A one day workshop on the art of shaping your audio piece | Led by Eleanor McDowall & Bev Lee Harling

OVERVIEW

How do you find the shape of an audio piece? Whether you’re making a documentary, audio essay, narrative series or a more experimental work, the structure of a piece is often where we find ourselves floundering, trying to wrestle a collection of elements into something that both sounds beautiful and will do your idea justice.

This workshop explores how to think about form, structure and narrative in audio - from the underlying architecture of a piece to the rhythm and momentum of individual scenes and moments. It will look at how structure can often be crafted long before the edit, in planning and preparation, development work and interview approach. Alongside more conventional modes of storytelling, we will also delve deep into the idea that not all audio work needs to lean on narrative, and look at creative ways to throw off the shackles of ‘story’.

We will end the day with a peer-to-peer clinic in which participants share their challenges and quandaries in all things structure, and look for creative solutions together. So, come spend a day by the seaside getting curious and playful in the art of audio structure, while hanging out with some fellow makers!

SESSIONS

Each one-day masterclass we organise comprises a session from someone working specifically in audio, plus another from someone whose work typically falls outside of the audio industry, in order to offer a sideways approach to finding inspiration for your creativity and making. Here, Eleanor McDowall will lead a workshop exploring how we can experiment with form in the audio work we make. She’ll offer practical tools, as well as case studies from her body of work. Afterwards, Bev Lee Harling will lead a session informed by her own work as a composer and performer developing and writing storytelling-based shows.

About Eleanor McDowall (https://www.fallingtree.co.uk/)

Eleanor McDowall is a radio-maker, curator and one of two directors at the independent production company Falling Tree. She is the series producer of Short Cuts, a home for adventurous short documentaries on the radio presented by Josie Long. In her spare time she makes zines about the radio, through her project Weird Noise, and created Radio Atlas - an English language home for subtitled audio from around the world, which turns ten years old this year.

About Bev Lee Harling (https://www.bevleeharling.com/)

Bev Lee Harling is a multi-genre vocalist, violinist and composer working across performance, theatre, dance, film and opera bringing classical, folk, jazz and found sounds to her projects and collaborations. Her recent music-theatre shows Ploughing the Salt Sea and Things I Know and Things I Don’t incorporate oral history, field recordings, local heritage and memoir into songs and sound, and she often works with physical objects –either found or fabricated– to enrich and bring life to her work.

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TICKETS

We are offering early bird prices (£70) on the first 10 ticket sales. We are also offering a limited number of concessions and one bursary place, please email us for details: soundcraftstl@gmail.com .

SOUND CRAFT

Sound Craft brings together audio makers to explore the art of storytelling through sound. Based in St Leonards-on-Sea (home toXMTR Audio Arts Festival (https://www.xmtr.fm/festival)), we run courses, masterclasses and workshops led by masters in the craft. Alongside this are peer-to-peer sessions where ideas, techniques and works-in-progress can be shared in an open, supportive environment. We’re guided by curiosity and playful experimentation - creating opportunities for people at all stages to deepen their practice and try something new while connecting with other audio makers. All while spending time by the sea!

Description supplied by the event organiser.