Re-thinking everything

…after the basics, where to next?... (part 6 of the e-book)

We have now spent a considerable time pondering different aspects of documentary and feature production. Disproportionately lot really when you consider how few and far in between they are in many radios, you might think. And maybe you’d be right. Maybe.

I was reading a radio production book aimed at students much like what I have had in mind when I’ve been writing this. That book said – and its author was a very respectable academic with strong media industry qualifications – that documentaries are a bit like features, which had been explored to some extent earlier, but that they are basically so rare in radio that they were hardly worth getting into.

So what kicks do I get  from wasting your time talking about a dead craft?

I always tell my students that studying radio is really about two different things: what radio is in the real world industry and how it is produced, which I believe include where it comes from, but also, where it might be going. What is its potential?  Is it fundamental characteristics of radio that nearly everything but popular music and bad jokes are out of bounds? Is radio living up to its true potential?

Needless to say that since nothing is perfect, everything can be improved. Being a student, especially in a university, you may end up, I hope, working in a position where you can contribute to the positive change. Whatever you conceive the positive to be. I have said it before but it’s worth repeating; I am not judging music, or any other kind of radio here. I really like music radio especially when it is done well, and I have certainly worked a lot for stations like that. So when I say positive change, I don’t mean change the whole style of the station, even if you were in a position to do so; just improve it.

It’s of course also noteworthy that I have called these kind of documentaries and features by the name of content based audio. Not radio, but audio, because since the internet connections have become common and fast enough, the online environment is as good place as any for what was previously considered to be exclusively radio content. And when online, but also on-air, we can also reconsider the political economy of this kind of content. In other words who will pay you for doing these, will determine why you might find yourself producing them.

Let’s start from the traditional radio. Over the air FM, AM, Digital and so on.

I guess there can be many reasons why you don’t get that much pre-packaged content on popular radio. The stations may be understaffed and employees under constant deadlines, they may have realised that you can do without these by just playing music; they are not the most cost-effective way to fill the hour clock,  or maybe no one just came up with good enough way of using these methods for something suitable. We think of longish and arguably boring pieces about politics or so, but who says that they couldn’t be short few minute things about pop singers, festivals or films. And maybe it is exactly the occasional film reviews that might be one of the surviving ways of utilising the skills we’ve been talking about on many stations. Of course, there’s also many talk radios that use features as they are and even documentaries as part of their standard broadcast. Sometimes they sound great, but more often, you feel that a little bit more money invested could’ve afforded enough time and effort to have made it great. I’d venture a guess – some would say an educated guess, but who knows – that it’s exactly that money and resources that the lack of such content can be attributed to. Rather than, say, they are inherently useless.

I’ve always felt that advertising industry could use the methods of documentary making into their advantage much more than what they do. The adverts are a different craft where an idea or a feel or some information is crammed into thirty seconds in order to convince people to pay money to someone. But there are places in radio where even a little longer bit of audio could actually communicate a lot more. The only problem with on-air radio would become the price of this – it would exclude most businesses instantly.

In an online environment, I am much more comfortable saying that why wouldn’t you use pre-packaged audio as a part of your promotion? I say that because the online environment is much more inclusive to businesses, organisations and individuals of any calibre.

You can be a poet or brick layer, a hair dresser or a troubadour, a gangsta rapper or philosopher, a politician or photographer. And you don’t have to be just a person who represents his or her own self, but you can also do this for a shop, record label, club, sports team or a university. Take control of your communication online. You can use these techniques for making engaging audio newsletters for organisations, actually interesting yearly reviews for businesses in an audio format or just build hype around a forthcoming Rap album.

Podcasting, which always is pre-recorded, for instance can be used to keep people up to date with what anyone or any organisation is doing.

And why wouldn’t an NGO want to have a documentary made out of the work they do, interviewing people from the communities they help, employees and volunteers or other relevant people with some lovely colourful audio to support the all around feel of their work? I think it’d sound exactly the kind of thing that their funders, internationally or locally would love to receive and feel that their money is going to a worthy cause. Maybe the documentary could even convince a few new funders to part with their money for the cause. And the reason why audio can be nice to use for this kind of thing is also that it’s a lot cheaper to do a professional quality audio content than its equivalent in video.

In the Internet your small or big features and documentaries have a whole different function and political economy; in all probability you are not trying to sell them, but avail them for free while trying to sell, or communicate something else. Thinking purely financially, then, there might just be a way for you to find some income from all this. Because you are the one who knows how to do these things unlike all those politicians, musicians and other potential users of such content in the Internet.

The additional thing that is enabled by the Internet technologies is for you to access international radio stations. You might be doing documentaries in South Africa, but no South African broadcaster would show any interest in them. Then you can Google the international broadcasters from any country that could have someone suitable broadcasting in a language you’ve made your piece in and you could try to approach them. They will probably even pay better, or at least there’s a chance for it, if they want to buy some content from you. All of the sudden this broadens your potential market into nearly a global one. This way you might be able to even as a freelancer to keep yourself busy and the bills paid. With a bit of luck, but mainly good products, punctuality and firm but polite manners you can be able to build relationships overseas that can be incredibly useful on your career, and trading can become ongoing.

There are ways of using these skills creatively. Creativity exactly is the key word when it comes to figuring out some new ideas that can change things. It is not, however something that everyone needs to do. There’s still some need for this material in the traditional radio as well. And knowing how to do this; being able to visualise the production process and understanding the practices, will only help you in nearly everything that you do in media. There is a lot involved here; being able to identify the relevant information and being able to critically engage with it, thinking about angles and putting things together so that it makes sense. Most of all, I hope this teaches you to not be afraid to work hard in order to be able to get better end results. You can get a nice interview arranged with a bit of fluke, but other than that it doesn’t happen without some dedication and effort.

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