Introduction to Audio Documentaries (In-Person)
Price £225
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Introduction to Audio Documentaries
- WHAT: A 5-week course designed to offer an overview of what it takes to conceive, craft, record and distribute audio non-fiction storytelling, in radio or podcast format.
WHERE: Hybrid: some sessions online, some in person. UCL East, Marshgate Building, 7 Sidings St, London E20 2A.
WHO: Run by filmmaker and radio producer Isis Thompson.
WHEN: Wednesday evenings, 6-8 PM, 29th April – 27th May.
COMMITMENT: 2 hours per week, plus extra flexible working (2-6 hours per week)
WHAT YOU GET: 5 sessions of contact time with a professional radio producer.
HOW MUCH: General: £225 | Student/Consession: £195 | UCL Student: £185
DEADLINE TO SIGN UP: TBC.
BURSARIES: TBC.
AGES: 18+
These 5 sessions are designed to introduce those with little or no experience to introductory methods of conceiving and producing compelling stories for radio and podcast. You will join a community of other emerging audio storytellers, learn how to discover stories and concepts to form the basis of your future work, and gain confidence in your ideas and presenting/producing skills.
The following topics are only indicative:
Session 1: Wednesday 29th April 6-8 PM (In-Person)
- Critical analysis of existing radio & podcast media
- An overview of the radio and podcast landscapes
- Conceiving your idea for your Radio or Podcast
Session 2: Wednesday 6th May 6-8 PM (Online)
- How to develop your ideas & an introduction to scripting
- An overview of necessary equipment & the basics of audio recording
- How to find participants and conduct compelling interviews
Session 3: Wednesday 13th May 6-8 PM (In-Person)
- Scripting & structuring your documentary
- Maintaining good relationships
- Introduction to editing
Session 4: Wednesday 20th May 6-8 PM (Online)
- Editing continued
- Studio?
Session 5: Wednesday 27th May 6-8 PM (In-Person)
- An overview of distribution
- Where to take your ideas
My Name is Isis
Filmmaker Isis Thompson talks to others around the world who share their name with the Jihadist group Islamic State, finding out how its actions have impacted on their lives. In the last 12 months, the name Isis has gone from being a slightly obscure but pretty name associated with ancient Egypt, Bob Dylan and the dog off Downton Abbey to something a great deal darker. For Isis Thompson, it’s been uncomfortable, “Many is the time that I find myself breaking into a little bit of a sweat when I have to introduce myself. It’s like having to say “Hi my name is Nazi Thompson”. And then there is the inevitable reply, ‘That’s unfortunate.'” Hearing the experiences of others of the same name – from the chat up lines of Nottingham nightclubs to Syrian refugee camps – Isis considers how a global news story can impact on an individual because of something as apparently arbitrary as their name.
Presenter / Producer: Isis Thompson Executive Producer: Russell Finch A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4.
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What is UCL’s section of Public Anthropology?
Public Anthropology is a subsection of UCL’s Anthropology department. It hosts the short course programme, Open City Documentary Festival, and several graduate degree programmes.
The two main strands within Public Anthropology are media and creative and collaborative enterprise, which both merge industry expertise with academic research agendas.
Graduate degree programmes based in the Public Anthropology section include:
Public Anthropology houses London’s global non-fiction film festival, Open City Documentary Festival. Open City Documentary Festival produces an annual film festival, the bi-annual journal Non-Fiction and screening projects throughout the year.
Public Anthropology runs short courses in filmmaking, audio, virtual reality, film theory, practical camera training and film editing.
Tutors
BBC Radio 4 documentary MY NAME IS ISIS about people who, like me have been affected by Islamic State because of arbitrary things like their name. I started out working in several casting and talent agencies and also as a film making teacher amongst children and young people. My films are often of a personal and humorous nature, my 2007 film WHAT IF I TOLD YOU I LOVED YOU, broached the topic of confronting old flames and went onto be broadcast on Current TV. My 2012 Short film PLAYGROUND LOVE for Ch4's Random Acts strand also looked at the subject of love though the eyes of two 16year olds. My NFTS Graduation film THIS FILM IS MEANT TO BE ABOUT STOKELY CARMICHEAL, a personal comedic film about race and sex in 21st century Britain, screened at several European Film Festivals, is being distributed by Soda pictures on DVD with BLACK POWER MIXTAPE and has been added to the British Film Institute Archive. I also co-directed my first feature THE REAL SOCIAL NETWORK in 2011. I've spent the last two summers in South Africa filming with the Women of Marikana, the town where 34 miners were shot by police while striking for a living wage. A project being developed with Roast Beef Productions.