Crew for The Colonel

Alisdair McGregor is a freelance Radio Drama engineer & specialist Pro Tools audio editor, sound recordist and sound designer for over 12 years. He’s passionate about location recording and working in difficult environments using ‘shoot from the hip’ methods. He’s worked for BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, working on his first commission as a supplier to Radio 4 with writer Katie Hims. He volunteers for Resonance FM, the UK's first radio arts station.
www.holymountain.co.uk
www.resonancefm.com

Keith Tunney, From BBC documentaries, through film and TV drama, to commercials for clients Carlsberg and Yellow Pages, Keith is experienced in both production sound mixing and sound editing, capable of engineering the sound process from beginning to end. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Sound Design, Keith’s credits include Crush; Seven Seconds; Merci Dr Rey; Kavanagh QC; Face; Daylight Robbery. Keith’s hall mark is innovative location recordings.

Peter Coyte composes music and soundscapes for theatre, film, installations & TV. Theatre includes compositions for Peepolykus, John Paul Zaccarini & Company FZ, Holy Mountain, Gravity & Levity, Caroline Dorfman Dance Company and Wrongsize, Highlights include sig sounds for documentaries When The War is Over and The Mothers’ House (SAFTA, Milan & Cape Town Best Documentary) both directed by Francois Verster and the feature film Fun (Sundance Award) directed by Rafal Zielinski. He also writes and performs, as Saltpeter, with Salena Godden on Fred Label UK.

Archival footage courtesy of the British Film Institute from the DVD, Venceremos Solidaridad. Further details: www.bfi.org.uk

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

Alfredo Cordal, Script Advisor
Born in Santiago Chile in the 1940s, Alfredo produced literary programmes for Santiago television channels 13, 9, and 7 from 1966 - 1972. He was a political refugee in Beunos Aires and has lived in exile in London since 1974.  His poetry has been published in Anthology of Latin American Poets 1988; Voices - a cd released by the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and Nomads as Nomads, an anthology of Spanish and Latin American poets and Writers in Great Britain, 1997.  Plays produced in London include The Last Judgment, The Investure of El Dorado and Smoking Mirror.

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.

Alisdair on working for The Radio Play’s The Thing

Great to work with John again, and Sarah was quite refreshing in her approach to the medium. Editing starts today so nothing to say as yet on the design.  It was fairly similar to other recordings i've done, though the main difference was the refreshing attitudes of the people involved compared to the usual 'just knock out yet another drama' attitude that some producers have. There’s was an excellent use of a space not usually associated with this type of recording...great vision by John to find this. The diverse team worked very well as Sarah is very inexperienced in radio she came without any baggage of what the restrictions are, so her ideas were'nt hampered in any way. John was there, he could guide her when she would have perhaps tripped herself up otherwise

As for the 15 minute format, I don’t think it’s long enough for such dense and serious subjects so it does feel a little like a pilot for the broader play. I’m not so fond of that many sound cues from the writer, unless they are absolutely necessary. Technically the writing was excellent, and Caroline did as well as one could given the brevity of the piece.

Radio drama is about to be firmly kicked up the ass after decades of the same old same old.  It's been totally unexploited due to the monopoly the BBC has had on it over the years. And it can have a massive appeal to a younger audience, you just need to know how. I’d love to be given the chance to explore the many many new avenues awaiting the world of radio drama, in terms of process, recording, and post production....it could be the new rock n roll, if we want it to be.

Peter Coyte on composing the music for The Colonel

Sarah Weatherall directed me to the work of activist and folk singer Victor Jara who before being murdered by the military forces had his hands broken and was forced to play guitar. I came up with a guitar motif supported by a slow string backing that I hope evokes his memory and gives the feeling of calm determination of one's belief in justice and freedom.

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.

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