Please find enclosed the programme details of the Ake Blomström Training on

May 7 and 8 at ORF.

We will meet in the lobby of the building on Sat morning May 7th at 9:15.
The training starts at 9:30 and will end at about 18:30. On Sunday 8th we
start at 9:30 and will end at 16:00.

All about the IFC you get via https://ifc2.wordpress.com/ifc16/ or the
special fb page on the International Feature Conference.

It would be handy for us if you could let me know when you arrive in Vienna,
in which hotel you are staying and your mobile tel number.
The reason is that we might organize an informal dinner on Friday evening
May 6th with those who are free and arrive in time. (each pays his meal,
reasonable prize). Just let me know if you want and can join the group.
Feel free. ( Olga already confirmed).

See you in Vienna!
All best,

Gabriela Hermer Edwin Brys
Chairwoman ABA coordinator ABA Training
_____________________________________________________



Ake Blomström Award – training 2016
IFC Vienna – ORF

SAT 7 MAY 2016

9:30 - 10:00 : The F.I.T.
( Feature Integrated Training Model) about the essentials and aims of the two days ABA training (Edwin Brys, ABA)

10:00 – 11.30 : The choice of topics, stories and characters. (Simon Elmes, ex-BBC)
It doesn’t matter what the story is. What matters is the power of the narrative, and the characters who animate it. A session about relevance, tension and inner need to tell the story. Building on the work of some of the world’s finest features makers and their stories, this session will help you both to select and focus your choosen idea.

11:30 – 12:00 : coffee and fresh air

12:00- 13:00 : Caught in the act. The importance of scenes (Eva Nachmilnerova, Czech Radio)

Scenes are the feature’s real stuff. Be there when it happens. What your characters are doing is often far more relevant that what they are saying. The listener on the front row. Natural scenes and staged scenes.


13:00 – 14:00 : Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 : Can you be specific?
Avoiding stereotypes and telling things the way
only your feature can + practical exercises
(Ingo Kottkamp, Deutschlandradio, Germany)


The details make the difference. If you tell a story the way many similar stories were told before, you might fail to attract the listener’s attention. The point in feature making is to develop a sensitive antenna for things that happened – and mattered – in this particular story, and, beyond that, to express it in text and sound. The need for specificity extends to all stages of feature making: recordings, narration, montage, questions that are aroused, observations that are made, material we include, material we leave out. We go through good and bad examples – and finally come to a test.

15: 30 – 16:00 : coffee and fresh air


16:00 – 18:30 : Exploring the projects (Edwin, chair, and all)

Pitching session by the 3 participants and a collective and critical discussion and brainstorm on the opportunities, challenges and threats of the proposed programme ideas.

Evening meeting/dinner for the trainers/coaches

SUNDAY 8 MAY 2016

9:30 – 10:45 : Dramaturgy and Storytelling (Simon Elmes)
This session helps you to find the most appropriate, the most effective and the most compelling way to unfold the narrative of your story. A session about the inner architecture of the feature : building up the story, rhythm, tension, efficient delivery of information and emotion.

We’ll look at how some classic and modern radio-storytellers have decided to recount their tales, explore different structures and styles and how to find the ‘sweet-spot’ in your idea which will make the drama come alive.


10:45 – 11:00 : coffee break

11:00 – 12.30 : Play it again, Sam.
Music in features. Or not. ( Eva Nachmilnerova and Edwin Brys)
Music as emotional activator, dramaturgical and narrative tool, universalising element, generator of mental images, or …when words fail. Or as a spoilsport.

12: 30 – 14.00 : Lunch with your coach!

14: 00 – 15.00 : Encouraging experiments in feature making ( Ingo Kottkamp)
Is there a blue print for a feature? If one listens to what is aired on every-day radio, one might think there is – similar sequences of text, interview, sounds, one followed by another in dull self-repetition.
But as a feature is a crafted piece of personal narration, there can be no role model, only inspirations.
This lecture shows examples that go paths which not so many have gone before. It also tries to open ears and eyes for the rich plurality of present-day documentary forms. There’s no one way of telling a story.

15:00 – 15:45 : How much Croatian is enough?
Translation for radio ( Edwin Brys).
How to avoid the boring ping pong between two languages? In these times of globalisation, migrants mouvements and the sinuous routes of refugees, mastering an efficient and acoustically elegant way to give a voice to people seems more than welcome.

15:45 – 16.00 : Dates, deadlines, coaching matters, contacts
(Edwin)

Permanent questions & answers are the essence of the lectures/workshops. _____________________________________________________