Author: jamesstodd

Expect the Unexpected

| jamesstodd

Turn on a TV drama like Doctor Who and turn off the sound. Does it change the viewing experience?

This afternoon I went to free talk at the Royal College of Music hosted by Matthew Sweet – focusing on the work of Doctor Who’s sound effects editor Paul Jeffries and dubbing mixer Tim Ricketts. And these aren’t people who merely add some sound effects and random music to the pictures. They provide an integral part of defining the pace of the narrative, the mood of a scene, and the intensity of the drama.

Being someone who works entirely in radio, the sound element of TV shows has always fascinated me. But working in radio promotions, it amazes me how often the sound mix is a mere afterthought. For dramas like Doctor Who, this is clearly not the case.

They revealed some pretty amazing facts. Like how the sound of Davros’s claws was 5 coins taped on someone’s hand whilst tapping a Le Crueset lid. Or how one alien sound was merely the sound of a squirrel barking. And if you counted the number of separate cyberman sounds in the most recent episode – it was in excess of 25,000 sound cues! (slightly dubious if this is exact number – failed to write it down – but was a lot – honest!).

Tonight, a few thousand people will enjoy some of the experience of the music that adds so much to a programme like this – live in the Albert Hall – as the National Orchestra of Wales play selections of Murray Gold’s musical scores.

But next time you watch, close your eyes and listen to the sounds that enhance the drama. You’ll be amazed what you hear!

Don’t have a Cash Cow (man)

| jamesstodd

So a creative challenge has been thrown down by my friend Steve Martin via this month’s  Earshot Creative Review.

Aside from anything else, it’s a great listen. I don’t think I’ll be able to find an opportunity to get a cow noise in my curent campaign for the BBC Proms. But did manage to get loads of cows in a promotion on Red Dragon FM back in 2000. The station’s sonic logo even featured a cow for the duration! This was a time when we were allowed to do crazy promotions, free form scripts and have fun.

Here it is:

Moyles World Cup Commentary

| jamesstodd

I’ve just watched the first half of the World Cup match between Spain and Germany and was listening to the alternative commentary by Chris Moyles for the Spain v Germany match.

This was a really clever idea (though shame it wasn’t on Freeview). Clever use of radio talent to provide something extra. This was squarely aimed at Radio 1 Chris Moyles fans. And it wasn’t really commentary. It was Chris doing what he normally does – with most of his audio props. It’s not something you’d necessarily watch if you were a real footy fan – but for someone with passive interest, this was great.

I noticed the BBC did something similar for F1 coverage last year – with a CBBC aimed alternative commentary. It was another way of extending the output to new audiences.

Of course, not everyone is a Moyles fan. But this was a really clever (and entertaining idea). Hopefully it won’t be a one off.

Summertime Ball mixes it up

| jamesstodd
Image (C) Global Radio

Last year, I remember being fairly lukewarm to the coverage online and on air for Capital FM’s Summertime ball.

This year they turned up the heat.

Everything about this year’s show was bigger and better. But in particular, how they interacted with the audience in the build up to the day.

Twitter was alive with #stball tweets all day. In fact – at one stage the event was trending in Twitter’s Top 10.

Capital kept listeners up to date with everything backstage, featured loads of user generated pictures, and threw up loads of videos from the performances the next day.

And most impressively, used new technology such as Radio DNS to keep my iPhone app and Pure Sensia up to date with images from the show – and additional information too.

Having worked on shows like this in a past, I know the enormous effort this sort of thing requires. Looks like Capital pulled out all the stops – and it showed.

And this video  from DJ Earworm was a nice touch too. He’s the guy who did the clever United States of Pop Mashup in 2009.

Sony Award Winner

| jamesstodd

I recently wrote that I’d been nominated for a Sony Radio Award. On Monday night, the awards took place in London, and my work for Puretonic Media and BBC Radio XTrails won a Bronze award. Very happy etc etc… A nice end to a year working at Puretonic Media – and a very nice start to the new job at the BBC.

Here’s the entry audio:

And Justin Kings at Newsleader Media Consultancy has some interesting thoughts about the Sonys here.

Oooh Eeeee Ooooh – Goodbye Alan

| jamesstodd

I read today that Alan Fawkes, one of the co-founders of Alfasound Tapetrix jingle company in the late 1970s, has died.

I guess I can partly credit my interest in radio and then later in radio production to the jingles I used to hear coming out of my cheap AM radio as a 10 year old in Chichester for Radio Victory. (Tracked down via jinglemad.com)

Produced by Alfasound, these were no modern day classics – even with the soft filter of nostalgia. But at the time, these guys were pretty cutting-edge, producing the radio jingles for huge heritage commercial and BBC local stations across the UK. Hell, they even produced the jingles for my hospital radio station. Indeed, at the time, I probably spent way too many hours listening to their jingle demos – and the latter ones from JAM productions – wondering if one day I’d ever get to work on one of those stations. Little did I know that many years later, I’d be comissioning the jingle packages for Capital FM and the Capital FM network from companies such as Groove Addicts or Wise Buddah. I guess these guys helped inspire me in some way…

I once met Alan Fawkes and his colleague Steve England.  I drove up to Manchester with a friend for the day to visit the studios, have an look around, and sit in on a recording session From memory it was a package for BBC Radio Bristol – I remember Alan playing his tambourine. It seemed very British – certainly of a time. But these guys created the sound of much of British radio for over a decade.

And so another  page of UK radio history  turns and another figure sails away.

Sony Radio Awards nominated

| jamesstodd

Finally, one of my projects has been nominated for a Sony Award. For those who don’t know – the Sony Radio Academy Awards have been going for 28 years now – and celebrate the best of UK radio – from stations to presenters to producers and programmes. I’ve been part of a couple of winning entries including Lights Out London for Capital FM a few years back , but this one is purely production.

My work on the campaign for BBC Radio 3’s Composers of The Year Campaign has been shortlisted in the Best Promotional / Advertising Campaign category. And it’s up against some pretty big names too.It’s good to see 95.8 Capital FM get some nominations again this year – even if it means up against my friend Arden Hanley for his “Jingle Bell Ball” campaign. And there seems to be no stopping Jack FM too – produced by Joe Thomas. There are also entries from the BBC World Service and Real Radio too. So it’s a wide and varied field.

The Radio 3 campaign supported a very visual TV campaign which ran on TV last year. The challenge was to get across the key idea of stepping out of the “mundane” into a world where you could lose yourself in music. Here’s one of the TV trails:

These awards can be quite frustrating for a producer though as you don’t often get to hear the other entries you’re shortlisted against. So – in the spirt of sharing, I’m posting the audio from my radio campaign entry here.

Here’s Jack FM’s entry (thanks Joe):

If the other producers read this – please feel free to send me yours too and I’ll post them here too. That way – we can showcase some truly great (and very different campaigns).

[All audio (c) BBC. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review].

Who’s Getting Disruptive?

| jamesstodd

Do you recognise this sound then…?

 

IMAGE (C) BBC

I heard this fantastic bit of “disruptive” audio this morning during the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1. This was produced by BBC Radio X-Trails – a team I’m shortly joining as a producer – and is a great example of doing things a little differently from the normal. It is, in effect, a teaser trail, for the new series of Doctor Who which starts this Saturday night on BBC1. However – the premise for this is effectively that the Doctor has crashed his TARDIS into the radio station – works out where he is – andsays stuff that points towards the new series – without giving a direct call to action.

What makes this effective is the fact that the “break in” to programming is fairly obvious – and that the TARDIS sound occurs fairly early on – making it effectively a “sonic trigger”. Promotion for the new Doctor Who series is all over the media at the moment – from Youtube to the BBC Website – and with the new Doctor appearing on shows such as Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and the likes – this is a clever way to build audio into the mix. My guess is that more traditional trails with a specific call to action will follow.

And have you ever heard a DJ interrupted mid-link before? Takes a bit of preparation beforehand – but sounds quite clever too!

So how could you make this sort of thing  work on your station? Get thinking…

[All audio (c) BBC. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review].