Wild tracks, pitches and micing up a dog... Our July talk, by audio producer Rose de Larrabeiti
When Rose introduced herself with a photo of her unexpected encounter with a cheery death metal band while making a programme about driving an early electric car around Europe, we knew we were in for an interesting evening...
Rose's first job was with Whistledown Productions, initially as an internship. She has worked on The Reunion, on Feedback, for Radio 3 Between the Ears, for the World Service, for Vice (with young people during Covid), for The Guardian and pitching her own arts and culture documentaries.
Rose told of the challenge of gaining an Irish Traveller community's trust while making a documentary on their displacement for the Olympics, and on making a track with Traveller boys and Traveller girls, who tend to live separately.
We heard about her work on a podcast called Being, where a musician chats with strangers on a bench, writing a song about each encounter.
Rose asked what we thought an audio producer does. It involves a broad skillset, from pitching to writing to editing via working with collaborators and 'talent'. Rose has always been freelance, often working with limited budgets and there's no specific union for audio producers. We heard about the BBC's two big commissioning rounds in Spring and Autumn, where community guidelines are sent out and a guide to what they're looking for. We heard about the work that goes into pitching, with an average programme fee £8,000 including the presenter. Challenges include AI, deepfakes eroding trust and the proliferation of podcasts.
Rose talked us through the process of making a programme, once she's come up with the idea and got it commissioned. She'll cast it, finding the best possible contributors. She'll draft the script, the format of which varies from presenter to presenter. As well as the voices, she'll record a 'wild track' – the sound of the place you're in – which is the 'glue' that makes edited sound fit together. There's editing, editing and more editing, to a time limit. Next, there's mixing with music, sound design and putting the final programme together. Then, the next step: "Hate it!"
How did Rose get into sound editing in the first place? Well, she originally wanted to be a photojournalist but an accident injured her arm, which stopped her using a camera. So she wondered about audio and joined a community radio station.
We were treated to behind the scenes stories on dealing with 'talent' – or in some cases, getting hold of people in the first place, as was the case on The Reunion episode on New Labour, where Rose had also been keen to have the female voices in the room that had been important parts of its success.
Rose's favourite work is on location. In Iceland, she worked with nature sound recordist Chris Watson on Jules Verne's Volcano, retracing the route and talking to people. They recorded geysers, mud pools, put a hydrophone into a creaking glacier... and had to deal with an unexpected drop down a crevasse.
We had the delight of hearing an explosives dog at work, thanks to Rose's work micing the dog up so that listeners would hear it sniffing.
Tipped off about East End WI's interest in The Archers, Rose brought pictures of her visit to its set – including its collection of doorbells and the huge soundproof chamber needed to make actors sound as though they're talking in a field.
Rose rounded off her talk with a clip from Adam and Joe on Radio 6 commenting on the amount of sighing in The Archers. So they took an episode and removed everything except the sighing.
Much laughter...
"That's the power of editing!", said Rose.
A massive East End WI thank you to Rose for a fascinating and engaging talk.
Our monthly coffee and meet up – Root/25, 116B Bow Road, E3 3AA
Friday 25th July, meet at 10.30-11.00
A chance to revisit one of our favourite cafés and maybe browse their marvellous selection of pre-loved books.
