Woolstore Actuality

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 481, 10 September 1948, Page 12

Woolstore Actuality

REALITY in radio? Yes, of course. Genuine reality? All the muddled, elliptical sounds we understand easily in life because we have eyes and becausé we know the people and things which make the sounds? I used to think so, but not any more. There must be selection, or radio reality is nothing but

"muddle, and selection untouched by art .is usually a bore, If the subject is of immediate topical interest and has a focal point, like a horse race, a game of football or the arrival of a V.LP., then the straight actuality is enough, 4ut when the subject happens to be as diffuse, and complex as the operation of a Canterbury wool store, artistic selection should have a hand. Make the actuality recordings by all means; the thud of the bales, the whine and whistle of the electric hoist, the rumble of trolleys on the wooden floor, the tallying and checking calls, the smoko conversation, and, if you must, the baaing of sheep,, but cut them, select them, and dub them into the narrative at the right places. This was not done in the first

3YC broadcast on the wool industry. Instead there was a dialogue between the announcer and the wool store manager over the background noises. It was complicated. The manager talked about brands, bins, lots, stacks and _ blockstacks, but not, I think, stooks. The announcer asked his cuestions, and followed up the answers by saying, "Well, well, four thousand bales!" or "Eight operations, really!" It was not a good broadcast because it did not illuminate the reality. It was done on the cheap, by ohe man and a technician, when it needed a director, a skilled writer, an accomplished narrator, and a fairly large cast, both of actors and the men on the job.