More and more people are now using their smartphones to shoot and create stories whether they are for a short film, multimedia/journalism or corporate content.

This workshop is a hands-on experience which you take you through how to record video and audio, edit your footage and export the content online or social media. During the course you will also get a chance to use a variety of microphones, grips and tripods.

The workshop will cover the following:

• Learn how to record audio and use a microphone to get the best sound
• Shoot video interviews and learn how to frame the subject correctly using well established cinematography techniques
• Shoot voxpops, point-of-view shots, action shots
• Use your smartphone to film establishing shots and cutaway shots
• Learn how to use natural lighting as a key light to model and illuminate the subject
• Use good interview technique and learn how to edit for the sound
• Take photographs and learn how to use picture composition and rule of thirds
• Learn how to edit your clips on the smartphone and create a video news story
• Launch video news stories online and blogs using social media sites.

Before the course, we will contact participants to find out what type of smartphone they’ll bring to the course and to provide a list of apps to download before the workshop. The majority of these are free, but the list may include a couple of paid-for apps. These should not come to more that £20 in total.

About the trainer:
The course tutor, Bill Shepherd teaches mobile and video journalism using smartphones and mirrorless cameras at billshepherdmedia.com. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists, the Guild of Television Camera Professionals and he is also a production editor at The Guardian and The Observer.

Image: via Shutterstock / drpnncpptak

Podcasts are increasingly popular, with ‘Serial’ ‘S Town’ in the US attracting tens of millions of listeners. Technology means that programme-making is widely accessible and is bringing a new world of on-demand audio to all types of audiences – big and small.

This one-day workshop covers the production process from A to Z – taking it ‘from idea to ear’. It looks at how to refine the original idea, and the technical demands of recording and producing a podcast. It explains what’s needed to make a programme and how to keep the audience listening.

Content:

• Planning for podcast production – editorial and technical
• The differing types of online audio programmes
• Recording – equipment and technical guidelines
• Editing and production – instruction and guidelines
• Polishing the finished product (branding, music, podcast platforms).

Trainer

Richard Miron has considerable experience as a journalist and strategic communications professional. He was a reporter and producer for BBC News and Current Affairs for 17 years, including several years as a foreign correspondent. He later worked as a senior communications official for the UN in the Middle East and for the World Bank in Washington D.C. He now runs a consultancy ‘Earshot Strategies’ that provides a range of services to support organizations and individuals interested in podcasting. To find out more about Earshot Strategies click here.

Image: via Shutterstock

*All tickets include a light lunch

Fiction filmmakers acknowledge that at least half the meaning of a scene, and often more, comes from the soundtrack. But the documentary soundtrack is often ignored, left as a technical aspect of post-production or caught up in debates about different styles of documentary production – observational, single-shooter, personal essay, reality, current affairs, and so on.

Documentary filmmakers often ask how to sound design a documentary. I’ve never found an answer for that. Is it different than for a fiction film? Clearly there is a belief that sound for a type of filmmaking that has its basis in real life events must be different than that for fiction filmmaking. So, how should the documentary filmmaker work with sound?

The way you consider and plan your use of sound – from pre-production through the final mix – determines how you and your production ‘speaks’ to your audience.

In the workshop we will cover:

·       What a soundtrack is and how it’s made. What are the components you work with when recording, editing and mixing a documentary soundtrack?

·       The relationships between pre-production, shooting and post-production in creating a soundtrack. How does the way you plan your shoot and spend your budget affect the soundtrack and, ultimately, how the audience perceives your ideas?

·       The workflow from recording to mixing.

·       The relationships between editing and sound design and between image, sound and music.

·       How sound changes the audience’s perception of images.

·       The variety of techniques for documentary sound including location recording, miking techniques, voice-over / narration, metaphorical sound, synchronous vs asynchronous sound, and the crossover between fiction and documentary sound styles.

·       Consideration of the audience or client.

·       The ethics of sound: What are we allowed to hear and what is kept silent?

The workshop is organised in two halves:
The morning begins with a 90-minute talk laying out the main ideas of what a soundtrack is and what a filmmaker is trying to achieve through sound. This will be followed by a Q&A session where you can follow up ideas presented in the talk along with your own concerns.

The afternoon session covers specific uses of sound in documentary, alternating talk with clips, prompting an open discussion in which you can discuss your particular interests.

This workshop is aimed at anyone who wishes to gain a more in-depth knowledge of how to use sound in documentary films. The day will give you an understanding of creative and technical approaches to documentary sound as well as a broader awareness of how soundtracks (of all sorts) operate. Whether you are a director, editor, producer, sound designer or location recordist – and no matter your level of experience – you will be able to immediately apply the content of the workshop to your projects.

The workshop is led by Larry Sider, an editor and sound designer known for his work in documentary, fiction and animation, including Patrick Keiller’s London, Robinson in Space and Robinson in Ruins. He leads the Sound Recording and Design MA at Goldsmiths and was previously Head of Post-Production at the National Film and Television School. Since 1998, he has run the School of Sound, a forum exploring the creative use of sound in the arts and media. He is a visiting lecturer at film and art schools in Europe and the UK.

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Kate and Rosie are both digital trainees for the BBC’s World Service 2020 project training BBC staff around the globe

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock

This workshop is designed for people interested in editing audio with a view to making radio reports and programmes, or creating podcasts. It will take in both the editorial considerations of editing, and the principles of good practice, as well as the technical skills involved.

The system you’ll be using is Adobe Audition, and the course will include basic operation, a software overview, speech editing, levels and fades, feature mixing basics, mastering levels for web and radio, bouncing and transfer, file management.

You will need to bring a laptop pre-loaded with Adobe Audition – a free trial can be downloaded here.

Trainers:

David Prest is the founder of Whistledown productions, the independent production company which makes programmes for BBC Radio (including The Reunion and Feedback for Radio 4) and podcasts for clients such as The Economist, Glyndebourne Opera and Mint Velvet.

Gareth Iles is a BBC trained sound engineer. He has an extremely broad range of experience that includes, recording and mixing documentaries for Radio4, location recording for specialist programmes for Radio2, mixing live Radio1 sessions, and  working as part of the broadcast sound team for large scale music festivals such as Glastonbury and T in the Park.

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Rosie has worked with BBC’s Global Women in News to launch their training strategy and leads training for Sound Women.

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock

Podcasts are a great way to engage the public and hook audiences in. More personal and intimate than video, they are also simple to produce. In this one-day workshop, we’ll give you the tools you need to start making your own podcasts. We will be recording on smart phones.

Content:

• Introduction to audio. A few well-chosen words.
• Content and casting. So what’s it all about?
• Interviewing and the art of conversation.
• Editorial control. Who is steering the ship? Some journalism basics.
• Music, actuality, and the special bits.
• Recording basics on smart phones.

What to bring:

• A laptop with an installed version of Adobe Audition. You can download a free trial here.
• A smart phone to record audio on.
• Pen and paper to take notes.

Trainers

Rosie Bartlett is a journalist and communications trainer with over 18 years of international media training and production experience for the BBC and global NGOs. At the BBC she produced international news programmes for the BBC World Service and digital stories for BBC Radio and Music online. Rosie has worked with BBC’s Global Women in News to launch their training strategy and leads training for Sound Women.

Kate Hoyland re-launched and ran the successful BBC Production Trainee Scheme, which receives upwards of three thousand applications yearly. She has 18 years experience as a journalist in the BBC World Service, where she specialised in international news before moving on to manage Radio and Production training, delivering leadership and media training to journalists from 22 international bureaux. Kate is currently producing a podcast series for UCL on interdisciplinary working. She works on social media accounts for the BBC.

Rosie Bartlett and Kate Hoyland deliver training courses for Quattrain. To find out more about their courses please click here. 

Image: via Shutterstock

This one-day technical workshop is designed for anyone wanting to create, enhance or edit audio content for media projects.

Discussing sound for narration, interviews, field recordings, ambiances and performance, the workshop will focus on general principles of sound production and will be relevant to users of most recording or editing systems.

The workshop would suit self-shooters, podcasters, video editors, producers of any media content who have not previously focused on sound or others entirely new to audio.

Topics covered include:

• Recording environment considerations
• Terminology and technical standards
• Equipment: Cables, connectors, software, recorders, signal processors and more
• Monitoring: Evaluation of sound by listening and use of meters
• Microphone types, techniques and placement (a selection will be available on the day to try)
• Frequently used production tools
• Commonly encountered sound issues and how to avoid them
• Selecting a recording or editing system to suit your project.

Here’s what participants had to say about Robin’s recent workshop at the club:

“This is was an incredibly useful workshop – a great starting point in terms of terminology and technology.”

“The topic was all new for me but surprisingly accessible. Robin is an excellent and approachable instructor.”

“An extremely informative workshop. It was very useful and a great help to my work.”

“Thank you so much for the very informative course, I found it incredibly useful.”

“It was great to hear from someone so experienced. I really felt like a lot of it has now ‘stuck’ which is testament to Robin’s patience and delivery.”

No previous knowledge of audio production is necessary but some familiarity with any recording or editing systems may be of advantage.

Audio demonstrations will be made on Avid’s Pro Tools software, but the same principles will apply to the following systems, many of which are available for free download, and more: Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand, Audacity, Logic Pro, iMovie, Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro, Cubase, PreSonus Studio One and TwistedWave.

Although not a requirement, participants are welcome to bring a laptop to the workshop to try any techniques discussed. Please ensure that you are reasonably familiar with the basic audio operations of your software beforehand. The trainer has familiarity with several common editing systems (Pro Tools, GarageBand and Audacity in particular) but specific operating knowledge for others may be limited.

Please bring a pair of headphones.

About the trainer
Robin Green is a sound recording and post-production engineer. He has worked on numerous documentary, drama, factual and animation productions for broadcast and film distribution. He has worked on productions for the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, National Geographic, Discovery, The History Channel, PBS and 20th Century Fox.

Composer Patrick Jonsson working on the score for Frame by Frame. Shot by RED REEL.

One often overlooked yet crucial element in a documentary is its music. A well-crafted score can make a difference in the mood, pacing, emotional texture and character of a film. And the right chemistry between filmmaker and composer can help achieve the visceral cinematic experience that we all yearn for as audience members.

We will be joined by a panel of some of the UK’s most celebrated composers to discuss the process of constructing a score for documentary, exploring the collaborative relationship between composers and directors and how music can ascribe meaning to images.

Looking in depth at the scores of a selection of recent, award-winning documentaries, we will hear from composers about the role of music in these films and the creative techniques behind the union of sound and imagery.

Laura Nakhla (moderator) is a Music Supervisor and Composer Agent at Air-Edel Associates. She has worked on the music for films including ‘Everest’ (Working Title), ‘Cinderella’ (Disney), ‘Woman In Gold’ (BBC Films), ‘The Boxtrolls’ (Laika), ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ (Paramount Pictures) and ‘Belle’ (Fox Searchlight Pictures). She studied music at King’s College London and took singing lessons at the Royal Academy of Music, before taking an MPhil in Musicology at Christ Church, Oxford. Laura previously worked as an agent’s assistant at The Rights House talent agency representing actors and TV presenters.

Rob Manning is a London-based composer who has scored documentary feature films, natural history, drama, comedies, and commercials. During a decade in the industry he has composed music for the BFI, HBO, Disney, Discovery, National Geographic, SKY, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and FIVE. His credits include Chuck Norris Vs Communism, a documentary feature film which premiered at Sundance 2015; Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail for the BBC; The Last Chance School, a BAFTA-award-winning observational film; and many more. He worked with acclaimed director Penny Woolcock on her feature-length film On The Streets, which told the stories of a group of homeless people in London and won a Liberty Human Rights award.

Patrick Jonsson is a film composer living and working in London. In 2013 Patrick scored Bends, directed by Flora Lau, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of ‘Un Certain Regard’. He also went on to receive a nomination for ‘Best Original Film Score’ at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards, one of the top Chinese-language film awards. Patrick has since composed the score for Academy Award and BAFTA nominated feature documentary Virunga, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and executive produced by Leonardo Di Caprio’s Appian Way Productions. The film’s music was picked out as one of the ’15 Best Film Scores of 2014′ by HitFix. More recently, he composed the score for documentary Frame By Frame, directed by Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli, for which he was nominated for ‘Best Documentary Score’ at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2015. Patrick has also composed music for numerous award-winning short films and has assisted composers on a number of studio level feature films such as Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Brave.

Nainita Desai is one of the UK’s leading composers, having scored hundreds of films for major broadcasters – most recently for Brian Hill’s Mumbai High – The Musical. Many of her projects have won or been nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTAs, Emmys and RTS awards, including an RTS Best Music nomination for BAFTA-nominated film The Day Kennedy Died (Dir: Leslie Woodhead); and a 2016 Music and Sound Best Feature Score nomination for The Confessions of Thomas Quick [BFI/Film4/Picturehouse].

This is one-day technical workshop is designed for anyone wanting to create, enhance or edit audio content for media projects.

Discussing sound for narration, interviews, field recordings, ambiances and performance, the workshop will focus on general principles of sound production and will be relevant to users of most recording or editing systems.

The workshop would suit self-shooters, podcasters, video editors, producers of any media content who have not previously focused on sound or others entirely new to audio.

Topics covered include:

• Recording environment considerations
• Terminology and technical standards
• Equipment: Cables, connectors, software, recorders, signal processors and more
• Monitoring: Evaluation of sound by listening and use of meters
• Microphone types, techniques and placement (a selection will be available on the day to try)
• Frequently used production tools
• Commonly encountered sound issues and how to avoid them
• Selecting a recording or editing system to suit your project.

Here’s what participants had to say about Robin’s recent workshop at the club:

“This is was an incredibly useful workshop – a great starting point in terms of terminology and technology.”

“The topic was all new for me but surprisingly accessible. Robin is an excellent and approachable instructor.”

“An extremely informative workshop. It was very useful and a great help to my work.”

“Thank you so much for the very informative course, I found it incredibly useful.”

“It was great to hear from someone so experienced. I really felt like a lot of it has now ‘stuck’ which is testament to Robin’s patience and delivery.”

No previous knowledge of audio production is necessary but some familiarity with any recording or editing systems may be of advantage.

Audio demonstrations will be made on Avid’s Pro Tools software, but the same principles will apply to the following systems, many of which are available for free download, and more: Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand, Audacity, Logic Pro, iMovie, Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro, Cubase, PreSonus Studio One and TwistedWave.

Although not a requirement, participants are welcome to bring a laptop to the workshop to try any techniques discussed. Please ensure that you are reasonably familiar with the basic audio operations of your software beforehand. The trainer has familiarity with several common editing systems (Pro Tools, GarageBand and Audacity in particular) but specific operating knowledge for others may be limited.

Please bring a pair of headphones.

About the trainer
Robin Green is a sound recording and post-production engineer. He has worked on numerous documentary, drama, factual and animation productions for broadcast and film distribution. He has worked on productions for the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, National Geographic, Discovery, The History Channel, PBS and 20th Century Fox.

If you are interested specifically in audio and radio recordings, you may be interested in our How to Make a Radio Documentary workshop, running the day before this one. On Friday 19 February, David Prest and Deborah Dudgeon of Whistledown Productions will be leading a one-day workshop, covering the editorial essentials such as spotting an idea, building a narrative structure, finding the right contributors, as well as how to use sound creatively to grab the listener’s attention.