 1938 an elderly, statesmanlike Aboriginal man called William Cooper delivered a letter of protest to the German consulate in Melbourne over the persecution of the Jews on the notorious Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass. He was one of very few voices of protest – nationally and internationally.

Freelance producer, Jessica Noske-Turner, has produced a documentary about William Cooper (1861 – 1941) and his passionate advocacy for human rights. She was captivated by the spirit and humanity of the man from Cummeragunga, the former Aboriginal mission station on the Murray River in Victoria.

The documentary, One Blood, will feature during ABC Radio National’s Awaye! program on 5 December at 6pm and will include readings from Cooper’s letter, as well as a journey back to his final resting place, the cemetery at Cummeragunga and beautifully recorded audio from a ceremony in the Forest of Martyrs in Israel, where trees were planted in his memory of with water and soil from the Murray River.

A complementary feature website will also be available from the Awaye! website at abc.net.au/rn/awaye . The website will include the audio from the program to stream and download, copies of original documents including notes in William Cooper’s hand, photographs and video of the tree-planting ceremony in Israel.

students vlogging for RN

2009-12-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

Radio National asked me to put forward four 'fresh young' faces to be video bloggers at the Parliament of World Religions ... Check out Annabelle, Kara, Jessie and Lisa's work ...

Action on Radio Active Space - PP2.09 students deliver to Pool

2009-11-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

My final year radio students have (finally) uploaded their radiophonic mash-ups and audio features to the ABC's Pool ... check them out HERE

Notes on Nigel Dick's lecture on Australian FTA Television - past, present and future

2009-09-21T01:09:00.000-07:00

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

Student Success

2009-09-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

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...

Finding, selecting and editing music in radio documentaries

2009-09-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

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:

Extract from SPEAKING OF MUSIC by kylabrettle

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:

Extract from TOBY GUTHRIE COILS THE SPRING by kylabrettle

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:

Extract from AFFAIRS OF THE MIND by kylabrettle

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

IMAGES: (c) Kyla Brettle and ABC Radio National

The contracting process, pitching & writing radio documentary proposals

2009-07-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

The verbal pitch and written proposal are the tools you use to sell your radio documentary concept to a broadcaster.

While not all broadcasters programs require a full written proposal in order to commission a feature – ‘imagining the project’ and writing it out is a great exercise that helps you focus both your research and understanding of the story’s potential…. And gives you the information you need to evaluate whether or not the idea is really worth pursuing.

Before going further I want to stress that a lot of time and research goes into developing a project concept to the point where it's ready to be written into a proposal - you need to have conducted preliminary interviews, been on a RECCI (if possible), secured permissions and also researched background and context - and then critically re-evaluated the concept. You usually only get one crack at presenting the idea to a commissioning editor - so you want to give the project the best chance of getting through and being a great program. (For more on this see the post on developing program concepts)

The proposals are pretty functional and practical sorts of documents – it is a ‘working document’ that needs to:

‘Excite, entice and inspire’ an EP into wanting to make the program happen
Give an EP a strong sense of the program – story, characters, how it will sound, approach, sound sources, access etc and if it is actually viable/possible in the duration in the timeframe with the available resources
Reassure an EP you have the research, communication and program making skills to execute the project

While some broadcasters provide Freelancer Guidelines – if the show doesn’t ask for specific information – be best approach is to keep the proposal structure pretty clean and straightforward…

Make it clear what the document is and your name at the start with an indication of how long you think it should be – begin with ‘Promotional Material’ – a short synopsis of the program that should sell the idea – interest the reader. The synopsis is traditionally the ‘carrot to dangle under their nose’

Follow this up with Explanatory Material – outlines, treatments, scripts – levels of detail vary but basically you need to tease out the story, soundsources, why it’s interesting etc or other relevant information – this is more ‘bread and butter’ kind of writing that give the reader an understanding of ‘how it will work and sound’.

Provide support material in the form of preview tapes or photos or other written stuff if you feel it’s really necessary – but if the information is important then don’t let it get lost in ‘Support Materials’.

In the end ensure you have a business end to the proposal sorted – and don’t forget contact details. When you get down to the nuts and bolts of the proposal concept - you should be clear and direct about the viability and upfront with potential weaknesses.

FURTHER INFO

• Lecture Notes derived from the a lecture I give in the RMIT Media programs Broadcast Media course.

• Audio/Transcript of a short interview with producer/presenter Brent Cloughabout pitching and proposing documentary ideas to ABC Radio National feature programs
Interview with ABC Radio National's Brent Clough by kylabrettle
• Post written by longtime producer/executive producer Matthew Leonard, Notes from the Thought Police – an insiders view of the contracting process and great tips for independent contractors

• Find more resources and link under my delicious tag, pitching&proposals

RELATED SUBJECTS
• Post, On developing radio documentary program concepts

• General resources and links about generating, developing and presenting program concepts under my delicious tag project_development.

Listening to Shocking Sound

2009-07-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

BEYOND THE SHOCK MACHINE by Gina Perry and Sharon Davis... broadcast on ABC Radio National's Hindsight

"In the summer of 1961 Stanley Milgram, a 27-year-old associate professor of psychology at Yale University, conducted a series of controversial experiments designed to test the limits of obedience. Volunteers in the experiment were told to give electric shocks to a person they could hear screaming in pain in the room next door. Seemingly ordinary people turned into torturers.

Much has been written about Milgram and his experiments. But there's a missing part to the story -- the voices of people who took part. Gina Perry goes in search of those who participated in what's been described as the most widely cited and provocative set of experiments in social psychology.

This documentary was awarded a silver medal in the history category at the 2009 New York Radio Festival Awards. It was first broadcast on ABC Radio National's Radio Eye program in October 2008."

This is a compelling audio documentary about a endlessly fascinating and disturbing subject - our capacity for obedience, brutality and doing what we know is wrong. The piece explores layers of discomfort - both the findings of the study and the ethics of the experiment itself.

If you are into psychology and all things neuroscience - you'll find it a bit of a beachy, easy-to-find subject - a famous study that's already received a lot of attention and exploration... but if you don't know much about this - the program is a great introduction.

The show is well structured and neatly put together - the ensemble of interviews is

comprehensive and satisfying - and the archival material is truly excellent. It's a very straight program - the producers maintain a safe distance from the subject and it's aurally very conservative. The online presentation of this program is pretty lame - a few bald words with no images or references - not much chop for a subject with such rich archival resources and references.

IMAGES: Obedience image http://www.mytvblog.org/?p=2735, Milgram experiment http://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/questioning-a

uthority-a-rethinking-of-the-infamous-milgram-experiments/, Shock machine http://www.usu.edu/psycho101/lectures/chp14socinflu/socinflu.html

Where am I at... in July_09?

2009-07-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

Second semester is about to snap into action and I'm not feeling terribly prepared. Feeling a bit soft and squishy - overly relaxed, sun-drunk and vague... just spent three most enjoyable weeks Spain - along with everything else, took lots of holiday snaps, home video and audio recordings and made a series of slap-dash one minute films... good to remind myself that making media can just be about having fun.

But it's also about work - and that's what I've come back to.

Righto - so the landscape has changed a little... my gig as online producer for ABC Radio National's music unit finished up at the end of June - it was quite an amazing opportunity to step into shoes that had never been worn and be the first one to scuff and mark them... had lots of ideas, learnt a huge amount and did some good work - though perhaps thought too much as I didn't end up making as much tangible stuff as I would have liked to.

This semester I'm intending to spend a bit of time with my postgraduate project (which languished a bit last semester - squeezed, as it was, between two intense and demanding .5 jobs) . On the teaching front I'm coordinating Broadcast Media and running my third year Radio Active Space studio (aka PP2)... and I've got my number one honours student to supervise - Johnathon Hutchinson (whom I expect great things of).

So that's me in a nutshell, or an egg-shell - or rather, what's called an egg chair.

Online music and spoken word project

2009-06-11T22:03:00.001-07:00

"In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls.
The videos can be played simultaneously -- the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders."
"Participate! Create a video and send me the link!" Find it here.
[From David Carlin In Bb - very cool idea here - check it out]

Third Coast Audio Festival 2009 entry

2009-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

deadline approaching... Reminder below..

Hello from the Third Coast Festival... Here's your one week (plus a day or two) warning: The early deadline for the 2009 Third Coast Festival / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition is coming right up. You have until midnight on June 19th to submit your entries online and pay the early fee: $50 or $30 for students. After that, the entry fee will increase to $70 for everyone. The late deadline for entries is midnight, July 10th.

This year's entry process is being handled entirely online through PRX.org. If you're planning to submit before the early deadline, we urge you to do this well in advance of June 19th. The process may take longer than you think - especially if you're submitting longer pieces, or multiple entries.

Convergence Culture guru Henry Jenkins on New Media Literacy Skills

2009-06-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

it looks kinda small - but click and all will be clear....

my students go live with... EVOLUTION on Pool

2009-05-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

RMIT Media Production Project one draws to an end and students upload their final projects to the Gene Pool exhibition on Pool. Some very interesting work.

Review student work on ABC's Pool or to the Production Blog