Criteria:

It was established at the outset that the programme would be for

BBC Radio Scotland

Broadcast in an afternoon slot

Aimed at listeners over 20

The theme was Trends

I don’t think any of the criteria were fulfilled. There was a lack of attention given to this. The presenters voices were too young, many of the packages weren’t really aimed at that target audience and the script wasn’t up to the mark.

There wasn’t really a unifying theme as people changed what their individual packages were.

The script was underwritten, under-rehearsed and didn’t bring together the various elements of the show.

The presenters didn’t listen to the answers the guest gave, but simply read the questions they had prepared.

The programme was not a success.  All that can seriously be said is that it started and finished on time.

Production

The equipment hadn’t been set up properly due to it being rushed (see below) so not everyonein the studio could hear the packages. The recording levels weren’t set properly.

The content of the packages from the other teams was high, but let down by our lacklustre contributions. We had to borrow packages form other people, so clearly the whole notion of having a theme for the programme went out of the window.

The presenters simply read from the script, there was no energy and no relationship between them. When interviewing the guest, they didn’t bother to listen to the answers, but simply moved on to the next question.

There was confusion in the control room, with one person having to do most of the work and a lack of support from the co-producer.

It was shambolic, unprofessional and lacking in any worth as a programme.

The Process

In reality, there wasn’t one. A number of students didn’t have experience in holding meetings, or an understanding of how to work as a team.

Everything was left until the day before the production of the hour long programme.

It emerged that not everyone would have their packages finished. It was agreed that the two presenters would work on the script and that I as producer and the other team member would make the jingle. The script writers would mark all the timings onteh script and I would prepare everything on pro tools.

One of the scrip writing team left. I was left to make the jingle myself, with help from one of my colleagues on the other team.

The script wasn’t finished, I was left alone and set up the studio and propared the packages, music and jingles on pro tools.

On the day of the production, there was no script until 10 minutes to go – so the presenters hadn’t time to go over it.

Improvements

There was an assumption that people knew how to work as a team which was not born out in reality. There needs to be more effort put in to ensure people know what team working entails, how to organise meetings, how to deal with conflict and how to negotiate. Learning to work as a team has to happen much earlier in the course.

I think listening to other programmes and analysing them in class would help people clarify for themselves what is expected of them.

I found the students too ready to blame other people for failings and be unable to take responsibility for their contributions to the process. Again, this could be addressed through direct work on team building.

I felt I did spend a lot of time trying to support team members and giving help and advice where necessary. This highlighted another shortfall, which was their lack of research skills and lack of confidence in approaching people for interviews.

I think sessions in the library with staff on how to conduct research and sort information would be useful, as well as practice in contacting and interviewing people. There needs to be more attention given to scriptwriting as an art.

A much greater emphasis has to be given to planning and organizing  our individual packages. We’re very much left to our own devices. Being able to speak to a tutor on a weekly basis and use this as a sounding board for any problems and difficulties would help.

There was no proper critical analysis of the trial run of the one hour programme. It would have been helpful to sit down, notes taken, and a discussion had about what needed to be improved and how to make those improvements.

Individual package

Here is the pitch

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad-wHhkRcwdIZGNiNjdrd180N2c5ZzkzdmY1&hl=en

The idea of the package was good, and the initial thoughts of who to interview were sound. However, trying to get time with people proved difficult. I was left relying too much on phone interviews.

Equally, I think I should have tightened up the questions and been more focused. The interview with Bridget Christie was very long, but I didn’t get her to focus enough on what I wanted, as I ended up just enjoying chatting to her!

In future, I need to stick to the questions and ensure I try my best to get them answered. Obviously there will be occasions where an interviewee doesn’t give you what’s required, but at least  I need to be sure that I tried.

I started to run out of steam as I came across difficulties in getting interviews, so allowed too much time to lapse which means there is a lack of energy in the piece. Doing things to a strict timetable will help in the future, don’t let things drag out or the impetus is lost.

Again, I still don’t take enough time to check equipment. Being overly concerned with the fact that people are giving up their time, I can bash on interviewing without taking the necessary and perfectly legitimate time to check the equipment, or ask people to move to a quieter area.

Planning, planning, planning. I should have made more effort to get atmosphere from inside a club, by building a relationship with the venue in good time. That was a missed opportunity. And thinking about the structure of the piece. Sometimes I can really hear how it would sound immediately I have an idea, I need to write that down and work to a structure.

I am quite pleased with my ability to edit speech, I think I do manage to capture the cadences of whoever I am interviewing. It does sound natural, with enough human ‘ums’ and ‘ers’ in it so it doesn’t sound like a robot speaking – but not too many to infuriate the listener.

The day before

We were down to a team of four. Two of us had packages that would be useable for the programme, two hadn’t. I suggested that we borrow others from the other team and concentrate on doing the work for the programme the next day.

The two presenters were to write the script and go over it, to make it sound natural, and to put in the timings and suggest music.

I and the other team member would make the jingle. And I would upload everything to pro tools.

None of this happened as planned. By the end of the day there was no script and I made the jingle myself with help from someone from the other team.

I set up the studio and the desk and all te software myself. I made sure everything was working for the next day. i chose the music and uploaded it and the packages and jingles.

The programme

I arrived with the guest slightly late, but I wasn’t unduly concerned as I had set the studio up the night before, had worked on the script at home in the evening and sent it to the other team members to print.

The studio had been reset and there were no scripts. I had to set it up again and others went to get copies of the script. I was very cross and stressed and really not in the best frame of mind to go and produce a show.

This obviously meant that no-one had gone over the script. I had to concentrate on the timings.

The show started and finished on time and that’s all that can be said for it. The presenting was awful – there was no energy and cearly they were just reading from the script. They asked the guest questions but didn’t bother listening to the answers.

It was very disappointing. People hadn’t bothered to put the work in, I felt very let down that there was no sense of team work and people felt happy to leave it to me to organise the whole show. Not a good way to treat someone.

I got a response from 3 women: Charmian Hughes, Rosie Wilby and Gemma Hutton. I arranged to do telephone interviews with them.

The Stand

I managed to contact The Stand and met Susan Calman during the interval of the show. There was background nouse as we were backstage and on listening back to the interview there is some popping as I held the mic a bit close to avoid the background noise.

She was helpful and the interview went well.

I also managed to speak to Tommy Shepherd who is the manager at The Stand and arranged to do an interview with him the next day.

Interview with Tommy Shepherd

This was interesting as Tommy has long experience in the comedy field and has seen many changes in the number of female performers working on the circuit.

As soon as I had finished the interview I had a sinking feeling that I hadn’t checked the levels. On downloading and checking it was obvious that I hadn’t and the interview was terribly quiet. However, I managed to solve it by increasing the volume on pro tools and thankfully the material was useable.

I need to take a breath before interviewing and take time to check everything. I am so aware that people are giving up their time that I tend to rush so I don’t keep them.

Phone Interviews

The phone interviews went well, once I had got the equipment working. There was a problem as we were broadcasting on the internet at the same time and I couldn’t seem to record the interviews. I sorted that by stopping the broadcast for the duration of the interviews.

Editing

I have quite a lot of audio now and going through it all I am trying to figure out the narrative. I feel editing is similar to how some sculptors describe their work – it’s not chipping away at marble to create something, it’s trying to find a shape within the material. I work in a similar way. I like to listen to what I have and see if there’s a shape to it.

Given the piece has to be 6 – 8 minutes long I will have to lose a lot of stuff. I think there is either a 15 minute piece, or a 7 minute piece. For the 7 minutes, I decided to concentrate on the issue of women working on the circuit and if there was such a thing as women’s comedy. I was originally considering putting in more historical information, but this would have meant a longer programme.

I decided not to use the interview with Bridget Christie as a lot of the information there was not strictly relevant to the theses I was putting forward, and for a lot of the interview there was too much back ground noise.

Fortunately I did have enough audio to make that decision. Obviously in most cases it is better to ensure your interviews are focused on the topic concerned, as getting lots of interviews may not be possible. But, as stated above, sometimes I do like have the opportunity to hear what arises out of what I have got.

Overall, the package is not what I wanted from the outset as there isn’t any good atmosphere as I coudn’t record any and as I was relying on phone interviews. It works as a piece of audio, but not as good as it should have been. Difficult to get recordings of atmosphere in a club as obviously folk aren’t too keen on their material being recorded.

The edit ended up being a bit of a rush job as I couldn’t get the music I wanted but it is ready for the hour long programme. I will make changes after the hour long assessment is over.

Badger Group Meetings

None have been taking place. People haven’t been turning up and there is no sense this is a team effort

Time is ticking away. It is difficult to maintain momentum when it’s proving so tricky to get interviews. I will just be working up to the deadline.

Feedback from Mock Hour Long programme

The practice programme on Monday 26th April went okay. However, there are still issues regarding each group member pulling their weight. I wrote the script. Lily and I timed the packages and checked the intros an outros and did timings on the songs etc. We also did some work before Monday on setting up the studio so we would know what we were doing.

We did a full run through of the show before the one Conor was overseeing, which was okay. I’m still not convinced that all the team know how to set up the studio – I think there’s an over-reliance on a couple of us knowing what to do. The feedback from Conor mainly focused on the fact that those producing the show had not sorted out the levels properly Again, people need to take some responsibility for finding out what their job entails!

Production Plan

The completion date for the hour long programme is the 24th May.

Research Done and Interviews arranged by – 7th May

Interviews Completed – 17th May

Interviews edited – 20th – 24th May

Other audio gathered (sfx, music) – 20th May

Script written – 17th May

All production work completed for show – 22nd May

The package

Having prepared the pitch for a package on homeopathy, I am now having second thoughts. Thinking about how it would sound, I think it’s too dry. It would be fine for a package on Radio 4 or Radio Scotland i.e. a speech based radio station. The only audio is talking experts. We haven’t pinned down what our target audience is, but I don’t think what I was planning will fit with the style the other team members want to achieve. We need to discuss this more fully.

I would rather produce something with the opportunity of using more interesting audio. I am considering something along the lines of trends in comedy. I could then try gaining permission from The Stand to do some live audio recording there, which would add texture to a package rather than having it all interview based. It would mean I could use some of the material I recorded from Mark Thomas, and interview the stand ups at the Stand. I could add vox pops, sound effects, music and make a more colourful and textured package.

8/03/10

I presented the package on homeopathy as I am still mulling over the comedy idea. I am now thinking to do something on women in comedy – looking at trends in women’s stand up over the last couple of decades. I’m thinking about the time when French and Saunders were the only two women comedians anyone could name, then came Jo Brand and Linda Smith…Up to today when there are women’s comedy nights at The Stand and a women’s comedy club night in London. There was a flurry of stories in the press about the invisibility of women comedians on TV:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5712453/Interview-Dara-OBriain.html

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/48658,people,news,victoria-wood-attacks-testosterone-fuelled-male-bbc-comedy-have-i-got-news-for-you-never-mind-the-buzzcocks-hislop-merton

It gives me the opportunity of getting good audio e.g. atmos from comedy clubs, women performing live and to add quirky sound effects and music. It will require a lot of work and time is pressing, but I think it’s achievable. There are certainly enough women I can contact to see if they are available for interview, so there shouldn’t be a problem regarding availability as there are enough to choose from.

There was also an article in from The Independent celebrating 30 years of The Comedy store – which is where alternative comedy started and where women like Jo Brand, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders performed. There has also been a rise in the number of comedy nights with women only bills – like Wicked Wenches at The Stand in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the Funny Women awards.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/standup-and-be-counted-thirty-years-of-the-comedy-store-1686575.html

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/43007-funny-women-or-funny-business

Action Plan

1. Decide on the question that the package will explore e.g. is there a difference between men and women’s comedy? Do women still face barriers in developing their career as stand-ups? If so, what are they and why do they exist? Is it useful to talk about women’s comedy? Are there differences between women in comedy in the 80s and now?
2. Identify and arrange interviews with women comedians
3. 
   

Badger Group Meeting

Present: Lily, Josh, Aldel and Julie

We discussed the format of our programme, the target audence and he station it would be appropriate for. We agreed it would be for a n audience aged 20+ on Radio Scotland. We felt as it wasn’t a music based programme it wouldn’t be suitable for commercial radio.

We had a brief discussion on roles and responsiblities. At the moment, Josh and Lily will present. However, I feel we have to have a much bigger discussion about all the tasks involved, including researching and booking the guest, script writing, everything involved in the production (timing, choosing music, running order, etc etc). I’m not sure everyone is entirely aware of the amount of work that needs to happen long before we get into the studio!

We also discussed the guest and agreed to invite someone from the Edinburgh International Film Festival as this opens in June. It would fit with the magazine programme as we can discuss trends in the world of filmmaking. Lily will contact the Festival, with a bit of help from me just to check what we’re saying in the initial email. Someone does have to be in charge of organising this!

We also have to ensure people turn up for these meetings and are on top of the work, and that everyone does their fair share. It is not enough just to do your own individual package. Note to self: try to find time this week to break down all the tasks that need to be done for discussion at next weeks meeting.

15/03/10

Interview with Bridget Christie

I emailed Bridget last week as I noticed she was doing a gig in Glasgow as part of the comedy festival. Her gig, My Daily Mail Hell, is the one I saw and enjoyed at the Fringe last year. She sent a very nice email back and we arranged to meet on Monday morning in Glasgow.

Preparation

I got a ticket for her show on Sunday. Even though I have seen her before, I think it’s good to get a sense of someone’s work. I read her biography online, interviews that I found and watched her older shows on You Tube. She is an up and coming comedian who has been working in the business full time for about the last 4 years.

I prepared questions. The first one: “who makes you laugh?’ I thought was quite a good opener, instead of the usual ‘who were your influences?’. It’s very open and can hopefully lead onto other questions – although I had prepared more.

The interview

I conducted the interview in the reception area of the hotel she was staying in in Glasgow. There were some extraneous noises – coffee machine, people chatting, but nothing too distracting (I hope!!). Bridget was charming and chatty, answered my questions, and we ended up chatting for an hour.

Then her husband turned up with their son. Her husband is the comedian Stewart Lee – I’m a huge fan so that was a bonus. Bridget was very nice and complemented me on my interview. She said she was used to being interviewed by people who had done no research, who didn’t know her work, or anything about stand- up and how nice it was being interviewed by someone who knew their stuff.

That was very nice – and reinforces the teaching at college. Research is vital before going anywhere near a mic. And your interveiwees do notice and will respond a lot better when they know you’ve done your homework.

22/03/10

Badger Group Meeting

In attendance: Josh, MC, Aldel, Lily, Julie

Achieved:

Everyone seems clear on what their individual packages are, and now everyone in the group is up to speed on what each other is doing. We have packages on:

1. Crime – the use of reasonable force when defending one’s property. What is reasonable force? What should victims of crime be able to do when confronted with an intruder?
2. Urban Scotland – is there an urban scene in Scotland? What is it’s history, how has it grown, where is it going.
3. Community Choirs – has there been a rise in the number of community choirs? What are they? Who joins? What do they get out of it? What kinds of communities are involved?
4. Women in COmedy – what is the stand up scene like for women today compared with 10 years ago? What kind of comedy is being done? Are there more women? Does being a woman present particular problems?
5. Foreign ownership in football – does it matter who owns a football club? What effect does foreign ownership have?

Planning:

We started listing all the pre production tasks that need to be done.:

1. Name the programme
2. Decide on presenters/interviewer – Josh and Lily
3. Script – based on our overarching theme of ‘cultural trends’
4. Music
5. Jingles and adverts
6. Running order
7. Guest – someone from the Edinburgh Film Festival
8. Tech ops – make sure everyone knows how to set up the studio
9. Health and safety

We agreed to make a jingle for the show next month.

We agreed to have our individual packages completed for 2 weeks before the show so that we have time to tackle any problems there might be.

Action Plan – Issues arising

1. Having real problems getting interviews. Tried to track Susan Calman down through her PR lot – no joy. Am trying to get Carrie Quinlan – still not heard from her agents. I thought these two would be good as they are relatively young, and they both appear on the News Quiz! Carrie is also writing her own radio sticom and Susan is a regular on the comedy circuit in Scotland.
2. I have tried and failed to get an interview with Susan Morrison – we have tentatively arranged a couple of dates, but they ended up being cancelled. She’s really busy – but I would love to interview her because she has been a mainstay at The Stand for a good number of years now and will have seen changes in comedy in that time.
3. Given the problems contacting people, I need to throw my net wider.

The Stand Comedy Club

The Stand plays a crucial role in the development of the stand up scene in Scotland.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2008/aug/19/stand.comedy.club

Established in 1995, it stands in contrast to many other comedy clubs – there are no stag and hen parties allowed, attention is given to the comedians, the atmosphere is lively and intelligent and not that of a bear pit.

It was started by Tommy Shepherd and Jane McKay. Jane was a comedian herself and compered many nights, and Susan Morrison too did many stand up nights and compering.

Action Plan

1. identify and sign up to relevant industry forums such as Chortle to contact women stand-ups
2. Contact the Stand to arrange interview with Tommy Shepherd.

Minutes

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Pre-production Meeting 1 – Monday 8^th Feb

Present: Lily, Julie, Aldel

The group: Lily, Julie, Marie-Claire, Aldel, Duncan, Josh, Ross

1. The different roles and responsibilities involved in creating the programme need to be established and assigned to group members.

1. Each member’s package has to be decided upon to ensure it fits with the theme.

1. Planning meetings need to be arranged on a regular basis and proper minutes of each meeting have to be taken.

1. Date of production Monday 24^th May 2010

Discussion: there were two main ideas that emerged:

Þ      An arts based programme.

·      The discussion covered performance arts – could we make a prgramme looking at musical theatre; bands; straight theatre; street theatre; dance?

·      Discussion around this theme led us to wonder whether this would lead to a programme that would sound too ‘samey’ i.e. asking various performers about their work, how they prepare, what it feels like in front of a live audience etc sould lead to very similar answers and a range of packages which merged into one.

·      Perhaps we could look at broadening its scope and looking at arts in a broader way and producing a show more like Radio 4’s Front Row or BBC 2’s Culture Show.

Þ      An issue based programme

·      Issue based programme would require people to produce more current affairs type packages on issues that are on the news agenda.

Issues arising

It’s important that everyone feels ownership not just of the final programme, but of the process. Without all members of the group being part of the first discussion, this wasn’t possible.

People need a bit of time to consider for themselves what package they would like to do. It would be helpful if they had more than one idea, so we can try to make sure they have a link with all the others.

People need to make packages on subjects they are passionate about or have a genuine interest in. Coming up with a theme that encompasses a variety of packages and approaches may be tricky.

Action:

1. A meeting of the whole group to be arranged.
2. Everyone to come prepared to discuss at least two ideas they have for their individual packages
3. Everyone to discuss ideas they have for a theme for the programme.

Pre-production Meeting 2 – Monday 22^th Feb

Attendance:

Josh, Lily, Aldel, MC, Julie

The discussion centred on trying to find the theme for the programme that would encompass what people wanted to do for their packages.

Ideas:

Arts Scotland – packages produced on stand-up, musicals, theatre, comedy, urban music.

This would be fine if everyone had an idea for creating a package around the arts.

Trivial Pursuit – taking the different topics in the game of Trivial Pursuit and making packages around each of them.

This has the advantage of including diverse topics, but does it become too disparate to create one programme?

After discussion with Conor, we decided to investigate trends in different activities in Scotland.

Trends in 2010 in Scotland

A programme that takes a peek into the future…..

MC – Dance. Is the influence of dance programmes on tv for good or ill?

Aldel- is urban dance music making inroads in Scotland

Josh – the rise of foreign owned football clubs – what influence does this have?

Julie – homeopathy – trick or treatment? Does the rise in the use of homeopathic treatments means there is reason to believe they work?

Lily – trends in choirs

Action:

The pitches for each package will be made on Monday 29^th February

We had another production meeting today, we chose the style of our broadcast as we have chosen that our program will be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland. I began to look for potential interviewees on the topic of choirs. I have had a look at potential celebrities who are experts in choirs. I have emailed Gareth Malone as he did a TV show called The Choir. He is a professional choral singer. Within the hour I got a reply from his manager saying due to other interviews he would not e able to give an interview before my deadline.

I have been trying to find someone else I could interview and I remembered there was another TV program called Last Choir Standing so I have emailed one of the judges asking if they will give an interview. I think this professional choral singer will work well in the 6-8 minute package and keep the listener intrigued.

Pre-production Meeting 3 – Monday 23^rd March

Attendance:

Lily, Aldel, Julie

The discussion was centred on trying to find out what role everyone is going to do in the hour long final production.

Action:

Josh and I will present

Julie will be producer

Aldel will do timing

Duncan and MC will help Julie and Aldel

We also decided as Josh had not been turning up regularly that Julie and I would present the practice hour long show.

Monday 8th Feb

Badger Group

We were assigned to groups which will produce the one hour programme in May. Team Badger consists of:

Lily, Josh, Marie-Claire, Aldel, Ross and me.

Conor explained how the assessment will be marked and the importance of planning, and of documenting the planning meetings.

We now have to think of a theme for the programme and then produce individual packages to fit with the theme.

Initial thoughts

Finding a theme we can unite under may be difficult. Unfortunately neither Marie=Claire nor Josh were in, so Lily, Aldel and I had a tentative stab at coming up with a theme.

We knocked around a couple of ideas: one focusing on producing an arts programme a la Front Row on Radio 4; the other an issue based programme. I don’t think we can decide at this moment as we haven’t yet had a meeting with everyone there. I think it’s important that people have ideas for the individual packages they want to create – ideas that they find exciting – rather than folk feel they have to do something that fits in with a designated theme. The theme has to be broad to encompass what people have a passion for or serious interest in. Obviously we do need to pin something down so we are all clear about what we’re doing and why – but after a good discussion where everyone can contribute ideas and develop a real sense of ownership of the process from the outset. Which means I need to step back and not immediately try to organise people but recognise people need thinking time and space to figure things out. But equally, we need to set times to meet and ensure good attendance.

6-8 minute package

My own thoughts about my package are centering around a package on homeopathy as I have interviewed Simon Singh, one of the co-authors of Trick or Treatment? which examines the evidence for a range of alternative therapies including homeopathy.  I would be looking at it from the point of view of public funding for homeopathy, asking the question: should public money be spent on medicine and therapies when there is no evidence that they work better than a placebo?

However, I’m not sure how this would fit in with other people’s ideas. It could fit in to an issue based programme, obviously, or health, or science….

Minutes from meeting Monday 8th Feb

Interview with Simon Singh

He was speaking at a meeting of Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub – the pub being The Admiral on Waterloo St.

• Problems
• Venue.
  • Downstairs in a pub. There was a film crew setting up which caused a lot of noise.
  • Nerves! – I was nervous about interviewing him – clearly a very intelligent and articulate man, with lots of experience working in the media, including producing TV progs. So clearly you don’t want to come over as a happy amateur.
• How to overcome problems
  • Noisy venue – I checked and rechecked my recording levels and ensured the zoom mic was placed close to Simon.
  • Nerves – I had done my research – read his latest book and articles in the press, and read around the whole issue of alternative therapies.  I had put myself in the place of an audience and written down questions I would want answered if I was that audience – it’s important to do the research, it’s important to remember your audience haven’t and you’re getting information on their behalf.

Result

Simon Singh was very professional and friendly. The levels were good – yes, there is banging and crashing in the background, but his voice is strong and clear.

Tuesday 16th February

Badger group meeting

Everyone turned up (not all at the same time). We discussed, again, what the overall theme could be. It is important that people don’t feel forced into doing something. We talked around the idea of doing Trivial Pursuit as a theme thereby incorporating a variety of subjects from art to sport. Conor suggested we do something around the notion of trends – trends in science and medicine for mine for example, trends in foreign ownership of football for Josh’s package on the sport. See minutes here for fuller account. (link to be added)

We still need to think about everyone’s role within the production of the programme, and think about and contact a guest. When people have had time to think about their packages and present their pitches we will discuss things like budgets.

Package

The first draft of the pitch for Homeopathy – Who Pays? can be found at the link below.

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0Ad-wHhkRcwdIZGNiNjdrd18zN2Q5ZGo2bmY4&hl=en

Conor showed the class how to log our interviews. This is when you wish you were very experienced and could interview ‘ to the edit’ and didn’t have loads of material to go through! Obviously it’s a necessary process and does help in thinking about the structure of the piece; you can start thinking about which piece will go where, how the different voices will work together, what the narrative arc will be and how to script it.

Interview with Clunie

I have a rescheduled interview with Clunie at the Edinburgh Museum on Friday. The proposed questions I have are:

1. How did you first find out about Chrystal MacMillan?
2. What particular aspects of her life did you find especially interesting?
3. Could you explain what you think she was like as a person?
4. Did you find her inspiring? In what way?
5. What do you think her legacy is?

The Interview

Once again, I interviewed in the exhibition room in the museum. This time I stood with Clunie in front of a photograph of Chrystal and used this as a springboard for the interview by asking Clunie to describe what she saw in the photograph.  I thought this would be a useful way to encourage Clunie to discuss Chrystal’s character. it seemed to work. It is so useful when interviewing any subject to be somewhere that lends context to the whole thing. Much better than doing it over the phone. Both interviewer and interviewee can get inspiration from the surroundings , which can make for a livelier, more ‘real’ feel to the interview for the listener.

Clunie has a great voice, obviously! As an actor she knows how to express herself clearly and use a variety of tones in her voice. the interview will work really well with the one from Helen – there’s the factual info from Helen and more about what she imagines Chrystal’s character was like from Clunie.

I think I learned from the interview with Helen and I was more focused with Clunie.

Gude Cause March 10th October 2009

Armed with an H2 Zoom recorder and headphones, I made my way up to the start of the Gude Cause march at Bruntsfield Links. As I walked up from Tollcross I could hear a jazz band and could make out lots of purple, white and green balloons – the colours of the suffragette movement. There were lots of groups of women gathering together, many of whom had dressed up as suffragettes. The She-Boom drummers were there and banners representing women engineers, architects, education groups etc.

Auld Reekie Roller Girls

I came across a bunch of girl skateboarders – Auld Reekie Roller Girls –  and thought, right, let’s give this interviewing a shot. I hadn’t given myself the easiest of tasks for my first ever recorded interview. Outside, surrounded by hundreds of people, a jazz band and drummers. But I think the only way to do this is to do it. So I chatted to the girls for a few minutes, told them where I was from and what I was doing, and would they mind being interviewed? One of them was happy to do it, so off I went. Pointed the recorder at her, pressed the button, checked the levels, pressed the button to record and off we went….

It wasn’t long or complicated, but I had done it. I wandered around taking in the various sights and sounds and meeting quite a few people I knew. There were quite a few people around recording the event on video, cameras etc.

As I wandered around the links and the various groups started organising themselves to march off, I caught sight of a bunch of women in academic gowns carrying a banner with Chrystal McMillan’s name writ large across it. They were staff and students form the Department of Social and Political Studies at Edinburgh Universtiy. That was very fortuitous.

Interviews with Dr Fiona McKay and Professor Lynn Jamieson

I asked if anyone would like to do an interview. Dr Fiona McKay and Professor Lynn Jamieson were both part of the campaign to have the building named after Chrystal. I interviewed them. There was a very loud jazz band playing in the vicinity. There was nowhere within easy reach that would be quieter, so I figured I had to do it regardless. I thrust the mic quite close to the individual interviewees and hoped for the best.

I was very aware of the noise, and I hadn’t banked on meeting these two here so hadn’t prepared questions. However, I do think that doing my research did mean I could come up with half intelligent questions quite spontaneously. I didn’t spend a great deal of time with them; this was a combination of lack of confidence on my part, and a recognition that the march was starting and they had another place to be.

Practice makes Perfect

As the tutors keep saying: you want to get to the stage when you’re not worrying about the equipment and  you are confident enough in your research so you can concentrate on the people you’re interviewing. And obviously,going out and about with the mic is the only way to do this. I had to learn not to move about to much, that sometimes the outside noise made my headphones almost useless.

But I also discovered that most people are only too happy to talk about a subject they’re passionate about, or care about or know a lot about. People were unfailingly generous with their time (even 5 minutes is 5 minutes they could chat to a friend in stead of me, a stranger).

What I need to do

Use the pause button!

I kept the zoom recorder running for too long, meaning I have very large files to edit. I need to learn to punctuate with questions – so I know where to edit. I tend to let people talk on and on.

Check if I’m using WAV or MP3. WAV files use up a lot of the sound card.

Walking and talking is very difficult in a situation like a march. Too noisy, too much going on. I had vaguely thought that I might be able to record folk as I chatted to them marching, but that wasn’t possible.

Listening back

I was quite pleased once I downloaded and played back what I had recorded. I don’t think there are too many howling errors. i recognise when I was walking about to much and the sound was coming and going, when I would decide to record something, and then change my mind.

Some of it I think is actually not bad for a beginner. The interviews in front of the jazz band will be okay I think. You can certainly hear the women clearly enough, and the music adds some nice actuality!

15th October 2009

Museum of Edinburgh, Canongate

Indoor interview

In order to create some atmosphere I had arranged to meet Helen Kay in the Edinburgh Museum where the suffrage exhibition is.

I found out that Helen Clark is the woman in charge of museums for Edinburgh Council. I emailed and asked her if recording in the Edinburgh Museum would be okay, and checked that there wouldn’t be any school parties etc in at the time I was planning on doing the interview. I emailed her and she was fine  and helpful and said she’d let the folk at the museum know.

Obviously I couldn’t stop visitors to the museum wandering around, but as I was going to be there when the museum first opened, I thought it would reduce the chances of being interrupted by lots of folk.

Interview with Helen Kay.

Helen is  one of the members of the organising committee of the Gude Cause march. It was 2 years ago that the idea of commemorating the 1909 women’s suffrage march through Edinburgh was conceived.

I met Helen in the room where the suffrage exhibition was displayed, which she had been part of organising. it was atmospheric to be surrounded by old photos of suffragettes and suffragists, including Chrystal MacMillan. She had researched the life the times of Chrystal MacMillan

Issues with the venue

The venue for the interview is in a small room in an old tenement house in the High Street. it has wooden floors which make a dreadful din when people walk on them.

It’s a public place. people come in, they wander about. I didn’t want to keep people out of the room while doing the interview. There are also security guards who wander about and chat to each other.

There was a video playing in the room of a film about the campaign for women’s rights.

Solve the problem

The museum kindly agreed to switch the video off while I interviewed. I was able to close the door of the exhibition room slightly to dull the noise, and the security guards were very nice and didn’t wander around in the room next door!

It is possible to hear traffic from the high street, but there was nothing to be done about that.

Checking levels

Given the the nature of the floor, I decided that Helen and I should both be sitting in the room so we wouldn’t inadvertently start shuffling our feet. I decided to record using the 90 degree angle on the zoom recorder.

Questions for Helen Kay

1. How did you first become aware of Chrystal MacMillan?
2. Can you give me some basic biographical details about her, including her date of birth and where she was born?
3. What was her family life like?
4. What was her education like?
5. What was the impetus for taking up the cause for women’s suffrage?
6. Why do you think she was a suffragist not a suffragette?
7. Can you describe her role in taking the case for women’s suffrage to the House of Lords in 1908?
8. Can you describe her role in establishing the peace movement in WW1.
9. What do you think her legacy is?

The Interview

Helen is a mine of information. I was aware that I was also going to use the interview for the Gude Cause website so I would need more information than just that for the package.

However, I think I tended to let Helen talk too much. I was really aware of NOT interrupting her, letting her speak, nodding and smiling instead of speaking and I think this meant the interview became slightly rambling. But I did want to make sure I had everything. I think I need to concentrate on steering people through an interview and having a bit more authority.

NOTE

I am glad that I had the foresight to have spare batteries with me as they ran out. It is also annoying that there is always stuff left on the zoom recorders from other people. In future, I will just delete everything before I start – otherwise the sound card gets full. It would have helped if I had had a more structured lesson on using the recorder, as it is I feel I had to find out too much by trial and error and from looking on the internet.

The recording.

Hmm. It’s a bit quiet. helen has a quiet voice, but my levels weren’t right. It is difficult to know what to do. i don’t think my headphones are the best, they don’t cut out enough external sound. And I’m wary about ramping up the levels in case things distort. but clearly, next time, I need to get a louder recording.

Content wise, though, there is loads of stuff. I know I’m going overboard and recording too much, but at this stage, rather too much than too little and I do have to create 2 packages out of the material. But I can recognise the bits that will be useful and fit into the 4 minute package. Helen talked about Chrystal speaking for 3 days in the house of lords, how the Scottish press reported her as ‘the modern Portia’ – all good stuff. She gave me loads of information about Chrystal’s role in opposing WW1 which is great – but not for the college package. Putting this in would unbalance the piece, and would make it too long.

Friday 23rd October

Interview with actor, Clunie Mackenzie

Due to an emergency arising in Clunie’s family, this interview had to be postponed.

Ideas

I have been making brief notes for a while now about ideas for radio programmes. This has been everything from a notion of doing something about how we use metaphors to describe the brain, and how they reflect the technological/scientific view of the day. For example, people often describe a brain like a computer – but you couldn’t have used that metaphor in the 19th century. Was the brain ever likened to clockwork?

Anyway, that was one idea, which I may well do someday. I think it could be quirky and interesting if you got the right interviews.

I am also determined to try to produce something really worthwhile on the Poll Tax as it’s 20 years since it was introduced and there is an exhibition on this month as part of the Radical Book Fair. It would be great to get back in touch with everyone involved in the non-payment campaign and make a programme recording their memories, and how being involved affected them.

How I made the decision on what to work on

The decision to work on the Chrystal MacMillan piece was simply a lucky piece of timing. I had passed the Department of Political and Social Science at the University in the summer while going for coffee with my sister. I noticed the building was named the Chrystal MacMillan building and I turned to my sister and asked ‘who’s Chrystal MacMillan?” neither of us had ever heard the name.

Now, the reason I noticed the name of the building is that there are fewbuildings named after women in Edinburgh, and there are no statues to women either. Honestly. There are none. Not even one of Queen Victoria. There’s one of Prince Albert, but not even her.

So when there’s a  woman’s name emblazoned on a building, I notice it. I also like to think I know a bit about women’s history, which is difficult to uncover and not generally taught anywhere. But nowhere had I come across Chrystal MacMillan.

Initial research

On googling information on her, I discovered that it she was the first woman science graduate of Edinburgh University in 1896, that she had campaigned as a suffragist for votes for women and was a very active peace campaigner from WW1 onwards.

And as a piece of extreme fortune, I discovered  there was to be a march in Edinburgh on October 10th to commemorate a march for women’s suffrage held in the city 100 years ago. This was being organised by a committee based at the Peace and Justice Centre in the West End. They used the title ‘Gude Cause’. See weblink below.

http://www.gudecause.org.uk/

Exhibition on Women’s Suffrage

From that website, I discovered there was an exhibition on at the Edinburgh Museum in the High Street. This consists of one room in the museum with display boards on the wall and various items in a couple of display cases. It briefly but clearly documents the main struggles involved in achieving votes for women in Scotland.

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Leisure/Museums_and_galleries/Services/Museum%20of%20Edinburgh/CEC_a_man_s_a_man_for_a__that_1_2_1

Why radio? What station? Why this subject?

I think discovering there was to be a commemorative march helped me imagine the topic as a radio piece. There was a clear link from the past to the present: this wasn’t just an old dusty subject. it would also be possible to get some good sounds from the march – singers and drummers, people speaking..hopefully lots of interesting stuff to use as actuality. This was a way of making it come alive aurally.

I think this would ideally fit Radio Scotland or Radio 4 – specifically Women’s Hour. It would be informative, newsy, not too formal – but would clearly get information across. It is relevant as the Gude Cause march celebrating 100 years since the women’s suffrage march in Edinburgh in 1909 is taking place in October this year. Also, this year, the fact that a new University of Edinburgh building was named after her further adds to the possible interest in her today. Chrystal MacMillan is an important character in the struggle for the rights of women and the peace movement – but is not generally known (like the Pankhursts).

Who’s involved?

I contacted the organisers to find out if they had any information on her.

Again, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Helen Kay who is the co-ordinator of the march is a huge fan of Chrystal, has spent a long time researching her life and work and indeed gives lectures on her. She very kindly agreed to do an interview with me. She also put me in touch with Jo Clifford who had co-written a play about Chrystal and another campaigner.

I went along to see the play at the Storytelling Centre. It wasn’t a traditional play performed in a proscenium arch theatre, or even in a studio theatre. The audience sat in a circle, with the 3 actors sitting in as well. One, Clunie Mackenzie, played Chrystal MacMillan. She recounted the life and work of Chrystal MacMillan.

Afterwords, I met Jo, who introduced me to Clunie. She hadn’t heard of Chrystal before undertaking writing the play, and she agreed to do an interview with me to discuss what it was about Chrystal that had attracted her as a subject to write about.

So, I’ve got 2 interviews to arrange for this week. I hope to conduct the one with Helen at the women’s suffrage exhibition at the Edinburgh Museum. There is information on Chrystal’s life as well as many other women and I think it will add colour to the piece to talk about the images of Chrystal that are on the wall etc.

it’s good to find people so genuinely enthusiastic about the subject and so ready to talk. Helen told me she could talk about Chrystal all day – so I hoping for some very rich material from her. I think the interview with Cluny may be interesting – coming at it from a writer’s/actor’s point of view…We shall see.

Interviews

It is good that I have a couple of people with different takes on Chrystal. Helen has researched her life and work in great depth – and represents continuity as she is a founder member of the newly resurrected Edinburgh branch of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, initially established by Chrystal in 1915.

And Clunie as an actor brings some of the character of Chrystal to life.

I then received an email from Jillian, another organiser of the march, who will be filming it and told me, well, here’s the email:

Hello Julie. Glad you got in touch.
After the Procession, there will be a process of gathering up all the
material from photos, video & film taken on the day, which together
with hisstorical images & oother material will be edited to produce
what we’re calling the Gude Cause NMR. This will be a mixed media
interasctive computer website presenting  the Procession route, with
clickable points where historical & other material can be accessed.
We would be delighted if you would consider contributing a copy of
your recordings to this innovative record.
We have several well known, professional film makers in the NMR team,
and Tom Flint the Head of Interactive Media at Napier Uni & some of
his students.  So, it might look good on your CV too!!

I had decided that I would try to document the march in sound on the day. But it would be my first ever attempt at recording anything outside the studio at college – so I had no idea what the quality would be like. But I replied and said yes, sure. Anything that I did that was useable, I’d be glad to share.  I was hoping that I could get some sound and colour and on the spot interviews for the package. I was also really nervous about doing it.

I will save my experiences of recording the day for another entry..It deserves it’s own log.

“Cool Britannia – Britannia you are cool. Take a trip. Britons ever ever shall be hip. Hit me, hit me!”

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Cool Britannia

When Damon Albarn, Liam Gallagher et al entered Downing Street to attend the now infamous reception hosted by Tony Blair, the then very new Prime Minister, there appeared to be a resurgence of British confidence in itself, exemplified by what would become branded as Britpop. The drooping fag end of the previous Conservative administration had been well and truly stubbed out. Now we were all more interested in the Blur/Oasis battle for the No. 1 slot on Top of the Pops than any election.  It heralded a new, young, vibrant era. The political elite embraced the purveyors of mass culture. 

It is indicative of what was in the mind of Labour Party movers and shakers that a Creative Industries Task Force was appointed within a month of the election win in May 1997. As well as various government departments, those invited to sit on it from the ‘creative industries’ were:

• Lord Alli—Planet 24
• Richard Branson/Robert Devereux—Virgin Group Plc
• Janice Hughes—Spectrum Strategy Consultants
• Alan McGee—Creation Records
• Gail Rebuck—Random House UK Ltd.
• Eric Salama—WPP Group Plc
• Paul Smith—Paul Smith Ltd.
• Charles Allen¹—Granada Group
• Prof. Stephen Heppell¹—Ultralab
• Lord Puttnam (until July 1998)
• ¹Appointed January 1999.

(http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1999/mar/03/creative-industries-task-force)

According to  journalist and author, John Harris, 

“The buzz-phrases among excitable Blairites were “cool Britannia” and “the rebranding of Britain”: in April 1998, for example, the BBC reported that the then-foreign secretary Robin Cook had announced the formation of Panel 2000, a group of people “chosen to help give Britain a ‘cool’ image abroad”. They included Peter Mandelson, Zeinab Badawi, Stella McCartney, and a former member of the cast of Gladiators.”

(http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-britpop-years-590079.html)

The government appears to have morphed into an advertising agency whose purpose is to sell an idea of Britain both to its own citizens and to the world. All very post-modern.

But as is obvious from the make-up of the task force and panel, any definition of creativity must include profit making. Richard Branson, Paul Smith – anyone in that list is lauded because they are rich. How they happen to make their money is really neither here nor there: sell enough toilet rolls and become a multi-millionaire and your award for services to industry along with an invitation to dinner at Chequers will be in the post. What is important in the phrase ‘creative industry’ is the word ‘industry’.  

The creative industries has become a buzz phrase in government departments of culture throughout the West. Often used interchangeably with cultural industries, UNESCO has sought to define its meaning thus:

“Cultural Industries are defined as those industries which produce tangible or intangible artistic and creative outputs, and which have a potential for wealth creation and income generation through the exploitation of cultural assets and production of knowledge-based goods and services (both traditional and contemporary). 

What cultural industries have in common is that they all use creativity, cultural knowledge, and intellectual property to produce products and services with social and cultural meaning.

 

The cultural industries include: advertising; architecture; crafts; designer furniture; fashion clothing; film, video and other audiovisual production; graphic design; educational and leisure software; live and recorded music;performing arts and entertainment; television, radio and internet broadcasting; visual arts and antiques; and writing and publishing.

 

The term “cultural industries” is almost interchangeable with the concept of “creative industries.” Whereas the notion of “cultural industries” emphasizes those industries whose inspiration derives from heritage, traditional knowledge, and the artistic elements of creativity, the notion of “creative industries” places emphasis on the individual and his or her creativity, innovation, skill and talent in the exploitation of intellectual property.”

 

(http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/template2/culture/Cultural_Industries/HK_Open_Forum/Backgrounder-FINAL.pdf)

 

 

Here we have an attempt to differentiate between culture and creativity, however weak, but still, at the heart of it is profit.  The raison d’etre of creativity is ‘wealth creation’ and its worth will be judged on that basis. Nowhere is it even hinted that artistic endeavour may involve a critique or a challenge to society, that it may cause people to stop and think, or to be transported, or to find themselves moved. Where does Picasso’s Guernica sit in this framework? A cubist painting encapsulating the horror, the terror and mind-numbing grief of the Spanish Civil War. Is this of value because of its worth in dollars, euros or pounds? Surely this is the definition of philistinism.  

Or perhaps we need look no further than the formation of “Team Scotland” to understand what role the arts and culture has in this country. TBChttp://www.variant.randomstate.org/34texts/letters34.html