In The Dark What’s New: Nuisibles

Ka-Young Park and Dimitris Roidis (FR 2023)

13 min

This work combines two worlds: a vermin exterminator in Paris and stories of the oppressed youth. After a police union’s public statement on 30th July, these two worlds suddenly intersect.

Producers - Ka Young Park and Dimitris Roidis during the Louis Lumiere Sound Documentary programme, taught by Frédérique Pressman

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In The Dark What’s New: Dear Mother

Jerry Birch (US 2024)

6 min

A contemplation on life as a son clears his mother's flat.

Produced by Jerry Birch during the In The Dark Short Feature course, taught by Nina Garthwaite.

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In The Dark What’s New: The Lost Son

Julianne Chandler (US 2024)

11 min

A father's 27-year search for his son, who was taken from him at birth.

Produced by Julianne Chandler.

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In The Dark What’s New: The Diaries of Netovicius the Vampire

Hugo Pierre Martin (US 2024)

6 min

A piece about vampires, as well as recovery — from trauma, from alcoholism, from cults, just from life.

Produced, written and performed by Hugo Pierre Martin

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In The Dark What’s New: Hacking Wagner Act 3 Scene 5

Kjersti G. Andvig & Ioana Mandrescu (NO/BE 2024)

43 min

A wacky reimagining of Wagner’s opera “Die Meistersingers von Nurnberg”, where all the instruments, leitmotivs, soloists and choirs are replaced with with 10,000 individual samples of human voices from famous people.

Composed by: Kjersti G. Andvig & Ioana Mandrescu

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In The Dark What’s New: Money

Matt Pope (UK 2024)

8 min

A musical remix of the words of Germaine Greer and Martin Amis.

Produced by Matt Pope.

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In The Dark What’s New: Friends of the Wall

Evan Green (UK 2024)

13 min

Every Friday, a small group of volunteers paint red hearts on the National Covid Memorial Wall, in the heart of Westminster. As the world moves on, why do they keep coming back?

Producer - Evan Green

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In The Dark What’s New: The Sounding Bell

Garling Wu and Jessie Leov (NZ 2024)

6 min

A composition of field recordings, voice, piano and cello, made in response to the climate crisis. "The Sounding Bell" shifts freely between the concrete and abstract, moving from the real to the imagined to the surreal. Many sounds were recorded in Toyama, an urban city in Japan surrounded by mountains, rivers, rice fields and the sea.

Composed by Garling Wu and Jessie Leov

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Things You Don’t Hear at a Podcast Conference

Produced by Lina Prestwood (UK 2024)

54 min

Is it an alternative keynote? A lament? A provocation? Or an incitement to revolt? You decide.

With more than a whiff of the corporate in an industry that appears to champion and bolster the indie spirit, some audio conferences can feel like deeply incongruent spaces. Keynotes are usually about markets, ad revenue and content buckets from men (and it is usually men) who appear to have been born in the boardroom -  and the big story they tell is of the exciting growth! growth! GROWTH! of the audio space. They value our small shows and our brilliant creativity, they tell us. Bring us your best ideas, they say.

Yet, that’s often not what it feels like for many of  the producers in that very audience. Right now, being an audio producer has never been harder, more volatile or more exhausting. And if your show doesn’t come with a dead body or celebrity at the centre of it, it can feel nigh-on impossible to get away.

So, with that incongruence in mind, for the inaugural XMTR audio festival, Scenery Studios asked a selection of producers and creative audio champions to share how they’re really, truly navigating being creative producers in the podcast industry in September 2024. 

And that’s EXACTLY what we got - and way, way more - from:

Talia Augustidis  // Jasmin Bauomy  // Benbrick // Davy Gardner // Sarah Geis // Axel Kakoutié // Starlee Kine  // Anna Sinfield // Julie Shapiro // Shreya Sharma // Deborah Shorindè // Ross Sutherland

Just like the live audience at the XMTR festival,  follow along with this handout  - it shares the questionnaire they responded to, their biogs, the two questions we asked the audience after  – and the responses we gathered from a brainstorm about how we might start to  better advocate for the creative health of our podcast industry. 

It will live here for three weeks on the XMTR Listen Page / Player until 5th November

Transcript available here.

Producer: Lina Prestwood (Scenery Studios) @scenerystudiosltd

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Bin Juice

Emma Tindall (UK 2024)

48 min Episode 1 of 10

BIN JUICE is a fresh take on the traditional British sitcom, but make it ‘Millennial’ and for your ears... In the first of its kind ‘scripted audio comedy/drama podcast mash-up... we follow the lives of four unlikely friends from different walks of life across the UK, attempting to navigate early adulthood together.

BJ: A middle class ‘mess’ navigating the dating scene for the first time and slowly realising that a degree in ‘fine art’ probably isn’t going to get her all that far in the real world.

GABRIEL: First generation immigrant originally from India, working as a nurse for the NHS. In a long-term monogamous relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Cameron.

RACHEL: Half Irish, half African corporate queen with a sassy spiritual side… Trying to navigate her sexual orientation while burying the multi generational trauma of growing up in the troubles.

JACK: Working class northerner, a literal ‘jack-the-lad’. He’s the guy you warn all your female friends about, but really he’s just a trundling mess of insecurities, rejection and undiagnosed mental health issues.

Every week, one housemate at 37 Bellenden Road takes the bins out, only to find an item amongst the rubbish which sparks the story for that particular episode… from a mouldy chicken carcass to a giant pink dildo, they give us the ‘juice’ of the week through recollecting the chaos, carnage and often cripplingly cringey events of the week.

Think ‘Fleabag’ meets ‘The Archers’ with a dabble of ‘Fresh Meat’ sprinkled over for good measure.

This is the pilot episode from what is designed to be a 10-part series.

Written, Produced and Directed: Emma Tindall
Co-written by Scott Longwell​

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