Thinking and Doing: Content Based Audio - Mikko Kapanen

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This e‐book is licensed under Creative
Commons Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share
Alike 2.5 South Africa licence. You can do
most things with it quite freely, so long as it’s
non‐commercial. For commercial enquiries
you can email me at mikmikko@gmail.com.

Feel free to email, print or bluetooth this to
anyone you think might find it useful, but
when you do, please attribute it to me.
Thanks for reading and enjoy,

Mikko Kapanen, 2010 in Cape Town.

Thinking and doing: content based audio | Mikko Kapanen
Thinking and doing: content based audio
A few words (4)
1. First things first (7)
• Listen, watch, learn, adapt – it’s not copying, but observing and
learning from others.

• Coming up with ideas – getting creative and critical at the same
time.
• Learn the technology – making sure you are ready for the job.
2. On the field (26)
• Don’t cut corners with your material – collecting audio.
• Know your material and then trust in it – dealing with your
material.
3. Putting it all together (39)
• Working with the script – writing and recording a script that
bridges everything together.

• Do it with style – hook the listeners and take them to places.

4. … and finally (54)
• Know your placement – finding home for your baby.
• Re‐thinking everything – after the basics, where to next?
Last words (69)

[ 3 ]
A few words

This e‐book is about content based audio. All the different
considerations that go into making some kind of coherent audio
package. I could have just said documentary or feature making, but I
think that would have limited the thinking and that is what I don’t
wish to happen. Radio documentaries and features are not very
common anyway. The statement that can seem a bit general and
unscientific can be proven with a simple content analysis.

Right now, turn your radio on. Start from the FM stations below 90
and continue for as long as there is sound coming. After going
through FM do the same with AM should there be anything else there
(that depends on where you are, of course, as well). I bet one of my
perfectly functioning kidneys that it was mainly music – unless you
did this at the time when news are on – or some people talking about
something relatively meaningless, maybe one or two serious
interviews, but did you hear any pre‐packaged documentaries or
features? I doubt there were many.

So, we could ask ourselves, why bother? It’s a very good and
important question, which in my opinion deserves a better answer
than simply, well, we shouldn’t. The principles of the craft are useful
for things other than what they were initially designed for. We must
also think is the lack of content based material on popular radio an
inevitable aspect of the way things are, or are we just lacking
creativity to realise the next steps.
[ 4 ]
This is why we must look for opportunities around us and see where
we could fit this kind of material in. Or what else could we produce
with the same methods. Maybe something a bit more commercial?
Maybe something online? Now we are getting somewhere so we
mustn’t stop.

In the very end, after going through the whole process, I encourage
us to re‐think the whole thing. I firmly believe that we can use these
skills strategically to create if not a new industry, then at least a new
way of viewing audio content. Therefore I suggest that when you
read this e‐book, you keep an open mind. You don’t have to limit
yourself either by thinking about audio productions only, but you can
also consider how these ideas relate to any media; new or old.

I am covering the process in an order starting from the beginning to
the very end and even beyond, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the
right way. The process doesn’t work in a way that you finalise one bit
and move to the next one and so on. Nothing really is ready before
the final piece is ready so you can always revisit what you have done.

There are a few things written here that are basically things you
almost definitely should do, but mostly these are just ideas. They are
ideas that you can apply to your workflow and that can help you to
create something that makes sense. You should question
everything written here because without critically engaging you
don’t really have that clear of an idea why you are doing what
you are doing. So remember, if someone asks why you are
[ 5 ]
producing your piece the way you are, you must be able to explain
the rationale. And because I read it somewhere isn’t good enough.

What I am less interested to dwell too much on, is what is a
documentary, feature or any other piece of content based audio.
There are conventions and ways that generally work, and for
definitions I have heard as a general rule that a longer piece that
stands on its own is a documentary and shorter, perhaps background
clip that needs a specific context – a debate or so – could be seen as a
feature. They both are, as far as I am writing about them here, pre‐
packaged, which means that they aren’t live, and they are based on
something that is actual and real. So not a radio drama for instance.
But all the points made here focus more on how to create something
rather than how to copy something.

So there. The next pages have things that you can think about and do;
starting from pre‐production, then collecting your audio material, for
your post‐production and for when you have a final piece in your
hands.

[ 6 ]
1. First things first

The first part deals with matters before you even get properly started.
It’s all about knowing what you are getting into, releasing your
creativity and ensuring that you are ready to hit the streets with your
recorder.

[ 7 ]
Listen, watch, learn, adapt
… it’s not copying, but observing and learning from others.

If you are a radio student, I hope you listen to radio. Just to know
what you are dealing with. Ideally you listen to more than just one
station that plays hit music with a tight rotation. Although it is also
good to listen to those since a lot of radio students end up working
for such stations. Or maybe you do not listen to conventional radio,
but rather subscribe to podcasts, listen to audio books or some other
kind of audio content besides music. If not, but you still somehow feel
determined that you’re doing the right degree, you might need to fit
at least some of these things into your routines.

If you want to produce audio documentaries then listening to audio
documentaries is a good start. Not that many students have done so
before coming to the university. The fact, that there seems to be such
a few of them easily available might also be an indication of
something about the industry that you need to consider, but for now
you can find some examples from the Internet. Here’s a few options
to start with:

• PRX (Public Radio Exchange) – after free login you can listen to
other’s work and add your own.
• BBC Radio 4’s selected documentaries
• BBC World Service documentaries
• BBC 1Xtra documentaries
[ 8 ]

Sure, there’s a bit of a BBC bias there with the links and also, since the
content online tends to undergo changes, I do hope that the links
work when you click them. These are only examples and I’d
recommend you to spend some time and Google (or Blackle) a few
more. It really is just to see what has been done and how. If we let
nature to take its course, we might hear very few documentaries
ever.

To understand the craft of making documentaries make sure you also
watch them from TV, online or get some on DVD:s. The great thing
about these is that they are done with much more resources, time
and money and there are generally so many more of them. Learn
what they do right and think about how you could do that in radio in
general and with whichever topic you are interested to cover in
specific.

That really is the key idea with everything. What do others do right
and how can you do the same? Not to copy the result of whatever
they did, but to understand the train of thought behind it and then
apply it in your circumstances, with your personality, the subject
matter, target audience and format of the station you work for or
wherever else your piece will end up. To use an example of stand‐up
comedy, you shouldn’t copy the jokes and punchlines from someone
else, but you can think what makes the jokes funny in their timing,
subject matters, angles and how they are generally constructed and
then use those ideas as they fit to your own material.

[ 9 ]
For some reason this is too easy to misunderstand so make sure that
you don’t.

A few years ago I was asked for some consultation help for a possible
TV talk show production. I recommended that they should start off
by looking carefully into what is done in another show that was very
popular at the time – what made the show successful – and then try
to apply the thinking behind it to their show, so that it could achieve
the same success with its target audience. I was met with a polite
“with all due respect…” answer, which suggested that while having
asked for my opinion, they didn’t listen to it at all. In fact, they
completely missed the point, and regardless of my repeated attempts
to clarify, they probably walked away thinking that I had asked them
to mimic someone else. I am hardly surprised to never have seen the
show on TV. Not that I am any kind of TV concept guru, but some
things are just common sense.

You can, and probably should, pick and mix the best ways and ideas
that you see and hear out there. Analyse what makes a conversation
on the commercial station entertaining, how is the content dealt with
in talk radio, how does the advertising industry come up with a
unique selling points and how does a community station make you
feel like you part of something? Are those methods effective and is
there anything there that could help you? Maybe what you don’t like
will help you to realise what you do like and will want to use instead.
You don’t need to have all of these elements applied, certainly not at
the same time, but it helps to understand them. Writing and
producing a radio advert is a very different craft to a documentary,
[ 10 ]
but how do they, when they are done right, communicate a message
in thirty seconds?

Things that appear to be far from each other come closer when we
take a step back and lose our focus on the details and replace it with
analysis of their effectiveness. And since radio documentaries are a
relatively small pool to fish from, you must find the inspiration
wherever it may be.

As a student you are the future of radio and media, and as a
university student, you may be part of the future of managing the
media and radio. Use your time well as a student and learn to
understand the radio industry and also its shortcomings; it has got
many. But it has got many strengths as well. It is not necessarily a get
rich quick scheme; or even get rich in your lifetime scheme, but it is
an efficient way to communicate. Audio is the only format of media
people can really consume safely while driving and hence the
morning and afternoon traffic hours are important for radio. It is
relatively cheap to produce, receivers are cheap to purchase and
therefore are much more common than TV:s. It doesn’t require
literacy or a lot of electricity, and it also has a certain intimacy that at
least for me makes interviews and conversations more enjoyable
than with some visuals, although you are free to disagree with me on
that one (or with anything else for that matter).

I always make a distinction between audio and radio. It is true that
radio content is audio content, but you can also use audio in an online
environment, on CD:s or even files you copy on computer or
[ 11 ]
exchange with your bluetooth device. As a file, audio (such as MP3) is
much lighter to upload, download or stream online than video. What
the Internet does, and has done, is erase many of the geographical
limitations. Of course the digital divide is a reality and the Internet
has created new kinds of groups not determined by their
geographical locations, but by their interests and unfortunately also
access to technology (which at times is tied to geography as well).
But the same content can be broadcasted on‐air as much as it can be
uploaded online. Podcasts are a convenient form of audio as they can
be subscribed to, and after that the subscriber doesn’t have to search
for them but receives every episode as soon as it is uploaded. I will
later on talk more about placing your audio content online, but for
now the point is that the Internet adds up to opportunities rather
than takes away from them. When you are producing content you
should start thinking about both platforms.

Regardless of radio’s role in our music consumption, there will
probably always be some need for content. Change is constant. It isn’t
something that has happened, but something that is happening right
now as it always does. And change is fine. As practitioners we just
need to understand how it impacts on our work. For content based
audio this change looks positive anyway, since the Internet opens
more global potential for even very focused content.
[ 12 ]
Coming up with ideas
… getting creative and critical at the same time.

When I was an undergraduate student one of my lecturers told us: if
you want to have a good idea, come up with ten and pick the one that
is good. That, he said, was based on the general rule of 90% of
everything being rubbish. No matter how many times I was turning
this idea in my head, I had to agree with it.

Initially it sounds like hard work, but it is not like someone is going
to come and ask for evidence or an industry standard business plan
for every idea. The whole concept needs a bit of demystifying
because we come up with ideas all the time and out of those ten you
may end up having five ridiculous, few that kind of make sense, one
that is okay, and one good one. Some of them are just half ideas and
some build on the bad ones. Maybe your final one is a combination of
few, or that crazy thought that you stripped down into a doable one.
This bit is not the science; it is just for you to think about in order to
avoid too much unjustified satisfaction with the first thought that
enters your head.

When you hear someone saying trust your first instinct, be careful. Of
course it might be an amazing concept, but at the same time it might
be something that everyone else has also thought first and then gone
with it. When I was a presenter on a hit station I used to spend quite
a bit of time writing my scripts. My goal was to write some jokes
about current affairs and such; basically just punchlines to amuse the
listeners (and possible more than them, my peers and myself). A
[ 13 ]
friend of mine said that if in my evening show I go with the first
punchline that comes into my mind, listeners may have heard that
same joke in a slightly different versions many times during that day.
News stories after all, are the same for everyone. You may not write
jokes, like I don’t much either anymore, but we still benefit from
considering our angle.

Having said this – and I hope I am not stating too much of the obvious
– it is not about never going with your first idea. Just as long as it isn’t
your only idea and therefore wins by default.

Another thing that is good to keep in mind is that you are not
supposed to prove your already existing opinion. That would be just
a self‐congratulating exercise and it has very little journalistic, or any
other kind of value. Make mind maps, think about the different sides,
but at least give the material a chance to differ from what you
thought. If you find out, for instance in one of your interviews
something that changes the nature of your piece, then that’s okay.
Follow that. You have just found something out and it does not ruin
your idea, but your idea has developed into something else;
something better probably, and even if not, it’s better that you found
out it now rather than when already finished the last edits.

Coming up with an idea involves thinking about an angle that would
be interesting; maybe something that is not overdone by every media
outlet, and knowing your target audience and where you would like
to have, at least theoretically, your work to be broadcasted.
Remember that while it is important to be realistic about the industry
[ 14 ]
you aim to work in, your studying times may be the last times for
years when you get to experiment, and it would be a shame not to do
that. Try things out and think creatively.

Besides having to know who you are targeting, you should also think
about how are you going to reach them. Is your story going to be a
human interest one, a hard news story or something else. Thinking
about these things will help you when you think of who you would
like to talk to, and what kind of other material you would ideally like
to have included in your final piece.

There isn’t one set way for a creative process. Even if there was,
wouldn’t that be against the whole idea of creativity? There are
different methods and they work for different people. I find mind
maps very useful. I started off drawing them into my note book. I still
do that but I also have one of those boards on the wall in my working
space so I can actually conveniently see the idea when I am writing. I
also use free software called FreeMind which allows me to have the
ideas archived on the computer. I am not convinced it is the best
software available, but it is decent. I recommend you to go and
explore the options from this list if you feel that it could be useful.

There is nothing wrong with doing mind maps by hand and most of
the time it is faster and you get to record the idea as it comes without
having to, for instance, wait for your computer to turn on.

If you are only starting to experiment with mind maps you might
need to ‘let go’ a bit. It is possible that it is you, who is standing in the
[ 15 ]
way of good ideas. Don’t be shy with a mind map; it isn’t your final
product and it doesn’t have to cover absolutely everything before you
start. It only has to make sense to you.

Mind map: this is just an example of how I thought this segment to be like.

After my initial mind map I usually go either for a long walk or a run
(depends on your exercise preferences, but if you don’t run, try
walking). For me it is a very good time to think. Philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche said “only thoughts which come from walking have any
value.” Whether you agree with him on this one or generally; or
rather even if you would disagree with him generally, a moderate
version of the statement makes sense to me. Lets just say, walking
may be good for developing ideas.

I already introduced the idea of letting go; to stop worrying about are
you making a fool out of yourself whether someone is watching or
not. When you let go physically, it gets difficult not to let go mentally.
And I mean that in a good way.

[ 16 ]
Letting go physically can be a very difficult thing to do for many
people, but there’s a way that works at least for me. Not accessible to
everyone – and by no means reduced to a tool of work – children are
great assistants, because they don’t care and therefore you can lose
yourself with them as well. If you’ve got siblings, cousins or even own
children then give it a go; volunteer to baby‐sit (mentioning your
ulterior motive is optional, but don’t forget your actual
responsibilities for the young human being and his/her parents). No
one will look at you weirdly if you go and play in the park with a child
and therefore no one thinks you’ve gone mad. Maybe these things
don’t concern you, but in case you feel self‐conscious then try to find
ways to overcome it.

Also, using drawing and colours is said to be good for creativity.

Getting in touch with your creativity is not about being silly as such. I
personally find it easier to think outside of the box when I am not on
the computer trying to force ideas. I talk about letting go, but don’t
forget to also critically engage with your ideas; are they actually as
great as you thought, and most of all, are the realistic.

On top of creativity, the ideas need a more pragmatic approach. This
is where the journalistic side comes in. I have covered some of the
ideas already in the previous segment, but knowing what others do,
and have done, is important so that you are not doing the same story
with the exact same angle, because there is a chance that the others
had more resources and found better interviewees. Remember that
you don’t produce these things in a vacuum, but in the context of
[ 17 ]
some kind of industry or community. Unless, of course, it’s only for
you and maybe your mum to enjoy, but realistically, that is an honest
goal to very few of us.

You must also understand the significance of what you are doing and
familiarise yourself with some background of the story. How much of
that is necessary, depends on the style and approach of your piece.
You should also consider is your documentary going to be outdated
before it is finished. News stories age quickly. If you have the luxury
to decide yourself and don’t want to hurry, think about more timeless
stories or at least something, that still makes sense to listen to a week
from now.

At this point I’d like to repeat my disclaimer: I am only offering ideas;
tools for your tool box and you must decide which ones are
appropriate. This isn’t a list where you must tick boxes and it
definitely isn’t a gospel. These are ideas that have helped me and
therefore I offer them to you to think about. There isn’t an order for
these things so when you deal with ideas, however they come is good.

The thoughts I’ve described and ideas I have introduced are as they
have been taught to me after my own interpretation, preferences and
experiments with them. Since it is your process, don’t be afraid to be
creative to get creative as well.

It’s also good to have the confidence to change your focus when you
realise a better idea, for example from an interview you have
recorded. Sometimes you can have a very rough idea, go and get
[ 18 ]
material and start building on that. That method has also worked for
me well. The only thing that I can think of to be a sort of an
unbreakable rule is to keep an open mind.
[ 19 ]
Learn the technology
…making sure you are ready for the job.

Technology doesn’t make the media, although media production uses
it. A lot. For some reason many of the radio students seem to think
that understanding recording levels and audio quality is like
understanding the relativity theory. The very basic technology that
gets you far in radio is not very complicated and most of all, once you
master it on a decent level, you don’t really have to think too much
about it anymore. Sounds like a reasonable deal to me. Then you can
focus on your great ideas.

Besides adverts, the main reason for people to change the radio
station is a bad signal, and I’d imagine that would apply to any kind of
sonic irritation including inaudible interviews, cacophony and
general chaos created by bad recording.

It really doesn’t matter how good your idea is and how much you
worked for it if you cut corners with this. This is the point that not
doing it right can make all of the material useless. And if it is useless,
don’t use it.

As a radio student you should go out with a recorder and record for
no other reason than to learn how to do it properly. Try it out and
while at it, maybe you will end up with a small sound effects library
and some cool atmospheric backgrounds you can use later on.

[ 20 ]
Is it better to record from far and turn the recording levels up or to
be quite close with levels turned down? Find that out.

Take also into consideration that microphones can differ so it is
important to get to know how the one that you are using works.

Have a good read through of the manual of the equipment you are
using and become familiar with using it in practice. Recording is
something that should become an act of muscle memory like driving
a car. If you are a driver you know that initially you had to focus on
which pedal is which, how to change gears and even not to forget to
indicate when you are turning. After driving for some time, and I
doubt it happens in any other way, you stop thinking about most of
these things. They just happen. You can drive a distance without
thinking once about changing gears yet surely you have done it.

When you gain confidence and get the recording and other
production to a comfortable level you are really in a position to focus
on your content and expression. If you don’t, you might find yourself
ruining the interviews by either bad audio quality or losing your
focus to questions and interaction as you stare at the recorder and
try to ensure that everything is fine with it. Neither one of the options
give you any good results; what they do is make either you or the
interviewee look and sound bad. In all likelihood, it actually does it to
both of you.

Also, always wear headphones. You wouldn’t write an essay without
a screen on your computer, just hoping that what you are typing
[ 21 ]
reads well, so don’t record without headphones either. The example
may sound a bit extreme, but that is how it is; a kind of guessing
game with a hope that things will be okay. When you monitor the
recording you know what kind of material you go home with and you
can fix the levels while it still matters. With interviews you can also
end up having very disturbing background noises that you don’t
necessarily pay attention to without the headphones; air
conditioning, computers, ambulances, dogs, playground… you get the
idea.

Unless those additional sounds are an integral part of the story and
something that you want to have as describing the situation or space,
try to avoid them. Even if you want them, you are usually better off
recording them separately and mixing in when you are compiling
your work. If something is making a sound you’d rather not have,
don’t be afraid to ask if it is possible to go and record the interview
elsewhere. People generally understand when you explain your
reasons and most of the time, especially at events or in public spaces,
just going around the corner will be enough.

These things are more common sense than pure technological know‐
how, but without paying attention to the recording as a practice you
may just not realise them in time.

It is always good to aim for the best possible quality and never use
bad quality audio, but even after all the hard work there can still be
some annoying noises on the background, or keeping the levels was
tricky as the interviewee was moving too much. When you listen to a
[ 22 ]
lot of the talking content in radio, you hear that many interviews are
telephonic which makes their quality, realistically speaking often
quite horrid and always a bit compromised. It seems that there is an
unspoken agreement that this is acceptable in radio and without it a
lot of content would not exist. So use your own judgement with the
quality of audio you have recorded, but set the standard a little bit
higher than where you instinctively would have it.

Learning the technology, like many things in general, is first about
learning the basics and creating a routine. The creativity follows
usually afterwards when you try things out, but even that has got
more to do with what type of raw material you collect than how you
record that audio. I will later on write more about your material, but
for now, as we are still talking about the equipment and how to use it,
consider making yourself a checklist.

The good thing about checklist is that once you’ve written everything
down, you might not even need to consult it, as you remember these
things already. That is not to say that it’s not good to confirm; it
generally is good to confirm.

On your checklist you should have ideas like…

• Checking the equipment before going out to collect audio
All the necessary cables (check your microphone cable by
recording a bit – broken ones can add horrible cracks to
your material or simply not record)
[ 23 ]
Enough batteries with enough power (have some spare

ones)
Recorder and microphone
Depending on your recorder, are all the recording
settings as you want and need them to be?
Headphones
Enough space on your memory card or MiniDisc
depending what you are using. I recommend to have a lot
more space than what you estimate you’ll need.
Sometimes we get surprised with what is available and
it’s good to be prepared.

• When on the location, whether inside or outside, listen to the
sounds of the space and identify potentially problematic ones.
On top of alarms, sirens and air‐conditionings take wind
specifically into consideration as for microphone it is not just
sound, but rather something blowing in it which compromises
the quality of recording even making it unusable.

• Record atmosphere, because it can be very useful later on
when in edit.

• Before recording an interview or collecting any audio, make
sure that you are happy with the recording levels.

• Make sure that the recording starts and runs. People have
made the mistake of having the recorder on pause which feels
[ 24 ]
like recording as you hear the sounds from the headphones and
the levels are showing, but the numbers on the display of your
recorder are not changing.

• When you record, depending on the equipment, be sure that
you don’t record over previous tracks and lose other
interviews.

• When you transfer the material to a computer name the files
appropriately and save them in a folder that you can easily find.

These are just some examples that will help you to create a workflow.
A routine. All of this, after some practise, is like remembering which
pedal in the car is the brake and which is the accelerator.

Later on I will talk more about editing audio which is another aspect
of the process that needs some technical skills.

Now that we have covered the basics of what we are doing, in what
kind of context and even how are we able to make it happen
technically, we are ready to start collecting our raw material.

[ 25 ]
2. On the field

The second part deals with collecting the material and getting the best
out of the interviews, ideas on how to deal with what you’ve got, what
do you say about it and what does it say about you.
[ 26 ]
Don’t cut corners with material
… collecting material.

The moment you start recording your raw material is a great one. At
least I like it a lot. It is when the ideas and concepts you have been
working on and thinking about become real and also get tested. It is
possible that the realities as reflected in the interviews you’ve
recorded make your whole concept a bit redundant, but even that is
okay. It’s just evidence that we don’t really know what the
documentary is about, or at least what is it saying until at the very
end. It’s good to keep an open mind and allow the changes to take
place rather than to try to force the initial view.

If we take the process to its very basic level you’ve got two ways to
get things started: an ease‐your‐way‐in interview or the deep‐end‐
option.

Especially if you feel that you could use some more information and
confidence before facing the hard questions then start off with
someone who is either an easier person to talk to (should you have
access to that knowledge) or someone who is less central to your
story. This kind of interview gives you confidence and ensures that
you have some audio secured. The value of getting started should
never be underestimated.

The deep‐end‐option is when you decide to tackle the most difficult
thing first and then build the rest around it. It is a good way to do
things if you feel that you understand the subject well or otherwise
[ 27 ]
feel particularly strong and confident. Quite often, after this it
becomes easier to find and record the rest of the material as you have
the main substance of the story already collected. Although, of course
there can be more big interviews lined up, but you are at a good start.

You never know exactly what kind of material you will end up with,
but it is good to consider the order in which you intend to talk to
people. Sometimes, you can kick yourself for realising, during your
very last interview, an interesting angle or a question you should
have asked everybody. These are the things that you can never know
so there is no point in worrying about them. Just imagine if this could
happen and then start based on your best guess.

It is good to have at least a rough wish list of who you would like to
interview. Be prepared to think on your feet and react quickly; at
times a chance for a great interview will present itself without
warning. Sometimes your interviewees will recommend other people
that you could find interesting and other times they may cancel or
just not show up, although most often, they do the interview as
agreed.

Before going to record an interview it’s good to think of good
questions, and if possible have more of them than what you think
you’ll need. Some interviewees answer your first five questions when
you’ve only asked one. And you only had prepared six. Not that it’s
that much of a problem necessarily, if you get your material, but I
always try to add a few questions in the end that sort of invite the
interviewee to expand the story and identify other aspects that I
[ 28 ]
haven’t known or just thought of. After all, they probably are
specialist in the field and I am only covering the story.

Your questions should be rather open than closed ones. That means
that they should not be answered by yes or no. Sometimes you can
prepare a great question that covers all the facts and reflects on them
appropriately and then your interviewee says “yes, that’s correct.”
Now that is what you got recorded. Make sure that your interviewees
give you all the good stuff even if you yourself would know the
answers already. It is their voice you are after because your own you
can record whenever.

When you think of the style of your piece you might have an idea of
its treatment. Are you going to edit the answers and mix them with
your studio recorded voice‐overs, or are you going to use them as an
interview with your questions in the mix as it happened? Regardless
of how you will use them, a good interview is generally more of a
recorded conversation than a questionnaire. React to the answers
you are given and follow them up, ask for more clarification and
further questions even if they are not on your list. There’s an old
anecdote, which can actually be an urban legend, where a radio DJ
asked a caller “So how has your day been?,” the caller responds “It
hasn’t been good. I was horseback riding, fell and broke my leg.” The
DJ responds “Okay, what song would you like to hear?”

As conversational as your style may be, you as an interviewer should
try to keep quiet as much as you can when you are not saying
anything. In a normal conversation we make all kinds of small noises
[ 29 ]
of agreeing or being surprised (yeah, oh, umm, mmm, aha), but
whether you use your own voice in your documentary or not, those
sounds can be rather annoying, yet difficult to edit away. You don’t
want to have your “yeah, I see” on top of a very interesting answer.
As an interviewer you must come up with ways of encouraging the
interviewee by nodding, facial expressions or anything you can come
up with. Keep an eye contact as much as you can. You don’t have to
say anything out loud to be part of a conversation. At least not all the
time.

Depending on your story and approach you can have an interview
with many different kinds of people. Many politicians and public
servants are infamous for giving you official statements which tend
to be rather dry accounts. It is something we are quite used to and we
don’t think too much about it, but it is also something that many
people find boring. Think twice before using long interviews like that
if it doesn’t fit your target audience. Some academics know so much
about their specialisation that their answer seems to last forever and
you know you’d need a quick 30 second summary of 25 minute
monologue. I have found that a good way to achieve that, is trying to
summarise vaguely by saying something like “so if I have understood
correctly it is about a and b.” After that I often get a nice half a minute
summary that explains how it is about a, b, c, d and f. It doesn’t work
every time, but it surprises me still, how often it does.

It may happen quite naturally when you are working on a story that
you end up with a set of questions that you could ask almost from
anybody. That kind of general list of question is good and works well
[ 30 ]
especially if you are at an event, such as a conference, fair or festival
where you may get interviews from people who are interesting, but
you didn’t prepare questions for. If you end up in a situation like that
and you don’t immediately have anything particularly insightful to
ask, start of with very general questions to buy yourself time to think
on your feet and hopefully come up with better questions towards
the end of the interview.

It is important to know how long your final piece will be when you
collect the audio or even work on the interview questions. Sometimes
it is easier to say something in a longer time than in a short one, but
however long your documentary is, make sure you have enough
material.

When I was doing my first work placement in the late nineties, one of
my friends had been sent to a press conference to interview a
Swedish pop rock group the Cardigans. The band was busy and being
a trainee he hardly got the first turn to ask his questions in the midst
of professional music journalists. He eventually came back with four
minutes of audio. His assignment had been a seven minute feature.
Now remember those four minutes were not edited audio but raw
material that had all of his questions amongst other things. He hadn’t
thought of doing an emergency voxpop to meet the required time so
he had to reflect. He wrote a script that he read to fill the time.

I can’t even remember how it sounded, did it make any sense and
how was it received by his supervisors, but this is an alarming story,
not one of triumph. Even if he would have managed to get away with
[ 31 ]
it, you must remember to get enough material because it is not about
getting away with things anyway.

There are no rules really how much is enough raw material for a
story of any length. You must have enough. That is the most definite
answer I can give you. Some old school documentary makers demand
hours and hours of raw material, but I wouldn’t worry about that. In
the modern media production environment we don’t have the luxury
of time like some previously have had. We must produce stories
much faster than before so having those hours and hours of audio is
not only a massive task to record, but also to listen to and edit later
on.

I have been talking a lot about recording interviews and they are
often the substance of your story. They are not, however, all that
matters. Earlier I had mentioned how you can learn about
documentary making from TV and film. If a TV documentary would
only have talking heads – the footage of people talking to camera –
and occasionally footage of the narrator talking, they would have to
have pretty amazing content for us not to change the channel. But
that is still how we often without questioning produce for radio.
There is very little sound environment there. We pause our recorder
when interesting things are happening. By interesting I don’t mean
only very exciting, but just sounds that signify moments, places or
just human beings on their job. If you interview someone in their
office, then a phone call or someone at the door is what signifies that.
If it happens in the middle of your interview you can edit it for the
beginning as something that takes us into a new space. If you are
[ 32 ]
going to interview someone start the recording before you’ve met
them. Get the audio of that meeting when they introduce themselves
to you. It can be nice way to get into the actual answers. This way you
also avoid the often awkward moment of setting up your recorder.
That is the time when the interviewees get nervous so skip that if you
can.

The supporting audio material; atmospheric sounds, more specific
signifiers or observed interactions can be almost anything that is
sound. When you are collecting it, keep your eye on the recording
levels and look for the best place to record from. To collect this audio
it really helps you to ask what are the people in the film
documentaries doing right and how will I translate that into audio?

Collecting the audio tape, as this type of material is sometimes called,
is a different practice from the rest of the recording as you don’t have
to worry about asking the questions and from a participant you have
become more of an observer. Your TV equivalent would be a
cameraman instead of the journalist or a reporter that you are when
you are recording the interviews.

In radio production we often have more roles than in other media as
the production teams are small. Chances are, you are the production
team. It’s good to be comfortable with all the different roles. At the
end, the content must be relevant and interesting and it must be
packaged in a way that it deserves.

[ 33 ]
Know your material and then trust in it
… dealing with your material.

As you have been collecting the material you have created a good
sense of what you got. There is always a chance that one more
interview would improve the final product, but there is also a chance
that it wouldn’t. I mentioned earlier that you should have enough
material so that you don’t have to fill and kill time with nonsense.
Don’t claim lightly that you’re done collecting the audio, but don’t get
obsessed with more material either. Never finishing your work will
only mean that no one ever gets to hear the final product and in the
context of university, it means that you are late for the deadline.
That’s never a good way to score points no matter how noble a
reason you have.

Already when you are collecting the audio you get a rough idea when
something really useful has been said. Make at least mental – if not
written – note where these good bits are so you remember where to
start looking for them. It is also during recording your material that
you start realising what is the direction your piece is taking; what it is
actually saying.

It is really difficult to know, or even guess, how engaged your
listeners are going to be and how carefully they will listen. How
carefully do you usually listen to radio? The more you trust your
audience the less you have to stress ideas. I remember one film
documentary – I won’t name it here as I wish only the best for its
producers – that felt like it might never end as all it really achieved
[ 34 ]
was repetition of one idea and it lasted for close to an hour. There
was the same thing said with different words by different people in
different places, but all that was said was that one thing.

If it was not for the reasons of politeness, I would have walked away
after the first ten minutes even though the topic was something that I
thought should have been very interesting.

Basically overemphasising one message is like explaining your jokes;
everyone got it already and if they didn’t, how well will it go down
just because now you are making it obvious? It is a very tricky
balance between under and overestimating the attention of your
audience.

Consider how clear your message is, and is it enough that one person
makes one point? Even if everyone agrees, you don’t have to use the
same type of clip by different people over and over again.

Some people say things because they just think that it’s the right
thing to say without any critical engagement with whatever
meanings those words have. If that is obvious enough to make a point
on something interesting; the interviewees character for example,
and if his or her character is important in your piece then you can
keep it, but otherwise, be harsh on people saying empty lines. Not
ideally to their face, but in the edit. These lines represent the kind of
language that makes people call politics boring. Well, politics maybe
boring or just complicated, but ideally your piece should be able to
[ 35 ]
package the boring – if that’s what it has got to be – at least in a more
interesting way.

If you have enough material, you don’t have to use any weak
meaningless statements that no one even fully understands.

Listen to all of your material and try to find interesting bits which
you can then mix together. Later on I will talk more about editing and
compiling your final product, but when you listen through the
interviews, try to identify topics and ideas from different people that
would work very well together either juxtaposed or supporting and
complementing each other. At best you could create an interesting
almost tennis match‐like feel where you don’t have to even comment
much yourself.

At this point you should also consider how does your collected
material represent the different sides of the story. The mistake that
happens when you are trying to prove your opinion to be the truth is
that you are not inclined to talk to anyone who would disprove it. It’s
good to talk to people who you disagree with and there is no need to
worry about people’s opinions. If they are very offensive you don’t
have to use them and if you feel that they emphasise a point; even
one that is the very opposite of what they are intended to, then you
can use it. People are smart enough to make up their own mind.

If there is no realistic or sensible way of getting any dissent voices in
your work then you can acknowledge that. If you have tried to
contact a person who represents the dark side of the story and he or
[ 36 ]
she has declined or not been reached, then you can say that. I
personally would not wish to make it too dramatic or judgemental;
again, people are smart enough to decide for themselves.

These editorial questions of what to include are the ones where you
have to use your judgment informed by your target audience and
platform where your work would end up in. Whatever you decide, I’d
advice you to avoid trying to shock people. That usually makes one
half of the people upset and another thinks you’re a fool.

It is not, however, the attempt of shocking that strikes me alarmingly
often. It is probably because of the commercial and promotional
cultures where we live in that has shifted the presenting of content
towards overtly positive. Not that one should be negative just
because, but commercial media also veils the promotion of films,
music or almost anything with a feel of journalism, and this seems to
have had an impact on even the content that is not paid for by the
promotional budgets.

It’s important to think about this quite critically. Especially every
time you have used words like phenomenal, amazing, breathtaking,
unbelievable or so. Firstly, you should not use them because there are
much better words out there, and secondly, when you think of those
words, consider are you having an honest unbiased angle to your
story? It’s not that some things aren’t great, but just like, regardless
of what the hit station presenter tells you, no Britney Spears song is a
classic, there should not be an urgency to describe anything with
[ 37 ]
unrealistic phrases. If something is really amazing, then make sure
your material communicates that without you having to underline it.

At least for me, the promotional sounding content on a platform that
is not promotional makes me suspicious, and if I feel like you are
trying to make up my mind for me, I instinctively react against it. I
will later on talk about the potential of using content based audio in
other ways and that includes advertising and promotion, but unless it
is clear that the purpose of the content is commercially inclined
(money has been paid for it to advertise of promote something), keep
it closer to neutral.

The rest of the audio material, such as the audio tape and all kinds of
atmospheric sounds, work as signifiers of spaces where you wish to
take the listener and transitions when you move forward to the next
segment in your final piece. Later on I will talk more about them, but
try to have a high standard with this material as well and don’t just
have any odd buzzing of the bees in the mix even if there were bees
where you recorded. Or if you do want to have it as a part of your
final piece, consider its strengths and weaknesses. Without pictures
such things demand an explanation or they remain unexplained and
more as a confusion, taking the attention from the real substance of
the story. Ideally it should be there to support it and putting it in a
context.
[ 38 ]
3. Putting it all together

The third part is all about finishing touches and making sure that your
work is both clear and coherent, but also enjoyable. More specifically,
it explores the script writing and recording and final packaging.

[ 39 ]
Working with the script
…writing and recording a script that bridges everything
together.

At the time you start writing the script; your own links, you already
pretty much know what your final piece will be about. You must
create an effective workflow that makes sense to you, but generally
speaking, I would expect you to have most of the other audio edited
at this point. It might not be finalised and honed, but it is in a rough
form of what it will be in the end. That’s purely because while you
can’t guarantee that the material you have recorded others saying or
doing makes sense when mixed, your own script will bring things
together, clarify, summarise and generally help you to make a point.

Writing a script; something you will read out loud is quite different
from writing an essay. It’s different from writing most things actually.
The text you are producing must be something that sounds natural.
Have you ever heard when people have written their public speeches
word for word and it sounds like they are reading it for the first time,
when making a mistake saying, excuse me, and then continuing the
reading? That is exactly how you are not supposed to write a script.
You are supposed to modify your writing to match the way you
speak, not the other way around.

Use shorter and punchier sentences to write the script. Find ways of
efficiently expressing your thoughts in a nice and clear way. Don’t
worry much about unnecessary big words as this really isn’t about
trying to impress anyone with your endless vocabulary, or even word
[ 40 ]
games. The script serves a different purpose. It exists for everything
else to make sense and bridge the gap between different interviews
and spaces. Unless you are one of the few famous film documentary
makers the average people know by their name, you are not the star
of your documentary. Not even if you are a character in it as a
participant, observer or explorer of some kind. Actually, even if you
are one of the famous documentary makers, you still shouldn’t be the
star of the show. Also, if you are one of them, I am flattered that you
are reading this, and struggle to understand why you would.

The script also is something that gives the feel to your work. Since it
ties things together, it also is the only thing that is really consistent.
Whether you have the interviews to support the point you are
making or you supporting the point that the interviews make, your
script; the voice‐overs are usually what gives your piece its style
more than any other speaker. Of course there are other stylistic
devices and in a while, we’ll talk more about editing, but on the talk
based content, in most cases it is you who has the greatest impact on
how the package will feel like.

I learned script writing in live radio. As a presenter I used to write a
script that had pretty much every word I said out loud written down.
Initially, they didn’t sound very natural, but because I also afterwards
listened to every link I had done that day, I managed to improve my
writing. It is by listening to yourself recorded that you not only get
used to your own voice and how it works, but also to how you speak.
After two years of me writing down all of my links, I found all of my
writing being influenced by it, and I had to learn again how to write
[ 41 ]
just for text. That in itself is hardly your goal, but you should
probably try to keep both ways in your active toolbox.

One of the mistakes I often hear, especially in the news, is repeating
what the interviewee says. Actually, since the order is usually first
the link and then the clip, the journalist makes the interviewee sound
like they are repeating what has just been said.

Have you ever heard something like this:

Voiceover: … and the opposition leader says that she
disagrees with the decision the government has made in
the strongest possible terms.

Interview clip: I disagree with the decision the
government has made in the strongest possible terms.

I wish I didn’t hear something like this quite so often as I do. Not by
professional journalist any more than from the students. And it’s not
always as clear and word for word, as there are varying degrees of
bad writing. Still, none of them are good.

A good script links interviews and other audio seamlessly together. It
gives the flair to the final work and its function is to take the content
forward to a direction that is coherent and meaningful. You can use
scripted voice‐overs to introduce the interviewees, to introduce the
[ 42 ]
questions, to provide commentary or facts, but you can also use it to
summarise. Many people you end up interviewing are very smart and
professional on their field, but not necessarily on the field of effective
communication. They can really slaughter a great point to the degree
that it makes no sense for you to use it. Or they can talk for an hour,
but you can afford to allocate them four minutes in your piece. In
cases like these, you can easily have a good solid interesting clip you
have edited and write script that says: Mrs X also mentioned that the
other concerns are a, b and c. Usually, you are able to say things in a
clearer way and get to the point quicker. This kind of summarising
enables you to keep your work easier to follow, more straightforward
and it allows you to use the minutes you have to say much more.

If you have been at an event such as a demonstration or anywhere
that would be worth describing to the listeners, you can record
something as things happen, but you can also do this afterwards by
writing it down on a script as it happened. It might lack the sense of
realism and urgency that a link recorded while it was happening
would have, but it can be more reflective and you can really consider
what were the important elements that should be covered.

It’s a fine line between writing commentary and writing opinions.
You can reflect on the material you have used, you can link ideas and
make conclusions, but I would really advise you to stay away from
giving opinions. Especially in a news story. In a human interest story
you can consider them, or even use them sparingly especially if you,
as a journalist, are part of the journey that is being followed. Then it
is particularly appropriate to tell how did things make you feel and
[ 43 ]
use your opinions as a sounding board to what the general thoughts
may be, but even that is separate from giving your opinions as the
truth.

If you have political or religious views, be particularly careful. There
are things that you may view to be true and righteous and therefore
appropriate as evidence in themselves, but others may have very
different views. The best case scenario is that everyone who doesn’t
agree with you will discredit anything you have said and the worst
case scenario is that you offend them. Offending people is always a
tricky thing; it can’t always be avoided, so should it happen, make
sure it’s at least for good reasons.

There are some technicalities to write a good script. Most of the time
when we open our word processing software on the computer we get
the default setting: Times New Roman on the font, size 12 and single
line spacing. As useful as that may be for the average document, it
doesn’t do much for the script writing. If you work for different
media organisations there might be specific rules and standards, but
whatever script you write, use a bigger font size – I use 18. Use a font
that is easy for your eye; Times New Roman is not bad for that, and
especially if you write for someone else, but even if it is for yourself,
rather use a double line spacing as that allows notes to be made and
generally creates a sense of clarity.

On top of the general rules, I personally like to use a lot of space.
Unfortunately, when the script is printed, it’s not very environmental,
but it makes me feel less hurried and helps me to emphasise every
[ 44 ]
part the way it must be emphasised. I use a lot of dots and write a
separate paragraph for everything that I conceive to be even a
slightly separate thought. If I was to read this paragraph as a voice‐
over, the script would look like this:

On top of the general rules.. I personally like to use a
lot of space…..
It makes me feel less hurried.. and it helps me to
emphasise every part ….
I use a lot of dots.. and write a separate paragraph for
everything that I conceive to be even a slightly
separate thought.

It is my personal habit that I use the dots to signify the length of
break I want to take. A few dots is just a small break but the more
dots I write, the longer a gap I intend to have. That gap is a stylistic
device I use to emphasise. This might not be something that makes
much sense to you from my script, but I know exactly what it means.
You will, no doubt, find your own ways to write for yourself. When
you write for other people, you must take into consideration that
they can’t read your mind, but also that they don’t necessarily use the
[ 45 ]
same words as you do naturally or that their way of speaking is very
different. When writing for others you might need to be more
general. Unless, of course, you know and understand exactly the way
they use language.

After all this work, you’ve got a script in your hands. That in itself is
not the final product – you still need to record it and mix with other
content. For now we are dealing with recording.

If you can, make sure you have enough time booked in the studio and
that you are comfortable with the equipment. Basically many of the
principles I talked about earlier with recording on location apply
here as well, although the setting is calmer. Try out different ways
and think about what is the purpose of your piece. Should you sound
serious, curious or hilarious? Emotional, thoughtful or cold? Having
written the script, you’ll have a clear idea, I am sure, what it is that
you need to do.

Listen back to your recordings and make sure that every word is
pronounced correctly and the flow is as you need it to be. Try things
out; maybe a pause here and there and things like that. Or how about
even longer break to really emphasise and give the listener some
time – or rather – force them to think.

One thing that you can always keep in mind when working with a
script, whether you are writing or recording, is that this is where you
have the most control. You don’t have to rely on anyone and unless
you have limited access to the studio facilities or far too little time in
[ 46 ]
your hands, you can keep on rewriting and rerecording until you are
happy.

And what if you don’t have an access to the studio? For whatever
reason. There are many DIY ways to record with just a microphone
and recorder. I am not getting into them in any detailed way, but let
me just say that a makeshift studio acoustics can be achieved with
soft things; pillows, mattresses and fabrics and many people even
record underneath a blanket. It gives you a better sound quality and
excludes many noises from outside, although, of course, it is not
necessarily a very comfortable experience otherwise.

[ 47 ]
Do it with style
… hook the listeners and take them to places.

One of the key ideas for everything that I’ve written about has been a
union of content and style. If you have a piece that lacks substance or
any kind of meaning – or just doesn’t reach a good enough standard –
it won’t reach the listener. It automatically lacks the authority. I am
not qualified to give analysis on basic human psychology, but I
suspect that if your listener doubts the authority of anything in your
piece, she may as well doubt the legitimacy of everything. It’s harsh.
People like to know better and that’s why you must check what
you’re doing.

But even that’s not enough. So, you don’t make any mistakes and you
even double checked how to pronounce the French name you had to
include, and no one can catch you for not knowing what you talk
about. You can even bring out some rather outstanding new data on
board and potentially improve the public discourse, but if your work
is unlistenable or incoherent, you won’t reach many people either.
And radio is still a mass medium. The people who decide what to put
on radio have to think about that.

You’ve worked hard, with all the foot work of finding interviewees
and angles, this is the time when you put it all together – so shine.

How can you start off strong? Try to hook the listener from the very
beginning. Start with a provocative short comment from an
interviewee or any audio that you feel would make the listener feel “I
[ 48 ]
want to hear more.” Sometimes there are songs that start off bland
and only in the chorus become very catchy. The reason we know this
is probably because we hear songs over and over again, at least if we
are music radio listeners, but when it comes to other content, we
don’t have the luxury to think that maybe on the fifth listen, they will
get it. There will probably only ever be one listen per listener. So
regardless of how artistic you want your expression to be, if your
message is more important, then you must think of the best way to
communicate it.

I personally never like to start or finish with my own voice‐over. I
just feel that surely there must be better audio to describe what I am
covering. Surely I can’t be the most interesting person recorded.
Surely, out of all the people, I can’t be the factor that makes my work
stand out. If I was, I’d have to rethink really hard if my story and
angle are good enough.

The beginning of your piece hooks your listeners and makes them
want more, and then in the end, the final thoughts, hopefully, leave
them thinking about your point. Or at the very least something.
Whatever you end up including in the middle of these two things,
think of them as factors that can boost your chances to be heard and
remembered.

I was talking about the style and flair that the script gives to your
audio, and while I am not taking that back, I must add that editing
and compiling your work obviously deals with the same matter. I was
also saying that when recording, do record a lot of audio that isn’t an
[ 49 ]
interview, but just something happening. At this point, you start
drawing from that audio archive you’ve created on locations. Which
atmospheric sounds are clear signals of the space, and which ones
signal the mood? Some other sounds are great for transitions
between places and moods; from interview to another when they are
in different places. I personally think cars work very well for that, but
you’ll find that many of these things don’t have to be made too
obvious. They are small signs maybe on the background
communicating almost subconsciously the message. Transition can
be made, for instance, by cross‐fading the relevant background
noises with long enough mix, so the change has just happened. Use
other audio over the fades and think carefully if you want to use your
audio in a way that it’s bang! here, and now the next thing. Your mix
of atmospheric tracks shouldn’t look like a queue of audio items but
rather a number of tracks fading in and out and layered on top of
each other. Well, at least possibly so. I can’t tell you exactly how your
work should look like on the screen or sound like from the speakers,
and of course we all like different things, but still, I’d recommend you
to try and make sound rich features and documentaries. Most people
don’t seem to do so, so this can be your advantage and unique selling
point.

Often we feel tempted to undermine our listener. In general radio
practitioners seem to every time either under or overestimate the
audiences’ attention span, brain capacity and dedication to listening.
We can’t take anything for granted, but patronising won’t win you
any sympathy either. Be clear, but don’t make your point like the
listener is stupid. Contents like the ones we’ve been dealing with
[ 50 ]
here, are probably listened to in a different way and in all probability
with more attention. If not, they probably aren’t listened to at all, or
at least not in a way that the message demands in order to be
communicated in any meaningful way. So if we assume that people
either give you their attention to an extent which is enough, or then
they don’t matter much – at least as far as your documentary goes –
you don’t have to assume that they can’t comprehend anything. They
can.

Actually, even if we assume almost anything, or you could prove my
thinking faulty, I still think that people aren’t stupid and therefore
shouldn’t be treated as such.

You don’t have to use a formula where you talk, place an interview
clip, then talk more, another interview and so forth. Make the clips
from different interviews talk amongst and to each other. Make them
support each other, fill in gaps or even argue. You don’t have to
always introduce them. Be creative and try it out. It may not
immediately click, but with a few trials and errors you might just get
somewhere.

Sometimes this type of juxtaposing can tell so much more about the
situation than you ever could verbally. How people approach things
from different angles and have different priorities.

If you want to use the different interviews to support and
complement each other, try to find a seamless way to tell the story
[ 51 ]
through a few different characters instead of all of them saying the
same thing one after another.

You can consider the order of the interviews based on how you want
to tell the story, but also how interesting they are. Sometimes
someone we don’t know says something incredibly interesting and
other times the President of the Nation says something rather dull,
but is such an important figure, that it’s interesting anyway. It may be
worth placing bits and pieces of the interesting people strategically in
the beginning and the end for the reasons I’ve mentioned already – to
attract attention and hook the listener and to leave something to
think about and remember, but you can also try to evenly distribute
them so that there isn’t a long dry phase somewhere in the middle.

I had dedicated an entire segment reminding you how important it is
to be familiar with the necessary technology in order to achieve good
results. Just before reaching the very end of your production task,
make sure that you listen to it back and forth a good few times to
identify the potential problems. Then fix them. Make sure that the
audio levels are not jumping from high to low very quickly and
dramatically. Use some compression and mix until you are happy
with it. And don’t go too easy on yourself; it’d be a shame to fall short
on the last leg of your production mission.

The way your final piece will be, depends on you and how have you
managed to work it. I can’t really tell you the way to do it, because,
well, it depends, but I have tried to give you some ideas of what to
consider. That, of course, goes for all the segments of this e‐book.
[ 52 ]

But now, at this point, our documentary is done. How nice. We’ve
done a good job, but no one, maybe outside of our group of friends
and family, has heard it. The last chapter deals with how to get it
placed and what other options there are, and should we actually
completely rethink why we do this type of things at all.

[ 53 ]
4. … and finally

This last chapter deals with how to get your work heard and what kind
of practicalities might need some considering, and why keep on
thinking about something that is increasingly not in radio anymore.
Could there be a renaissance, redefinition or redundancy in the
horizon?
[ 54 ]
Know your placement
…finding a home for your baby.

The media industry is not much fun when you approach it as an
outsider. At the very least, it can be incredibly tough to penetrate it in
any other way but to get a job instead of becoming a service provider
or an independent content producer. I am sure it can be done; all I am
saying is that it can be tough. It certainly has had its ups and downs
with me. But regardless of the assumed excellence and insightfulness
of your production, you now need to place it somewhere. Unless, you
had had an arrangement before getting to this point, or, like said,
you’re nine to fiving for a station or a production company.

Unless your idea of placing your work is on CD on your bookshelves
or as a file in a forgotten folder in the depths of you computer, there’s
a need for some decisive action.

Now having a final product, I am sure you’ve thought hard about
where its style would work, or alternatively produced it in a style
that fits into the flow of your targeted station. It’s important to
familiarise yourself with stations where things like these can find
themselves in, and work with the knowledge gathered from that
exercise. What topics get commissioned and in what kind of style? Is
it more hard journalistic exposé, human interest story with a strong
emotional aspect or reflective journey‐like content? Every single bit
of information you can find out may be very useful when you
approach the station.

[ 55 ]
If you haven’t had an arrangement to have your piece placed
anywhere, it might be a good idea to email the person who is in
charge; programme controller or some such (don’t mistake the vague
sound of that with it not mattering; it might just depend on the
station’s organisational structure who is that right person – but you
need to find it out), and demonstrate to them why your feature or
documentary would specifically work on their station. It’s generally
better to email than to call as many people can find phone calls from
people they don’t know a bit irritating, but once you have created a
contact, if there’s a delay with their response, you can call to remind.
I do advise you to remember that sometimes it is a thin line between
reminding and pestering, and many of the people you must get
through to, have many meetings so don’t try to prolong the
conversations if they sound hurried. That’s not to say that you
couldn’t say what you called to say.

Another very practical reason why it is better to email is that then
there’s a digital paper trail, and whatever arrangement you end up
with, the information can be traced back, which erases many
potential misunderstandings and also the occasional people who
don’t agree with fair play.

There are of course other reasons why you may have produced your
material, than to just get it sold once and then move on to the next
one to do exactly the same thing. Maybe you did it as a showcase that
you hope will get you hired. It’s not a bad plan either, especially if you
are a student.

[ 56 ]
And as a student you can’t expect to automatically be able to sell
everything that you do. Strictly legally speaking actually, you might
not even have a right to if it’s part of your studies, but I am getting
into the copyright matters in a moment.

I always recommend students to blog. You have your Facebook and
Twitter, but realistically as a media student, you should have a blog
as well. I am not the one who decides that, but I really struggle to
come up with any reasons why you wouldn’t. Your blog can be your
showcase of your writing, videos, photographs and of course also
audio. You can be a podcaster or just occasionally upload some audio
you’ve worked with for people to hear and for you to learn the way
the technology works. There are all the chances in the world that you
need to know the basics of updating a blog of some kind when you
are hired and it’s something nice to pull out of the bag in a job
interview. It demonstrates taking initiative, creativity and passion for
production. I’d see it as a massive plus on the corner of your
application, and although not everyone in the industry feels as
strongly about this as I do, I can’t see how it would reduce your
chances. Maybe with an exception of you having uploaded photos
from the weekend night out where you passed out half naked and
your friends draw a Hitler moustache on you with a marker pen, but
isn’t that what Facebook is for?

As always, you can find many services that you can use online, but I
wanted to provide you with a very short list of a few web services I
like, and find convenient specifically when it comes to blogging and
placing audio online. A word of warning though; in the Internet these
[ 57 ]
things keep on changing and what is good today, may be overdone by
someone else tomorrow. So there will be a moment in time when this
list becomes outdated.

• Wordpress
Wordpress is one of the free ways of blogging. You can make your
blog really rather professional looking by tweaking it for a while.

• Blogger
Blogger is one of Google’s services and one of the older blogging
platforms. It is increasingly flexible and has an added social
networking aspect by allowing you to follow other blogs and them
to follow you.

• Posterous
This is probably the easiest and by far the most convenient
blogging service that I have tried. With a Posterous blog
everything can be done by sending an email. That includes
attaching pictures, PDF’s, audio or video to the email and the blog
then presents them in a nice stylish manner. There are things you
can’t do with it, but the ones you can are incredibly effortless.

• PodBean
While Podbean also gives you a blog, it is actually more of a
podcasting service. By opening this account you can upload
100MB of audio for free and get automatically created feeds for
your audio to be subscribed to via iTunes or RSS. Even if you’d use
other services for blogging, this could work as your audio base.
[ 58 ]

• Soundcloud
Created more for the purposes of musicians, Soundcloud allows
you to upload and store audio for free. It gives you, in my opinion,
very stylish audio players that you can easily embed into your
blog or elsewhere online. You can decide whether your audio is
downloadable or not, and the drop box enables you to easily
receive and give files to others.

• PRX
PRX, or the Public Radio Exchange is a website for the American
Public Radio system. This is a place where you can upload your
material and even sell it to the stations for some money. While the
money isn’t necessarily going to blow your mind, it might be a nice
thing to have in your CV. You can listen to other people’s work
here as well, get ideas, give feedback to others just as they can give
it to your work and generally get good ideas for your future work.

Finally, whether you are uploading your audio on your personal blog
or on someone else’s website, working for a station or a production
company or trying to sell your content independently, it is good to
have an idea of copyright matters. They can be tricky on a good day.

You own the full copyright to your work as soon as you have done it.
You don’t need the © symbol or a detailed explanation on how you
are going to let the blood thirsty dogs after anyone who even thinks
about using your work; what you have done, you own the rights for.
Copyright is your incentive for your creativity.
[ 59 ]

Or so they say.

Here’s the fine print; for the sake of clarity I wrote it on the same font
size as the rest of the text. If you have done your work at a university
or with university’s equipment, depending on their policies, but quite
likely, they would own the copyright to your work. In theory you are
not able to sell that or arguably, if indeed they do own the rights,
legally put it online to your blog. I am sure that the latter should
never be a problem and even the former generally shouldn’t land you
in trouble. The truth is that if you as a student manage to sell your
work while studying, you are also positive PR for the department and
that may even end up recruiting a few new students; that’s where the
money is for them. And where it definitely isn’t, is to make a few
bucks out of selling student work for which they claim ownership.
Even if they did own the rights, they wouldn’t probably use them.

Another option is that you work for a radio station or a production
company. It is then also, in all probability somewhere in your
contract that the work you have produced is owned by them. Which
means that, again, at least in theory, you cannot even place it online
for free for others. In practice, I am sure you can, but legally, you
could be sued. Definitely they wouldn’t be happy if you tried to sell
the work they paid you to do to someone else.

It can also so happen, that you are an independent producer who has
taken a risk and without any advance payments produced something
out of your own concept with your own equipment on your own time,
[ 60 ]
and when you wish to sell it to some broadcaster, instead of one‐time
only rights, they want the full copyright of your work. That means
that they pay you once a bit and then own this work for so long that it
could as well be forever. In practice it means that they’ll play it once
and then it goes into an archive in all likelihood never to be played
again anywhere. Legally, they will decide what happens to it. You
could renegotiate this clause, I guess, as I doubt it’s a deal breaker
since often especially in radio, the stations and broadcasters aren’t
banking on further income from your work. For some reason the
contracts are not drawn with that in mind.

Basically what that means is that it’s important that you know what
kind of contracts are involved and what are the policies. Just because
I have said many times in the previous paragraphs that in all
probability a non‐commercial usage of your production would not
create problems, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t know what you are
dealing with. And I can’t promise to you that there definitely won’t be
trouble. One thing that you can learn more about is the idea of
Creative Commons. Creative Commons licences are part of
copyrights, only with them you can release some rights so that
people can use your content just like you can use the content that has
been licensed in this same way. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing
these licences used more by universities and even radio stations,
which could release some rights after the first broadcasting of the
content, but that is not a very common practice at this point in time.

But whatever is the case with your legal rights to your production, I’d
encourage you to upload it online to your blog. It’s your demo tape
[ 61 ]
and a proof of the standard of your production work. No corporate
lawyer will realistically bother you for having it there, because no
one is losing revenue in the process. At this point, that is what it all
comes down to. Everyone needs to pay the bills and how does this
kind of audio content support that?

In the next segment, we look into how important all of this really is –
I mean who even cares about the radio documentaries anyway?

[ 62 ]
Re‐thinking everything
…after the basics, where to next?

We have now spent a considerable time pondering different aspects
of documentary and feature production. Disproportionate amount
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
[ 63 ]
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 a 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 minutes
[ 64 ]
things about pop singers, festivals or films. And maybe it is exactly
the occasional film review that might be one of the surviving ways of
utilising the skills we’ve been talking about. 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 the shortage of that money and
resources that the lack of such content can be attributed to. Rather
than, say, it’s inherently useless.

I’ve always felt that the 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
[ 65 ]
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 like 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.
[ 66 ]
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 the 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 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 for 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
[ 67 ]
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.

[ 68 ]
Last words

My disclaimer for this e‐book has been that these are just ideas – not
the truth. I don’t particularly believe in the truth, even though I know
some things are true. Without questioning these ideas don’t probably
have much value as they need to be applied so that they match with
what you are trying to achieve. I wish that you have gained a sense of
how to approach working with content based audio and some ideas
how to think about it rather than just a checklist of things to do. You
know, the whole difference between giving one a fish or a fishing rod.
I also hope that you will think about radio, or any media not just as
what it is but what it could be.

When it comes to documentaries, features and such there is not
really a right or wrong way to do it – at least not any universal ones.
This e‐book has been about sharing ideas and introducing
considerations for you to find how you would be able to best do it.
But reading this text is not about doing; it’s only helping you to get
started.

So go out – to the real world – and do it. Keep an open mind and try
something out. Record beautiful and interesting audio, talk to people,
find out, learn, experience, grow and share. You can’t do it in theory
only, so go and create something in practice.

[ 69 ]
About me.

Sometimes people say about the
author, but in the spirit of Michel
Foucault, I am not really the author of
this text. I wrote it, yes, but I can
hardly claim that these ideas originate
from me – most of them I’ve learned
either from other people or from my
experiences. All the ideas here are
building on the tradition of
broadcasting and I am, and have been
one small link in that continuum. I’ve
seen, heard and been told, it has filtered through my own experiences
and practices, I’ve thought and theorised based on the thoughts of
others’, I have interpreted, summarised and structured an idea
around a bank of knowledge. I am not the banker – I only have an
account.

I’ve been involved with radio for over a decade. After having done my
first broadcasts on what could only be described as a community
station, although it officially isn’t one, I hosted and produced a daily
evening show on hit radio station in my home country, Finland.

In England I worked as technical operator and a member of the
promotional team for a rock station as it was being launched This I
did while studying my BA and Honours Degrees at the University of
Central England (now known as Birmingham City University).
[ 70 ]

I’ve worked and volunteered for a few years for one of the Africa’s
oldest community stations.

I’ve co‐ran an audio production company that produced
documentaries and other content for SAfm amongst others.

I produced labour news for SABC’s Channel Africa and several other
African Public Broadcasters.

At the University of Cape Town I have taught radio students as well
studied for my Masters Degree.

I’m a blogger and a keen photographer.

There is also one person who calls me a husband and another who
calls me isi – that’s dad in Finnish. It is to these two people that I
extend my thanks.

Mikko Kapanen, 2010.
[ 71 ]

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