Door etiquette getting you down? Feel silly holding them for people? You’re not alone! This hard-hitting report uncovers a worrying level of door-related awkwardness at Goldsmiths College.
NB: This was shot and edited in two afternoons earlier this year and suffered in the compression process somewhat, due to my inexpert file management. Don’t watch the technicals.
Grandad! Outside the Noose & Gibbet Inn, Sheffield.
I made a radio feature, ostensibly about my Dad’s discoveries when looking into our family history, but which quickly descends into the gruesome tale of an 18th century highwayman who happens to be my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather.
The ELL posse and I put this together, it’s a look at the week’s news in Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Croydon. I wrote it and presented it, the others helped too.
I was originally going to call this feature ‘Doughnuts’ as doughnuts are briefly mentioned just over half way through. I was advised however that that was ‘not what the feature is about’ and therefore ‘inappropriate’. I now regret following this advice as doughnuts was funny. Anyway, its about IP1 Magazine who I used to write for and whose amazing work can be found here and in real-life paper and staples mags around Suffolk. I went a bit abstract and stuff, as is my wont.
Interview with Ramp Recordings (and PTN, Brainmath and Fourth Wave) boss Tom Kerridge, probably my favourite Suffolk-based hip hop/house/garage/techno indie record label.
Yes, the trendos at Fact Magazine got there first, but mine is definitely better. In fairness to them, we were coming at it from different angles. No shame in that lads, keep plugging away!
Students are invading Ipswich! Sorry, that should read ‘Students are invading Ipswich?’ You can also sample some of my AWESOME photography skills in this one. Click the link please —-> IP1 Magazine – Uni Town
Recounting my time in Ghana, hopefully encouraging more gappers to go to Africa (and fewer to Thailand).
I wrote this while on a beach in Busua the first surf beach in west Africa. Rented a room off a guy who looked like Kofi Annan, ate lobster for 4 quid, drank palm wine. Standard.
I made this short news piece after I visited a Ghanaian pub in south London and watched an African Cup of Nations game. The material I got from the Ghana fans was awesome. The rest of the piece is shot through with errors however, please see below for a complete rundown of how I nearly ruined it.
What I did wrong:
1. What the hell has happened to my voice? I sound like I’m reading the script at gunpoint. In my defence I felt a bit self conscious opining down a mic in the early hours of the morning for a recording no-ones going to hear. I imagine this is what Ron Atknison gets up to these days.
2. Hackneyed, cliche ridden ‘football speak’. Just no. Dear me.
3. I didn’t record an ‘after’ interview from the fans to balance my ‘before’ bits. No narrative closure see? I’d love to laugh it off and blame it no my own stupidity, but no, I’m very clever I’m just a flapper under pressure and didn’t press the button properly on the recorder.
4. Factual inaccuracies. This game did not put Ghana through to the knock-out stages as I implicitly stated, if they lost to Guinea, and Mali hammered Botswana they could still go out. Schoolboy error, what an idiot. Idiot boy!
Here is a five minute radio feature I produced called First Rung. It’s about young people working for free in internships and work experience. I interviewed three journalists with burgeoning careers on their experiences with internships and submitted it as my first assessed piece for my MA course. My course convenor the journalist, author, radio expert and all-round hero Tim Crook used a stripped down version of it on his blog about the same subject. It’s a great read and it’s here.
Simon John Newton 