Samantha, I enjoyed the interview. I applaud any festival that gives indie audio makers a chance to connect. Davy Gardner seems like his heart is in the right place. But for real: playing clips of 2-3 minutes is a grudgingly small offering. It trivializes the work and doesn't give much credit to the audience either.
As for the awards, the regulations say last year "cash awards totaled $165,000, in addition to over $219,000 in artwork. Awards for TF23 may be modified." So, how much cash do audio winners get? Nothing. The Tribeca is touting its laurel as a mark of prestige. But this is also an offer of the vaunted "exposure" in another guise. Who offers artists exposure for their work? Someone who wants something for nothing.
Hi Neil, apologies for the late reply...but thank you for your response. It has been kicking around in my mind all week.
First of all, I think that the way the "clips of 2-3 minutes" was discussed in the article didn't fully explain what was meant by that. This was part of a wider conversation Davy and I had (which I edited for length) where he described a live event. He described these audience events as being part discussion and part listening to a curated list of audio clips, "2-3 minutes," which is the rough equivalent of playing a scene to be discussed. It wasn't meant to say that "only" this short amount of audio was played.
I've been to a number of Live audio events, and aside from "live tapings," (which are frankly not my favourite way to spend an evening, there's no mystery for me in this...) the most successful ones break up the pacing of the event by playing short clips, and then staging the event with different aspects of a performance, be this an interview or a discussion or a reading, something live, etc. It's not realistic that a live event will just play a podcast...everyone can do that on their own. Putting people in an audience space demands more than just listening. If they spend their time and money to go to a live audio event, I think the assumption is that they listen to lots of audio in their own time.
As to your comment about the awards...while I'm not terribly familiar with what TF23 offers to their audio winners, but I would agree that sometimes festivals tout prestige and fame in the form of laurels, when really what indie audio makers need, actually, is cold hard cash. I hear that.
There is now a plethora of "awards" to apply to, many at a hefty price, that may or may not offer *any* financial reward at the end...unless we are still considering $500 to be a reward and not merely a pittance. For me, the difference of TF23 is that they will support the indies to apply - which as I've said in a few newsletters I have some intel about just please hit reply - whereas there are clearly "awards" that are meant to be money makers, or at least wage-earners, for the people who pull them together, and not the shows they promote.
For audio folks who have been working here for a while (like you who came up through the public broadcasting system that supported journalists and documentarians), the industry has changed (exploded) in so many ways that it feels somewhat unrecognizable to those who have worked here for a while. I've been here a few minutes short of you, but I stand with one foot in that space, and it's something to see it. The bulk of the workforce here were still in daycare while you were out there making things and getting recognized for it. And one of the things that has been lost in the growth, much like the indie film world, is the expectation that if you make something, you will be paid for it.
Even in the last 6-7 years, it's gone from a cozy industry, to a giant industry. And I guess part of what that means is to hop onto other growth market hacks, for example the film industry, which then means they hand out the laurels to the winners. But I'm also quite sure that any audio maker who earns one would not be disappointed. Perhaps they should have the expectation that they will be paid, or be remunerated, but I'm willing to bet that's not a foregone conclusion any longer.
Samantha, I enjoyed the interview. I applaud any festival that gives indie audio makers a chance to connect. Davy Gardner seems like his heart is in the right place. But for real: playing clips of 2-3 minutes is a grudgingly small offering. It trivializes the work and doesn't give much credit to the audience either.
As for the awards, the regulations say last year "cash awards totaled $165,000, in addition to over $219,000 in artwork. Awards for TF23 may be modified." So, how much cash do audio winners get? Nothing. The Tribeca is touting its laurel as a mark of prestige. But this is also an offer of the vaunted "exposure" in another guise. Who offers artists exposure for their work? Someone who wants something for nothing.
Hi Neil, apologies for the late reply...but thank you for your response. It has been kicking around in my mind all week.
First of all, I think that the way the "clips of 2-3 minutes" was discussed in the article didn't fully explain what was meant by that. This was part of a wider conversation Davy and I had (which I edited for length) where he described a live event. He described these audience events as being part discussion and part listening to a curated list of audio clips, "2-3 minutes," which is the rough equivalent of playing a scene to be discussed. It wasn't meant to say that "only" this short amount of audio was played.
I've been to a number of Live audio events, and aside from "live tapings," (which are frankly not my favourite way to spend an evening, there's no mystery for me in this...) the most successful ones break up the pacing of the event by playing short clips, and then staging the event with different aspects of a performance, be this an interview or a discussion or a reading, something live, etc. It's not realistic that a live event will just play a podcast...everyone can do that on their own. Putting people in an audience space demands more than just listening. If they spend their time and money to go to a live audio event, I think the assumption is that they listen to lots of audio in their own time.
As to your comment about the awards...while I'm not terribly familiar with what TF23 offers to their audio winners, but I would agree that sometimes festivals tout prestige and fame in the form of laurels, when really what indie audio makers need, actually, is cold hard cash. I hear that.
There is now a plethora of "awards" to apply to, many at a hefty price, that may or may not offer *any* financial reward at the end...unless we are still considering $500 to be a reward and not merely a pittance. For me, the difference of TF23 is that they will support the indies to apply - which as I've said in a few newsletters I have some intel about just please hit reply - whereas there are clearly "awards" that are meant to be money makers, or at least wage-earners, for the people who pull them together, and not the shows they promote.
For audio folks who have been working here for a while (like you who came up through the public broadcasting system that supported journalists and documentarians), the industry has changed (exploded) in so many ways that it feels somewhat unrecognizable to those who have worked here for a while. I've been here a few minutes short of you, but I stand with one foot in that space, and it's something to see it. The bulk of the workforce here were still in daycare while you were out there making things and getting recognized for it. And one of the things that has been lost in the growth, much like the indie film world, is the expectation that if you make something, you will be paid for it.
Even in the last 6-7 years, it's gone from a cozy industry, to a giant industry. And I guess part of what that means is to hop onto other growth market hacks, for example the film industry, which then means they hand out the laurels to the winners. But I'm also quite sure that any audio maker who earns one would not be disappointed. Perhaps they should have the expectation that they will be paid, or be remunerated, but I'm willing to bet that's not a foregone conclusion any longer.
Lovely response. I've sent you a reply to your website email. :)