Maker Sessions
Dive into scores of talks, workshops, and audio manifestos offering wisdom on everything from production skills to journalistic ethics from the best audio producers and makers on the planet.
Sources, Correspondents, Fixers: Making Radio With Bloggers
Millions of bloggers write every day about their own towns, industries, and lives. As a radio producer you can work with a nation -- a world – of storytellers to find out about everything from French politics to knitting habits in Iowa.
- 2006
- 01:17:02
Talk the Copy
The voice of the storyteller is often overlooked but it's a vital part of making great radio. Marilyn Pittman shows you how to make your narration tracks authentic and compelling with her many tips and techniques.
- 2006
- 01:24:29
Teens With Mics
Youth producers are creating some of the most revealing and moving work on the radio these days, and we've curated a collection of gems for you.
- 2006
- 01:24:23
Telling Stories Far From Home
How can a producer prepare to make radio stories about distant lands and the people who live there, and why tell those stories anyway?
- 2006
- 01:25:48
Presenting the 2005 TCF ShortDocs -- Stories About Games
For the 2005 ShortDocs Challenge, we asked producers to submit ideas for stories about "games."
- 2005
- 01:28:08
2005 You Had Me at Hello: The Art of the Pitch (Day 1)
What makes one story pitch so irresistible it's a "yes" halfway through... and the next doomed for rejection?
- 2005
- 01:27:46
Voice With a Capital "V"
Most of us use our voices in our work, but finding our "Voice" is an often overlooked part of our creative development. Hear what professionals from a variety of different fields have to say about this elusive aspect of our craft.
- 2005
- 01:16:48
Radio Across Time Zones
Radio transmissions are heard all over the world, from the largest urban centers to the smallest mountain villages. But what defines radio from a particular place, and what makes it different than radio from elsewhere?
- 2005
- 01:24:42
Options and Futures: Teenagers on the Radio -- Part Two
Listen in as teen producers from around the country present a survey of their work, with bonus features: the sounds they love to listen to, with commentary on why, and tape that didn't make the final cut in production, with commentary on why not.
- 2007
- 01:29:25
Making a Scene: The Use of Verite to Show, Not Tell, Your Story
A well-crafted scene, heard on the radio, opens a window onto a new world and allows the listener to fly right in. Claire Schoen explores the process of creating scenes -- showing real people living their lives -- for an audio documentary.
- 2007
- 01:34:06
Ask Away
Susan Stamberg, who figures she's conducted some 30,000 interviews in her brief career, plays examples of smart, dumb, informed, innocent, and baggage-laden questions, and discusses how to decide when each is appropriate.
- 2005
- 01:10:30
Listening Critically
Art forms such as film, literature and even TV, generate rich bodies of critcal writing that push the boundaries of what creators do and why, and gives audiences new ways to appreciate the work.
- 2008
- 01:29:40
Presenting the 2008 TCF ShortDocs: Radio Ephemera
For the 2008 TCF ShortDocs Challenge, the TCF joined forces with the Prelinger Library, a one-of-a-kind collection of books, periodicals, and more, running the gamut from the concrete and tangible to the abstract and etherized.
- 2008
- 01:22:48
Lenin's Ears
Andrey Allakhverdov, from the Foundation for Independent Radio Broadcasting (based in Russia), talks about what the FNR is up to over in Moscow, and introduces the timezone-bending modern-day audio legend Lenin's Ears.
- 2008
- 06:48
These Are a Few of the Kitchen Sisters' Favorite Things
Ever wonder what inspires, obsesses and ignites the Kitchen Sisters? Find out during this hour-plus showcase of audio (and other less-evolved art forms) culled from their accidental archive and the stirring work of others.
- 2008
- 01:17:45
Approaching Approaches
Alessandro Bosetti talks of the tremors felt while approaching somebody else's life with a microphone in-hand, when fears of exploitation combine with implacable curiosity and the possibility that neither you nor your interviewee will understand each other's intentions.
- 2008
- 01:25:40
Caging the Chaos: How to Produce Radio Stories That Aren't Exactly Stories
Common sense dictates that a good radio story should start with a firm sense of what the story is. But what if you only have the vaguest sense of the story -- whether it's a scenario, or an idea, or even a joke you'd like to tell?
- 2008
- 01:12:23
College: A Hotbed of Emerging Producers -- Part One
All around the country college students are asking for and receiving new courses that teach audio production. They're intent on finishing college with multi-media skills, and, lucky for us, they want to help shape the future of documentary audio.
- 2008
- 01:20:55
College: A Hotbed of Emerging Producers -- Part Two
All around the country college students are asking for and receiving new courses that teach audio production. They're intent on finishing college with multi-media skills, and, lucky for us, they want to help shape the future of documentary audio.
- 2008
- 01:22:35
The Inner Sound of the Outer World
Microphones cannot capture situations as they are percieved. A car crash on tape lacks everything that the experience of an accident amounts to: the surprise, the holding of breath, the shock, the sadness.
- 2008
- 01:22:06
Just Listen to Yourself
A bad editor is a curse. Having a good editor is a blessing but can often be a luxury. Deborah George explains how to work effectively with the editor you've been dealt and how to be your own editor if you don't have one.
- 2008
- 01:16:31
Like Blackpool Went Through Rock: The Story of the Radio Ballads
Fifty years ago, folksingers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger collaborated with BBC Radio producer Charles Parker to create an amazing body of work - the Radio Ballads.
- 2008
- 01:32:33
Mastering the Grill: Why Some Interviews Go Up in Smoke
Some respond to praise, others to badgering, some the frontal assault, others when you sneak up from behind. Brooke Gladstone offers a few interrogation tips (and some audio examples) on how to get your guests to crack and make them like it.
- 2008
- 01:20:33
Greenberger and Greenberg: On Story and Music
Beyond being atmospheric and scene setting, music can play an active role in audio pieces. David Greenberger has worked with a wide range of musicians and composers for his radio monologues, which are adapted from conversations he has with the elderly.
- 2007
- 01:29:10
Neo-Futurism: The Joys (and Rewards) of Forced Creativity
Greg Allen, the creator of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind -- the show which has spawned nearly 10,000 short plays -- conducts a workshop on generating new material, exploring new forms, and beating writer's block.
- 2008
- 01:19:44