The City Speaks: A Film For Radio

Reviews of The City Speaks

2008-03-23T23:15:00.005+01:00

The reviews of The City Speaks I've seen so far have been much as expected: many like the idea but not all of the content. Some, however, are more imaginative and intelligent than others. Here are a few I've found.

The Times
The Daily Telegraph
The Guardian: Miranda Sawyer and Elisabeth Mahoney
The Spectator
The New Statesman
The Independent

BBC feedback

2008-03-23T22:59:00.005+01:00

The project has been discussed on the BBC internet blog since broadcast, and it's interesting to learn from Jeremy Mortimer (executive producer and one of the radio drama drama directors, who had to deal with all the gritty details once I left the Corporation) that Radio 4 told listeners "to 'turn off' their radios in order to continue listening (and watching) the Afternoon Play". And here is the Radio 4 drama message board, mostly complaining about technical issues.

The City Speaks Premiere

2008-03-15T22:01:00.003+01:00

The premiere took place, as planned, on Monday the 11th of March 2008.

It was a pleasure to see so many of those who helped to make this ambitious project a reality. Many of the writers and film-artists turned up, and it was good to catch up with Rose Cupit, my opposite number at Film London, who has had several headaches as a result of this project (I hope she agrees it was worth it). Amongst numerous others there was Rhonagh O'Donnell from BBC Audio & Music interactive, who supported the project from a very early stage, Alison Hindell, Head of BBC Radio Drama (ditto, of course), Mike Walker and John Dryden (audio drama genii).

The cinema print was excellent but it was disappointing the sound designer Pete Ringrose's 5.1 mix was not played out (a stereo mix was used instead). This was, apparently, down to human error but, given the primary role played by audio in The City Speaks project, a major one. Hopefully there will be subsequent cinema screenings to make Pete's hard work worthwhile.

Conor Lennon Biography

2008-03-15T22:00:00.004+01:00

The City Speaks was one of several projects I created, developed and produced during an extremely fruitful time at BBC Radio Drama, initially as Development Producer and subsequently as Producer for Special Projects. Thanks to a great deal of support from Sally Avens (then Head of Development) and Alison Hindell (Head of BBC Radio Drama) I was given a free hand to contact, harass and wear down as many people as necessary in order to get these projects off the ground. Other obsessions were The Audiotheque, an ongoing project in collaboration with Robert Watson at Leicester de Montfort University and Borders, a 6 country mini-drama collaboration for the European Broadcasting Union.

Before working at the BBC I made a couple of audio dramas for Resonance FM, whilst working as a freelance broadcast journalist.

And before then, back in the dark ages, I worked for a start-up as a "cross-platform producer", at a time before anyone had broadband. Surprisingly, the company went bust but not before I'd presented a series of comedy inserts, voiced an animation series and worked as a script consultant for BBC Choice.

How can I watch/listen to The City Speaks?

2008-03-15T21:56:00.009+01:00

The first public showing of The City Speaks was a cinema screening at bfi Southbank at 18.30 on Monday the 11th of March 2008.

The audio dramas were broadcast on the 19th and 20th of March 2008 on BBC Radio 4. They can be heard online via the BBC iPlayer for several days following the broadcasts.

The 6 films that make up The City Speaks were online at the BBC Film Network from the 19th of March.

The Background

2008-03-15T21:56:00.008+01:00

In early 2005, when working as a Development Producer at BBC Radio Drama in London, I was asked to come up with a project that would "raise the profile" of the artform. I've always felt that radio drama (or Audio Drama) is undervalued as a medium in its own right, and was more than happy to attempt to fulfil this objective.

I had recently attended the EBU Radio Drama Conference, where I was inspired by a presentation with Nathalie Singer who, at the time, was working for Berlin-based Deutschlandradio Kultur on some wonderful mini-dramas that were capturing a new audience. She told us all about the ways in which her station would take audio drama beyond radio, holding communal listening sessions in parks, planeteria and airports. Now, the BBC is the biggest radio drama producer in the world, in terms of output and audience, but there is a great deal of ignorance about the artform beyond those making it and they, understandably, feel unloved and ignored. Bit if German radio had the balls to shout about what they were doing, why shouldn't the BBC?

Thus began an idea for a big, shouty, impossible to ignore Radio Drama project that was cross-platform, 360 degrees, multi-media and would encompass any of the other fairly meaningless buzz-words that were doing the rounds within the Corporation at the time.

I felt that a communal listening experience was the key, in order to demonstrate the "wide-screen", immersive potential of the medium. I eventually settled on the London iMax cinema which has an extraordinary sound system. But then the visual element had to be addressed. a pitch-black cinema? A blue screen? The latter seemed too Derek Jarman, and there was something underwhelming about the idea of projecting Windows Media Player fractals.

So my next thought to commission film-makers to create non-narrative visuals to work with the audio which would carry all of the narrative information. I had no idea whether or not this would work but started to pitch the idea to the BBC. There was, however, no-one in-house willing to stump up the cash so I took the idea to the Arts Council who, to my surprise, loved it. They suggested teaming up with Film London's Artist Moving Image Network and thus began the co-production between Film London and the BBC.

Meanwhile I was becoming more aware of the cross-platform research taking place within the audio department at the BBC, where the concept of visual radio was being developed. Very exciting work was being done at Radio 1, which is more or less "platform-agnostic": it's a brand which delivers video, audio, text and games on radio, tv, mobiles etc. All this thinking has influenced the development of the City Speaks, which will be available on tv, online, at cinemas and, let's not forget, on radio.

Ultimately this is an experiment and, simply by the fact that it has happened, is a success. However, I am also very proud at the quality of some of the 6 works which re-examine the relationship between audio and visuals in an entertaining, intelligent and accessible way.

What is The City Speaks?

2008-03-15T18:56:00.007+01:00

The City Speaks is 2 BBC radio dramas, a feature film and 6 collaborations between audio drama directors, script-writers and artist film-makers

It is a highly innovative and ambitious multi-platform project and a collaboration between BBC radio drama and Film London.

It is also an experiment in the emerging world of visual radio, currently being pioneered at the BBC.

The film premiered at bfi Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre) on Monday the 11th of March 2008. It has since been shown at various film festivals.

The City Speaks was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and on digital TV (under the red button on cable, satellite and freeview) on the 19th and 20th of March 2008.

The 6 separate films were available on the BBC Film Network Website during March 2008.