Crew for To The Broad Shore

Steve Bond has worked as sound designer and composer for four years, in film, TV, radio, and new media.
www.steve-bond.com

Robert Bourke has 7 years industry experience across TV, film & radio. He was sound editor on Q & A, the 2008 Sony Award Winning Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4. He’s worked on Monarchs of the Glen, The Culture Show, 3 Minute Wonders; Restoration Man & Grand Designs.

Kaaren Erikson performed Morgen by Richard Strauss from the John Marks recording which was the last performance of Kaaren’s before her premature death from cancer. John Marks shares more

After broadcast journalism training in Cardiff Tamsin Barber was sponsored by BBC Audio and Music Factual to work as a researcher at Network Radio in Bristol on dramas, arts and factual documentaries. Credits including Fighting Chance for BBC Radio 4 & War of the Roses, Britain in Bloom competiton. She’s currently working as Production Manager at Goldhawk Productions.

Mark Harris is a PA / Runner in Film, TV & now radio with The Radio Play’s The Thing. He’s worked on Despatches, The David Bunkett Diaries for Channel 4, Comedy Cuts for ITV2 & a host of short films and commercials. Prior to freelancing, Mark worked in the comedy unit at Granada and in post production at MTV

Rory McSwiggan is a video producer and Graphic designer who provided the images for The Radio Play's the thing website. He has worked with 4Talent since 2006, first as web assistant on the Northern Ireland hub of IDEASFACTORY and later producing short films for the national site including an intensive beginners guide to the Cheltenham Screenwriters' Festival and a profile of talk radio presenter Iain Lee which became 4Talent's most downloaded video. He has designed materials for the inaugural Intimacy Festival at London's Goldsmiths college, The Mayday site specific theatre production in Leeds and the Association of Independent Radio Producers of Ireland. He works in corporate video production and TV Transmission control and co-presents a weekly world music and culture radio show, Tracks with Rory & Daburd on Brent's community radio station, Life 103.6 FM.

Steve on working for The Radio Play’s The Thing

For a sound designer, 'The Radio Play's The Thing' was a great project to be invloved with - refreshing and youthful! Whilst radio drama might have a reputation for being somewhat stuffy, these projects were some of the most dynamic and experimental I have worked on.

Collaborating with four different teams of directors, writers and actors over just a couple of weeks is an intense experience, and there was never any time to settle in to a fixed pattern of work - each scene, both in the recording and the post-production, needs a fresh approach.

An important part of the sound is the wonderful Fishfactory Studios in North-West London - an old-school Rock and Roll place that gives a great vibe to the recordings. The challenge was to make the most use of the various spaces there - dusty drum rooms, echoey corridors, and even the street outside all add to a sense of life and realism. Using real props and a lot of movement from the actors gives a sound you just can't create in a traditional radio studio.

I hope this is just the beginning of radio drama for Channel 4 - and I hope I'll be a part of whatever happens next!

Robert on working for The Radio Play’s The Thing

I found it very liberating as with Tv and Film it can be quite restricting regarding creative input. Most of the time it is just "acquisition." The biggest challenge was deciding which perspective to choose on each scene as once it was laid onto disk then it was commited for post production. The very things you try your utmost to avoid in Film or Tv sound production are the very things you want in radio recording, like movement across the stereo field and a strong sense of the acoustic that you are in at any given time. The difficulty is that once its recorded then in a way that's it, you have a certain amount of control in Post but not as much as in other mediums. I think this is a good thing though as it forces a creative input on set and it encourages a mentality of trying things out.

Fishfactory studios is a great location, plenty of acoustically interesting rooms and also quiet control rooms when required. Its also microphone heaven. Pretty handy when your recording a radio drama.The team works well. It was great that many of the team had worked together before allowing each director to settle in as quick as possible.

The scripts were exciting because the writers had written for sound. Normally you have to try and crowbar a sound idea in post. With this process it was more a matter of trying to full fill the writers ideas.

Let’s have an alternative to BBC Radio 4 dramas and why not provide them as podcasts. 

Tamsin on working for The Radio Play’s The Thing

Normally you only work on one radio drama at a time- as there were four new plays this was a much bigger project, working with 2 producers, 4 writers, 4 directors, 3 sound recordists, a runner and all the actors- there was a lot to think about, but it was a great team and everyone was really enthusiastic and committed.

My role

As production manager, I had to make sure that everyone knew what was going on, had all the information that they needed, as well as organising scripts/call sheets/props and generally making sure that everything was running smoothly. On the recordings, I supported the director, I kept an eye on the schedule and logged all the scenes.

I was also in charge of casting, which was really exciting. It was great to have the freedom to suggest fresh ideas, different voices and to think about some of my favourite programmes and actors to see if they were right for certain roles, and it was even better when they said yes! I think that all the performances were really strong.

The location

We recorded at the Fishfactory Studios in Willesden, which is essentially a large warehouse, so the production team could actually be with the actors rather than behind the glass of a studio. This gave us more freedom to move and to create different soundscapes, such as an interrogation room, hotel and airport lounge, which worked really well.

Challenges I faced/ surprises

Once all the casting was set in place, the main challenge was an organisational one- again making sure that everyone knew what they were doing and felt at ease, sending out scripts and information, thankfully it all went ok. The whole project had a fast turnaround, as we recorded the dramas back to back over four days, so one day you were pretending to be in Chile and the next you were in a Belfast police station! But recording dramas are good fun and if any problems occur they generally can be solved.

Working with a diverse team/ Liasing with directors/sound recordists

Until the recordings, all the production team worked from different locations, which meant lots of phone calls and emails, but John and Maud were always on hand with support and advice and were really committed to the project.

Working with new directors was really interesting as they all brought their own experiences from television and stage, so I learned a lot from them, but now I think they are all definite radio converts! It was important to explain the process of how recording for radio works and some of the things they need to look out for, i.e rather than work through the script chronologically, it can be better to group together and record scenes with specific locations or actors.

The sound recordists were really experienced and worked closely with the directors on the day, so their advice and knowledge was really important. They came up with innovative ways of recording a scene, making the most of the location.

The actual dramas/Channel 4 drama

All four plays cover bold subjects, but each stands alone, and are great stories. There are some powerful moments in all, which really draw you in, but they are also entertaining. It must have been quite nerve-racking for the writers to see their work recorded in front of them for the first time!

The whole process was a really positive experience and a real buzz to be involved with something new, especially getting more drama out there. Radio drama is a perfect for multi-platform media and with Channel 4’s links to dramas like Hollyoaks and Shameless, can only encourage people to listen and offer something different to what’s out there, the more ways of doing this the better!

As for the first radio plays for Channel 4- I think have been a real success. I am looking forward to finding out what reaction they will get!

What have I learned from it

I’ve worked on radio drama productions before, but here I was given much more freedom suggest my own ideas, so it was great to rise to the challenge.

Working with new people means that you are always learning new things. When making factual documentaries, I’m used to interviewing people and getting the best out of them, but I would definitely love to direct and is something I hope to do in the future.

Mark on working for The Radio Play’s The Thing

Film’s been my thing so it was fascinating for me to work on a project where I got the chance to watch how four creative directors and a talented crew manage to approach four wonderful scripts. Each one had either huge jumps in the timeline of the narrative or considerable location changes so conveying these to the audience in audio was quite a challenge!  

The fact that they were first time writers for radio and debutante radio directors brought a level of enthusiasm and energy that I found contagious and I’m sure will be felt by the listeners too. Having experienced producers like Maud and John in the shadows to offer advice and sometimes curb that enthusiasm seemed to work really well. It was a great working environment, very contained and inspiring. This kind of radio is greatly needed to provide an outlet and platform for new British talent. And I’m up for any future projects.

John Marks recalls recording Morgen with soprano, Kaaren Erikson

Before starting my own record label, I’d fixed a deal for Nathaniel Rosen to record for another label an album of short pieces. That project consumed the “low-hanging fruit” of the cello recital and encore repertoire, such as Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan.” When Dr. Rosen was ready to record a short-piece album for me, we wanted things that would be off the beaten path—especially for the closing selection. I’d long admired the collaboration of John McCormack and Fritz Kreisler on Richard Strauss’ Morgen from the 1920s. With the right female singer, a cello-obbligato version might be just the thing.

My first choice was Alfreda Hodgson, because of her work in Robert Shaw’s last recording of Messiah. World was that Ms. Hodgson had died tragically young a few years before. I said a prayer for her, and listened again to Shaw’s Messiah. It struck me that one of the sopranos on that recording, Kaaren Erickson, had a lot of the “slow” creaminess I’d loved in Hodgson’s voice. I pitched the project to Kaaren’s management.

Kaaren was a delight to work with, and she and Nick and Doris (Stevenson, the pianist) got along famously. We recorded Morgen out of sequence and first to let Kaaren go as early as possible. The attached photo shows the recording setup in the Performing Arts Center at the State University of New York at Purchase. Positioning the Schoeps KFM 6 "Sphere" microphone is engineer Jerry Bruck (who incidentally knew Gustav Mahler's widow), and his assistant Michael Karas. The performers are Kaaren Erickson, Nathaniel Rosen, and Doris Stevenson at the piano.

Although Nathaniel Rosen, co-producer Arturo Delmoni, and I had not planned it that way, when we sequenced the album, the last three pieces formed a triptych-meditation on death, hope, and love: Brahms’ O Death, how bitter art thou; Bach’s Jesus Christ, I Implore Thee; and Strauss’ Morgen (“Tomorrow”).

When the discs arrived from the manufacturer, I sent a box to Kaaren. I left a few phone messages seeking her reaction. I grew concerned, as she and I had differed on which of the takes was best to use. I wanted to reassure her that I’d included her choice.

She finally picked up the phone, to tell me that she’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She had been putting off listening to the album out of fear that it might not be what she’d wanted to leave behind. Eventually, she had listened. She told me that she was relieved that it came out as well as it had. It is her last recording.

www.jmrcds.com

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