2012 – Sound and Music Production

Career Update – Simon Ross – 2012 Alumnus

Blog post by Simon Ross:

Last time I wrote a post for the Audio Production blog I had pretty much just started life with the BBC. Almost 2 years down the line, I am now typing from a brand new studio desk at BBC Radio Lincolnshire at the end of what has been a very busy few months.

My regular duties are working as a Broadcast Assistant at weekends, covering the on-air broadcast of programmes on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. I will also find myself covering other programmes during the week, including Mid Morning, Afternoon and Drivetime.

So what has changed? First of all, BBC Radio Lincolnshire no longer has its own dedicated BBC Introducing programme. This is what gave me my “foot in the door” in my final year as an Audio Production student. It was a real shame to see that go; however, this developed a new opportunity for me to spend time at BBC Radio Nottingham working on their Introducing East Midlands programme.

What has been particularly pleasant is I now find myself taking my work out of the studios on a more regular basis. During the summer months I have been fortunate enough to work at various music festivals on BBC Introducing stages as a Floor Manager. I have also been representing BBC Radio Lincolnshire at major events around the county. We often have live performances from local musicians when we travel to these events, so my Audio Production degree gets put to fantastic use when I’m setting up a stage in a town market place or on the beach.

The highlight of my career so far is when I visited the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby. It began as a leisurely trip, but word quickly spread that “somebody from the BBC” was visiting after I had posted a tweet earlier in the day. I was invited to return to the BBMF in the latter months of 2013 for an exclusive look behind the scenes during the winter service period. This when the iconic Lancaster Bomber (the treasured aircraft we regularly see fly over Buckingham Palace, and one of only two airborne Lancasters in the world) is grounded from the skies for maintenance and repairs.

I spent a day speaking to engineers, pilots, ground crew and veterans, and produced a 5 part series which was broadcast on BBC Radio Lincolnshire over the new year. This is quite easily my proudest achievement to date, and the enormity of what I was fortunate enough to be a part of hasn’t entirely sunk in yet.

My connections with the University of Lincoln have remained very close. I have participated in a number of guest lectures and networking events, and I am always happy to speak to students and graduates seeking advice about their own careers. Contact me via email: simon.ross1@bbc.co.uk or via Twitter @simonross46

Cheers!

Simon Ross
BA (Hons) Audio Production
BBC Lincolnshire Broadcast Assistant

June 13, 2014 2012, Alumni, Radio No Comments

Career Update – Matt North – 2012 Alumnus

Blog post by Matt North who will be joining us for the Headspace event on April 30th.

After graduating from Audio Production in 2012, I started work as a Technical Operator for Ideal Shopping Direct, across their range of shopping TV channels including Ideal World and Create & Craft. I was then promoted to Audio Operator, where I mixed over 500 hours of broadcast audio across the company’s network until last June when I was fortunate enough to land a job as a Location Sound Recordist for a small kit & crew company called Videoheads, based in White City in London.

Since then, I have been recording location sound for a wide range of TV programming, commercials, corporate and legal films with credits including Crimewatch, iTunes Festival 2013, The Gadget Show and have recently come back from shooting in the Philippines in conjunction with BBC’s The One Show & Sport Relief. I also work on audio post-production at home in whatever spare time I have for both short and feature films.

April 3, 2014 2012, Alumni, careers, Students No Comments

the Sound of Skyfall

The sound of Skyfall

The SoundWorks Collection dives into the latest installment in the long-running saga based on Ian Fleming’s James Bond character.

Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty and Jarhead) brings the audience an entirely new storyline to the Bond character in “Skyfall”.

Exploring the sound and music of the film we talk with Scott Millan (Sound Re-recording Mixer), Greg Russell (Sound Re-recording Mixer),
Karen Baker Landers (Supervising Sound Editor), and Per Hallberg (Supervising Sound Editor).

LONDON 2012 – how ELBOW created the Olympics Theme

This is a great insight into how Elbow went about probably their most challenging brief.

“Go into a studio and come up with a global Olympic theme”. It starts with a brass fanfare where the first five notes relate to the five Olympic Rings. It’s a call to attention. The choir was introduced to make it more ‘everyman’. It will become another familiar BBC sporting theme which will be remembered by a generation. Though as Elbow’s Guy Garvey admits, “It’s never going to be as good as ‘Ski Sunday’ theme is it?

Mercury Prize-winning group Elbow have spoken about how they created their anthem for the BBC’s Olympics coverage.
Entitled First Steps, the new piece was recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the NovaVox gospel choir.

watch the
Behind the scenes film here

First Steps is accompanied by an animation produced at Passion Pictures, showing the landscape of the United Kingdom transformed into a giant sporting arena inside the Olympic Stadium.

Guy Garvey and therest of the band spoke to the BBC about their inspiration for the music and the recording process, and the video’s designer explained how he created the look of the graphics.

The track will be available as a digital download only.

The trailer has been devised around the concept of “Stadium UK” and cleverly uses animation to transform the United Kingdom into a sporting hub where athletes prepare and compete in the Olympic Games. Exchanging swimming pools for the English Channel, running tacks for the streets of Britain and gymnastic apparatus for famous London landmarks.

July 27, 2012 2012, bands, branding, culture, Industry, orchestral recording No Comments