Are you interested in learning how to write radio drama? This one-day workshop will help you start ‘thinking in sound’ and focus on the special demands of writing drama for the ear. It aims to equip participants with the skills necessary both to write their own new projects and to pursue the possibility of working on existing radio drama series. The workshop will demonstrate how to use sound to grab the audience’s attention from the very beginning of a story.

You will learn devices that help to differentiate between characters and establish their relationships with each other – hugely important in radio drama, where the audience only have voices and effects to rely on. You will also explore ways to create an atmosphere of suspense, where the test of each scene is: does the audience care what happens next? The workshop will cover how to go about pitching stories to commissioners and producers.

This one-day workshop will be led by Hugh Costello, who has written more than two dozen dramas for BBC Radio, and has been a judge in the drama category of the Radio Production Awards for the past two years. Costello is also a screenwriter whose HBO film, Bernard and Doris, was nominated for ten Emmy Awards, including best screenplay. He is also a print journalist and produces factual radio programmes.

Image via Shutterstock / Forest Run

From 7 – 21 March, the Frontline Club and the Scottish Documentary Institute are teaming up to present New Scottish Documentary, a series showcasing some of the the boldest and most innovative new works produced in Scotland.  Featuring one screening per week, we’ll be celebrating the richness of Scottish nonfiction filmmaking, including discussions with veteran documentary makers and up-and-coming directors to watch.  The programme includes Scotland on Screen, an evening of short films produced with assistance from the Scottish Documentary Institute and showcasing the diverse beauty of the Scottish landscape.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Lou McLoughlan.

This remarkable BAFTA nominated film from the new Scottish school of documentary filmmaking follows a convicted murderer over four years as he struggles to grapple with rebuilding his reputation in a remote Highland village while caring for his father. Though the film controversially gives the protagonist space to protest his innocence, an incredible four years of footage investigate his character – and the shattered hopes his pattern of recidivism leaves behind him.

16 Years Till Summer represents part of an exciting new wave of documentary filmmaking sweeping international festivals from Scotland; as such, it’s as bold in it’s subject matter as it is sceptical of finding ‘truth’ only in traditional forms of documentary film language. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged.

Lou McLoughlan was one of BAFTA’s 2011 Brits to Watch, an initiative showcasing new British talent to the international industry. Her short, Caring For Calum, won two BAFTAs in the Scotland New Talent awards. 16 Years Till Summer is her newest feature. The film had its world premiere at Visions du Reel 2015, and was selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest‘s 2015 ‘Best of British’ documentary series.

Directed by: Lou McLoughlan
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2015
Runtime: 80′

Amer, 45, met Raghda, 40, in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago. Over a number of months they communicated through a tiny hole they had secretly made in the wall. They fell in love and, following their release, married and started a family together.

This film tells the poignant story of their family torn apart by the tyrannical Assad dictatorship. Filming began in Syria in 2009, prior to the wave of revolutions and ongoing changes in the Middle East. At the time, Raghda was a political prisoner and Amer was caring for their young children alone. McAllister filmed in the thriving heart of the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus – now an infamous news story as the Assad regime blocked all aid and food to its inhabitants.

This intimate family portrait probes to understand why people are literally dying for change in the Arab world. As Raghda is released from prison, filmmaker Sean McAllister himself is arrested for filming and the political pressure around all activists intensifies. The family flee to Lebanon, and then to France where they are given political asylum in the sleepy town of Albi, where they now watch the revolution from afar and wait for the fall of Assad.

However, in exile Raghda’s mental heath suffers. We see their new life in France develop, but the war is now between them. In finding the freedom they fought so hard for, their relationship is beginning to fall apart.

A Syrian Love Story won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

Directed by: Sean McAllister
Country: UK/France/Lebanon/Syria
Running time: 80′