Addicted to trying

Because of some of the things mentioned in the below text, I’m posting the below text. It’s a stream of consciousness message I just sent to my friend Will. I don’t feel like I have time to put the words into anything structured. I’m too busy saying I’m too busy trying to get a career to do normal things like stay in touch. I’m too busy exploring the methods of how to get a step into a career to do normal things like manage my tech/media issues and be able to use my phone properly. I’m too busy thinking about making a statement, a zine, or blog post about the amount of time I’ve spent and about all the events, conferences, networking functions I’ve attended over the past eight years and general portfolio of placements and little exposure moments, to have time to edit an overdue message to a friend. I’m too busy trying to think of how to write emails to a career opportunities site about why the dates don’t match up in one of their ‘break into a career’ modules I exhaustively applied for to develop my business ‘plan’ everyone went wild about when I told them back between June & September. This despite the fact I have five separate unreachable job opening mid-draft cover letters open next to me right now.//

Glad you’re in touch with Hopey C. Fucking wild about the hostage thing. Robin filled me in a bit – I sincerely hope she’s feeling okay now. What a mad city Montreal is. I’m okay. Pretty wild world since I’ve been back with bits of weird world ice cream thrown in the mix. Long story short in terms of the here and now is that I’m currently super busy with a random but quirky job by day as a private detective and then by eve/night I’m tied up with career building stuff as I’m trying to find some better life opportunities than just working in crappy settler jobs. Not much of that really implies I made much progress on the back of the Canadian adventure given I went there to stop being so hung up on life struggles etc. but I think Corona has made me more forensic in how I get through negatives – added to the burning determination I’ve always had since I got obsessed with working in media as a kid I think that’s pretty neat. Hence why I impulsively did a hugely intense but cool coding/web development course for five weeks between Sept and end of Oct. That killed my spare time and fried my brain a bit but it’s on the CV and hoping to flip it into a job ASAP (‘transferable skillz’ was a working zine title, if you remember those days chatting on the Metro back in Feb!…?). Rambling on now. The major downside since being back has been the lack of time. I think living the way I ended up living in Montreal, essentially like I was on holiday everyday but also having a full working schedule alongside it, made me assume that returning to Leeds would be this blissed, chilled time but it’s been far from it. Obviously I justifiably put a lot of effort into spending time with Emma, and I still do keep up with that. My bad cooking in Canada has come back with me in that I now offer a bit more support in the kitchen than just making a mess – I actually try (badly) to cook interesting stuff sometimes. Anyway, yeah. My main dreams upon returning were to unpack my Canadian experiences into some sort of expressive project, be it a zine, a journal, a blog, even some basic instagram posts might’ve been at least something towards representative. In with that was a general notion that I’d be able to quickly reflect and offer some conclusions about the experience, like how people and places impacted me and how I impacted on others. I remember thinking just after I said goodnight to you on my final night – when you stayed upstairs in the mezzanine at my place on Henri-Julien – that in a few weeks I’ll be writing about this moment and summarising what it represents to have bonded closely with Will in a sort of ‘bromance’ way, but with other issues surrounding it, including arguments, my failings, and of course Covid and the deep impact it had on plans and mental stability. It seems that my predicted reflection on that moment is arriving almost three months late. It’s a shame that that’s the case, but it’s not a regret. I’ve lived pretty deliberately since getting back. The mountains of little projects I started there, here and years ago, and the hundreds of little notes, drafted replies and unread messages have largely become part of my Canadian story now. Anyway, I’d love to chat. I freak out sometimes and feel as trapped in Leeds as I did in Montreal. It’s weird. I think I just need a career on my terms – something I’ve been saying for ages and which the struggle to establish probably motivated me to head to Montreal to bury my head in the snow more than anything else, if I’m honest. The move sounds exciting. I recall it being possibly on the cards. Where you at now, area-wise? I still, probably stupidly, hold out hope that I’ll be able to do some sort of visit to MTL in 2021. I fear I won’t be allowed but never know I guess. Hope you’ve been keeping well in terms of life activities. I know the restrictions are back in over there, maybe less severe than here though? Like here, I’ve seen about 3 people I know for little walks over the past five weeks. You’re not allowed to another’s house or in a car or anything. A sideline issue I have is with media/tech as my phone got so full I had to wipe it for the second time since being back and I still can’t get apps back on it. I’m basically in some weird purgatory with Apple/iCloud/media. My laptop is also pretty messed up as I didn’t maintain it very well when I was doing the intense coding course. I think I’m mentioning that as a way of explaining why I’ve been bad at staying in touch. The time difference is also a real issue, I must admit. Okay, that’s it from me. No real idea what I just wrote but it’s definitely sent with love XXX

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Weird World

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Searched for relatable lyrics to this track as it’s awesome & made me feel pretty good today. Unsurprisingly I’m a million miles from Playboi Carti & Lil Uzi Vert in terms of material possessions & general wholesale happy scenarios. They inspire me though, even just to feel pretty good as much as I can Playboi Carti – Shoota (Audio) ft. Lil Uzi Vert

The Yorkshire Punk Show

Since taking a new day job a few months ago I’ve continued to produce shows and find plenty to do on an editorial, web design and social media perspective for South Leeds Radio over recent months. Despite now having to fit SLR into my spare time around what can be a bit of a rough shift pattern role in customer service and transport logistics, the motivation to keep helping to build something exciting for South Leeds’ media has never receded.

The station operates with limited resources and the vast majority of contributors are not media professional types. I’m still developing my own technical skills while training and supporting a range of enthusiastic presenters and producers and trying to manage other areas which I’m going to refer to as “workflows” because SOOOO many of the job applications I frequently send in make reference to this jargon lingo, so it’s always nice to be able to come away from time in the station feeling happy with how something went.

 

Below is a link to the first show I produced for punk stalwart Barry Lights, who the SLR team met at Beeston Gala at the end of June. Barry’s released records by loads of punk acts down the years (I can only remember Squeeze & Stiff Little Fingers at time of writing) and continues to do so to today on Beat The System. I love producing and editing all kinds of radio shows and thought the day when I went from my regular stint producing an 82 year old’s local history programme, to new presenter Trev Wainwright’s poetry, spoken word and classical music show, then onto tech-oping for Shaun Webster MBE’s disability awareness hour was a real peak of brevity and reward. However, being in the studio with Barry and hearing his stories, knowing I was helping bring something original to radio, with great music that’s had a very direct influen

 

 

 

ce on my own favoured music genre; I think this was perhaps my favourite afternoon at South Leeds Radio yet.

The Yorkshire Punk Show

Radio Tech Masterclass

Below are the responses I gave to a range of questions from the organisers of the Radio Tech Masterclass I attended two weeks ago in London. I had actually edited some of the themes of my answers into a nice little blog post, but managed to lose the piece during an extremely frustrating iCloud backup/Apple support experience at the weekend. Rather than leaving the moment and my thoughts to linger and ultimately end up potentially as a discarded commitment I’ve decided to post this here so at least I have something to come back to and edit in the future.

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Golden hour journey

The day was positive and punchy in a beautiful building full of inspiring technology and engineering inspiration. It was evident that the organisers had put countless amounts of time into making sure there were a range of learning points in a wide range of broadcast engineering disciplines. Having been to events aligned with the Radio Academy before I was glad that there was more focus on those not currently working in radio professionally as I have felt that my contributions and attempts to contribute at panel events and similar sessions have previously been disregarded on account of my lack of belonging to the industry.

I found Dave Walters’ keynote speech about how radio enables the telling of stories across ever-widening areas genuinely inspiring as it echoed my own lifelong career ambition of wanting to bring interesting stories to as many people as possible. I found the willingness of several of the professional contributors such as Andrea Day and Aradhna Tayal to keep in touch going forward to be extremely encouraging. There were several moments where I was reassured after sharing insight about finding opportunities and dealing with the setbacks and anxiety derived from disheartening attempts to break into the broadcasting industry. I had similar relatable discussions where ideas and contacts were offered during the opportunities I had to network with fellow delegates, and consider the structure and prestige of the day to have helped enable this.

My immediate suggestion in regards to if there might be anything to consider that might improve future instalments of the Radio Tech Masterclass would be for organisers to consider holding the event away from London in a city in northern England or the devolved nations. I also feel that announcing the event as early as possible would help interested attendees better plan their trip to the location.

Something I mentioned right at the very end of the day – while buying a few drinks for some of the industry figures who’d helped me have such a brilliant day – was that it would be great if attendees could be provided with a long-standing connection to the event and to the RadioTechCon as alumni. This may be manifested in the form of a LinkedIn or Facebook group, or perhaps some sort of tie to the website of the organiser in some titular way. It would benefit the attendees as the difficulty of networking with a large number of disparate delegates would be lessened, and future ideas and support could be shared in a specific space.

I feel that future testimonials shared in such a connected alumni space from those that will hopefully go on to do great things in broadcast engineering and radio at large with skills gained at the Masterclass would be a brilliant way to demonstrate why these types of events are of great value. I also believe that the professional employment market, and recruiting monoliths such as BBC Careers schemes that have sections on their applications for ‘awards and achievements’ will become more manageable for candidates that have chosen to commit to the Radio Technology Masterclass should an alumni association be a recognisable achievement.

It is difficult to pinpoint one specific element that I most enjoyed about the day, but I will say that I particularly enjoyed how approachable the industry experts were during the practical sessions. There were many moments where I felt as if I was being treated as a colleague able to add great value by the individuals leading the sessions, which helped me take on learning points quickly. I have many examples, but particularly recall how my suggestion to carry out a check on the playout system early in my team’s Studio Build task before we moved on to connecting other components was supported by Dave Walters, who was co-leading this particular session.

Each of the theory presentations, and all of the practical workshops were fantastic illustrations of the working world of a broadcast engineer. My portfolio development so far has not given me direct exposure to some of the specific roles I learnt about as I have largely seen radio station staff working with multifaceted responsibilities where they are employed as presenters but also manage such integral functions as the central technical area. However, gaining a direct understanding in the way I did at the Radio Tech Masterclass has more than delivered in making me feel that in any future professional or voluntary work I might get, I will be much less intimidated or overwhelmed by the inner workings of certain technical areas as I have demonstrated to senior radio figures that I understand how components and details such as the Reverb Time Measure are critical in the establishment of the medium.

Which part of the Radio Tech Masterclass did I least enjoy? I feel that all elements served their purpose well – in some cases by simply introducing me to areas of broadcast engineering I had little specific knowledge of such as the central technical area/racking system. Having gained an understanding of the importance of these components, I am now better suited to professional life in radio.

The one observation I did make was that there might have been opportunities for speakers or practical session experts to acknowledge the potential productive use transferable skills might have in developing the craft suited to the workshop tasks. I say this as most of the fellow delegates I spoke to were – as expected – only connected to radio in voluntary, spare time capacities alongside day jobs, studies or other hobbies.

It was clear to me that several of the industry figures had evidently brought skills gained away from professional radio into what have become highly successful radio careers. I recall professionals referring to prior military careers, work with musicians and several other precursory experiences away from broadcasting which I can only assume helped in career development once they decided to enter the radio industry. I feel that a break down of how experts used skills gained in roles outside of broadcasting to great effect in radio roles, or how they had managed to get through notoriously difficult application & selection processes for schemes and entry level jobs having come from other sectors would have been a greatly useful takeaway.

This might not have been possible in all cases, but as an aspirational broadcasting professional lacking in credible, concrete mentorships I feel that encouragement of how transferable skills gained from experience elsewhere can be useful in demonstrating competency with some of the technical workshop tasks would have been a benefit.

The amazing history of Savoy Place was brilliant documented across the venue

The venue was fantastic. It felt really exciting to be attending an event in such a high profile setting. It made me feel more comfortable about the prospect of attending future events in central London that I had previously worried might be too far out of my comfort zone given my most recent background has been in the set up of a community radio station with limited equipment donated by local charities. The food was of a high quality and was ideal for the networking area. I have to say that I found myself to be laden at times with too many bags or items in my hands. This might have been resolved had I known where or what the framework was around cloakroom facilities, or potentially simply if there might have been a room to store baggage given that I, like several other delegates I spoke with, had travelled down to London the evening prior. I had no issues registering and the goody bag is brilliant. I am looking forward to exploring David Lloyd’s book and have already read the edition of E&T Magazine, particularly enjoying Rebecca Northfield’s piece about bizarre technology.

Aradhna & Ann: engineers, organisers, enginisers?

Should any of them be reading this (hopefully) affiliated blog post, I’d like to say thank you to the organisers and sponsors for hosting and supporting such a fantastic event. I did not find out about it until quite late but I found the email links between the Radio Academy’s Sean Childerley and those directly involved in the organisation of the Masterclass event to be quick and greatly supportive to me as I coordinated my schedule and logistics to ensure I could attend.

It has been a great pleasure to share my thoughts in this way and I sincerely hope it helps future events continue to thrive. I will of course be looking out for and hopefully attending future editions or similar events as I am thoroughly aware that even if I do manage to reverse a years-long trend of not managing to break into the broadcasting industry despite my best efforts, there will always be many opportunities to learn and develop at functions such as the brilliant, inspiring Radio Tech Masterclass.

Indeed, upon arriving home in Leeds very late ahead of an early shift back in my day job, I still felt compelled to immediately feed selected pieces of knowledge from the day to fellow volunteers at the community station I am associated with in Leeds. Specifically, I referred to the importance of PlayOut systems as my station is yet to implement one due to budget issues, while I made contact with a trustee to pass on the low cost alternatives to sound proofing that Dave Walters, Simon Price and Step
hen Clarke suggested such as cheap carpet tiles and thick curtains as the station is likely to move to a new location in the near future and the studio build is a current topic for all station volunteers.

Home time

 

 

 

 

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Tags

film, leeds, live event, yorkshire

https://reeceeliotchurm.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/film-programming/

Remember the time ( ⬆️) I whipped up a whole thing with the awesome team at Leeds Film City and they met me at their Town Hall office to discuss the prospect of touring an amazing documentary I saw at LIFF 2018? In amongst such a busy year of hopeful voluntary projects and freestyle freelancing, when I’ve gone from a physically demanding bill paying day job to a spare time-sapping but easy shift pattern grind it’s actually been pretty hard to remember some of the little pursuits I took punts on back during the dark days of midwinter, but this one may actually come to something pretty fun.

Should my dip into independent film programming come to pass it’ll be largely thanks to my new friend Jamie McLoughlin, who revived the idea after getting inspired at a meeting I was unable to attend with the Leeds branch of Scalarama Festival. I met Jamie through South Leeds Radio earlier this year and after selling him some kind of wafer thin vague outline of my creative credentials we started getting stuck in to a load of non-sequiturs including establishing the short-lived pro-South Leeds ‘bro’ brand Beestie Boys, going to goth and pop punk nights, taking in lindy hop dance lessons, co-writing a remix alternate reality version of Titanic, asking ultimately well-received meandering questions to John Thomson at a media/tech panel event and putting ourselves forward as social media specialist with the Leeds For Climate action group.

Many of those escapades went unfinished, but as one of our common bonds is our unyielding desire to get to a point where we can stand a chance of reaching our potential – ideally in a professional context (AKA being paid to do whatever that might be) – it feels about right that it was at another little loose end of an event is what has led us to where we are now.

Both of us are in touch with the producers of King Skate in Prague, CZ, as well as the likely venue (it might be a space I made a radio show about back in January… 🛹) and who I can only assume are really important diplomatic types from ‘The Czech Cultural Centre’ in London.

Mid-September is the likely screening date. Czech it out!

Film Programming

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Originally posted on Past Tense, Future Perfect:
? I have recently been working with the non-profit organisation behind the renowned Leeds International Film…

Videography

 Bad Friday Pictures x Strange Circuits 

I’ve been out assisting my friend Stefan Atkin with his latest project. He’s shooting a tour documentary for highly influential industrial musician and innovator to the Chicago House scene, Rodney Baker (AKA Strange Circuits). This is the man who, while working for the Roland Keyboard Company in the early 1980s, wrote the original drum samples for the 808 Drum Machine, which went on to gain a cult following and later profound impact on the wider music industry. My role has been to help with shot selection and camera positioning, as well as some technical and creative support.