Annnnnd, we're back after a bit of a hiatus to feature one of our favorite producers.
Radio -- the sound-rich story telling variety that we showcase here -- needs Kyla Brettle. But for now, it must share the multi-tasking Ms. Brettle with her young son and her students in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University in Melbourne, where she teaches radio and convergent media production "with a little bit of TV thrown in on the side."
Let's hope this new mom can "have it all," so we can hear more outstanding work like 000-Ambulance (part of a series titled Emergency). To our mind Kyla's magnum opus, it's a spellbinding piece that puts you in the middle of an Australian version of a 9-1-1 call center. Keep reading and discover the massive effort of recording so many sources and an editing slog through miles of tape.
The first time our ears perked up at Kyla's work was in 2002, when she won Best New Artist at the Third Coast Festival for Affairs of the Mind. Here she follows a private investigator shadowing a two-timing husband. It includes a real chase scene worthy of a TV crime thriller.
Kyla's sound design skills come to the fore in The Trouble With Rick. Proving radio can be impressionistic, it's like an embed in the skull of a man whose life is turned upside down.
We recently had the chance to catch up with Kyla on her work and her life.
You started out producing documentary films, then veered off into radio. What caused you to make the switch?
Kyla: I started producing radio because I found a story that had to be made in sound… at the time I was in my 20s - a struggling documentary filmmaker making ends meet by writing articles for the weekend papers. I was interviewing for a particularly shonky advice piece called, ‘I think my partner is having an affair, how can I tell?’ when I came across Steve Murray; a private detective who specializes in marital surveillance. I was spellbound – Steve’s eloquence, humor, perception and self-delusion was utterly compelling – he was everything a dramaturge would want in a character. I knew I would make something with him at the center…
A documentary film? Access would be difficult in vision, Steve wouldn’t want his face on national TV and neither would his clients - getting good shots of him under cover would be impossible. Also, Steve was a great talker and storyteller - film is hungry for action and isn’t the best medium for words.
A newspaper or magazine feature? This would be possible but a bit of a waste of someone so vibrant in the flesh – Steve would shine in time-based media, in print, he would come across as a caricature….
And then I thought – radio? In sound I wouldn’t have privacy issues and I’d be able to let Steve’s stories run free – but more than that sound would privilege how Steve sees the world (rather than how the world sees Steve) and it is the perfect medium for a tale of secrets and lies and standing on shifting sands … And so that’s how I fell into working with sound.
In 2002, you won the Best New Artist award at the Third Coast Festival with “Affairs of the Mind.” Later work like “The Trouble with Rick” suggest your approach and technique have evolved over the decade. True?
Central to the development of my personal approach to making radio was my experience as a documentary filmmaker and my training in music and composition – and my shows are usually either put together a bit more like music (like the Trouble with Rick) or a bit more like a film (Affairs of the Mind).
When I’m thinking more musically the focus is on things like the interplay between sound textures (i.e. the difference in timbre between music and observational sounds as well as between a ‘spontaneous’ voice and a ‘read’ voice), sonic intensity and tonal range (how many sounds are heard simultaneously and if they are high or low pitched sounds) and also using ‘theme and variation’ of sound sequences to develop ‘meaning’ in a piece – for example, I might repeat a little sound sequence or use an effect that comes to signify a change of scene or idea or going back in time or to a different location. Then, if I vary a sound idea that has been repeated a few times then it stands out for the listener – it’s one way to signpost information that is integral to understanding a piece.
When I’m thinking in a more filmic way it tends to be about structure and flow of the narrative – do the ‘beats’ progress into scenes and then sequences and then acts? – does the story flow between positive and negative charges? – are the turning points in the right place? The images that a series of sounds create and ‘dramatic timing’ is also key. For me, ‘thinking like a filmmaker’ is also about thinking where is the listener in the piece – unlike film, sound constructs a three dimensional environment – and that’s a very exciting canvas… Is the listener spoken to directly (through the ‘third wall’), are they a fly on a wall in a naturalistic kind of a scene – or does the listener jump dramatically in an impossible way across time and space …
Give us an idea of the massive effort to produce “Emergency” and if you did it alone.
Kyla: Emergency is a three part series that follows the ‘medical conveyor belt’ of the emergency health system here in Australia. The first program is based in the 000 (US 911) call center where emergency calls come in and ambulances are dispatched. In the second program I go on the road with an ambulance paramedic – and the third is based in the emergency and trauma ward of a busy inner city hospital.
Yes, ‘massive effort’ is an apt description and yes I made them alone, I both record and cut all my shows.
Putting aside how personally confronting it was to work in a space where life and death hangs in balance - each show had its own creative and technical challenges.
To record the program in the 000 call center I ran four independent microphones on different channels of a portable mixer in an attempt to capture a call as it came in and was dealt with by the call-taker and then sent electronically to the other side of the room where it was picked up by the dispatcher who gave the job to the paramedics on the road via a two-way radio. Whilst following and recording a different scene in each ear (only hearing half the scene because I couldn’t hear the caller at the other end) – I had to jot down ‘job numbers’ of calls I thought sounded interesting. Later I gave the center a list of job numbers and they supplied the audio (they record everything on their phone and radio lines)… then it was a matter of combing through the material and matching the halves of conversations together… it was quite tricky. But then, putting the story together turned out to be very easy - it almost edited itself.
The final program in the series, the one set in the Emergency ward had different problems. Some things that were intensely dramatic – like watching a drill go into someone’s scull – didn’t sound like much at all. When you close your eyes and just listen, the peaks and troughs of a story change about. The biggest challenge with ‘Trauma’, however, was the edit – after three weeks of observational recording day and night – I had 30 hours of material and about 25 characters … boiling that down was a long and arduous process – though in the end, satisfying.
As an instructor teaching media at the university level, how much interest do today’s visually-oriented students have in radio?
Kyla: It’s true that more students coming into the Media Program at RMIT University are more interested in visual over audio media. There are always a few who are passionate about sound but on the whole new students have a better intuitive grasp of visual media and more sophisticated visual literacies – but I think that reflects the values of our visually-dominant culture more than anything else.
We find that more students are interested in focusing on sound after they complete their first year courses. Things shift once students are exposed to great radio features and understand how powerful the medium can be (most have never heard a radio doc before); get a sense of the creative freedom and imaginative play they can have with the form; and compare the inexpensive, intimate and streamlined production process with the cumbersome and expensive process of making film or TV.
With a busy life as a new mom, teaching and getting a graduate degree, is producing radio still a passion for you?
Kyla: To be honest, I hit a bit of a wall with sound work a couple of years ago. My big thing was exploring observational radio making and I felt I had pushed it as far as I needed to and wasn’t sure where to go next – so I got involved with online projects and participatory production with the ABC and for my postgrad degree. Then the rest of life caught up with me - finding a wonderful partner, buying an idyllic stone cottage and old garden in the country and having a gorgeous little baby has turned all my goals and priorities upside down… I’m happy but I miss my work, I long to make a new show – so it’s a good thing that our sound studio renovations are almost complete and I’m getting new audio editing software (Wavelab). Though I can’t work up until 2 in the morning anymore – there is a window between 5 and 7 am when the house is quiet and my time is my own.
Are audio documentaries and features still a relevant media choice for Australians?
Kyla: Radio, TV, film, CDs, DVDs – or rather, the visual and aural stories they carry – are not going to die – they’re just going to adapt, or rather, are adapting to a networked media environment, and in my view, becoming stronger for it.
I’m not sure about Australian’s choice – but the internet has done wonderful things for audio features and for the sorts of networks that broadcast them. We can now hear a rich array of programs from around the world and connect with other radio producers and radio lovers – we are no longer isolated wondering if there is anyone out there who feels as we do about sound stories. We can even read blogs like yours, Rich. Audio on demand and downloads mean our stories don’t disintegrate into the ether once broadcast and advances in listening technology mean we have a better chance of hearing what the producer intended (not just what you can hear through the wind and the noise of an old car radio).
As with other heritage media industries radio features will need to develop new funding models … but as a form, I don’t think the relevance of audio feature is any more threatened than text, still or moving image features and documentaries …
What’s the favorite piece you’ve ever produced and why is it your favorite?
Kyla: Every major piece takes you on its own journey and teaches you something about the world, other people and yourself – so it’s hard to call a favorite. A favorite piece isn’t necessarily your best piece, either – I think the x-factor that really makes a piece special is usually the ten percent that ‘just happened’ without you consciously crafting anything – and maybe we feel more for the ones that aren’t the best because they gave us a harder time and keener experience …
I’m going to say my fav is The Audition: into the Victorian College of the Arts (listen to part one and part 2) – a program that takes us into the audition process of the most elite music performance school in Victoria and arguably Australia. It was a monster of an observational piece, the last really big one I made - 50 hours of rushes; mixing 12 live mics in field with two recording teams and following 20 characters knowing I would drop most of them once I knew the outcome. It is my favorite because it was my story – I went back to my old school to record my old teachers and an experience that shaped my future. You wouldn’t know it was autobiographical from listening to it – but the piece more or less explores the tension between who I was at 16 (and my expectations of life) and who I became at 30.
What’s your favorite piece of audio produced by somebody else?
Kyla: Ah, now that’s a tricky question – where to start.
I am ever inspired by the Jowi Taylor, Paolo Pietropaolo and Chris Brookes’ The Wire made for CBC – particularly episode 5 – I still get a tingle up my back when I listen to it - it is a deeply sumptuous radiophonic work. I love the way it builds up a sonic framework and then pulls it apart and its clever use of non-verbal sounds and SFX.
I love the David Issay’s ‘Witness to an Execution’ – a really powerful piece of radio – in some ways, more for what it doesn’t say than what it does. The work touches neither the crime nor the victim – but looks at the aftershocks and crater left by the violence. The sound design is simple but effective in how it makes all voices ‘one voice’.
The BBC’s ‘Don’t hang up’ with presenter Alan Dein is simply a brilliant idea for a radio program – call random phone boxes and hear what happens. I laughed so much I cried.
And of course there are many Australian programs I love – Lea Redfern’s Try not to Breathe still haunts me, Tony Barrell’s wonderful The Space Between Time, Sherre DeLys’ If … too many to mention.
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