How an indie documentary hit was made in lockdown
Future News 47
Who would have thought so-called ‘creativity explosions’ would manifest themselves as moving in with the in-laws? For Nick Hilton (@NickFHilton), founder of podcast company Podot, that was the reality of the situation when he decamped with his partner to Cheltenham, where he soon faced lockdown-induced restlessness.
He turned to a passion project he mapped out in his head some years back and began firing off emails to potential interviewees. Those conversations, alongside some original music and artwork, would make-up The Town That Didn’t Stare, an audio documentary on East Grinstead, the West Sussex town where followers of alternative spiritualities, including Scientology, The Mormon Church and Opus Dei, have converged on.
Hilton, having grown-up in East Grinstead, knew his subject matter well, but the project was still a daunting undertaking, especially for a one-man-band. He was, however, able to “hammer out” dozens of interviews over a four to five week period, with the first episode of the six-part series being launched on 6 July.
The episodes aren’t all put to bed, Hilton told FN, since he is still working on the assembly of some of them, particularly on sound-mixing, a process he would normally employ someone else to do. But the production of the documentary has seen him break a number of his own podcasting rules.
“The interviews were almost exclusively over Zoom, which is kind of funny because that’s not how I would encourage my clients to do it,” he said. “But I packed a bag with a bunch of microphones [before moving to Cheltenham] and I knew I could record myself in high-ish quality.”
In normal times, Hilton, who spent a “bit of money” on the documentary, would usually use Zencastr or Cleanfeed, to record, but he had to make do with the circumstances he, and the rest of the UK, found himself in.
Building rapport of the video calls, though, wasn’t an issue. “I was mainly interviewing people with a view to them providing me a snippet of around 90 seconds,” he said. “There isn’t a big back-and-forth element to the podcast.”
And Hilton would usually seek to secure an advertising deal before starting a project. However, he felt that the process could have added “three to four” months to the project and given him a few grey hairs on the way. Instead, he set a release date and went for it. “I’m going to write this off as a marketing expense,” Hilton told himself.
He was able to land himself a favourable review on the FT thanks to a well-written email and BBC Radio Sussex had him on to talk about the documentary. But Hilton did share some regrets about the marketing of The Town That Didn’t Stare, reflecting that he should have planned around audience marketing – getting Apple or Spotify to feature the podcast – “months in advance”.
He’s probably being too harsh on himself. So, with all those things considered and some lessons learnt along the way, should we be expecting another documentary from Hilton in the future? “I would love to,” he said. “If I do something again, I would want to have more resources behind it – I was wearing too many hats [this time around].”
💼 Jobs and biz
Andrew Sullivan’s (@SullyDish) The Dish is back thanks to Substack. The first issue of The Weekly Dish lands this Friday. Subscribers are nearing 60,000 as one of the pioneers of the blogosphere returns.
If you’ve ever been ‘Drudged’, you would understand his influence and reach. There will now be a biopic of the mysterious Matt Drudge (@DRUDGE), The Drudge Report founder and editor who shot to prominence after reporting that Newsweek had spiked a story on what would later be known as the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton scandal.
In some ways the story of The National Enquirer and the importing of British tabloid/red-top reporters to the US via Iain Calder (check-out ‘Scandalous! The Tabloid that Changed America’) explains the Drudge phenomenon. Drudge was a fan of The Sun, as evidenced in this rare interview with Sky News.
In the more upmarket sections of the press, The Telegraph is on the look-out for a night business reporter, while the FT has looked at the apparent death of the in-flight magazine.
Q Magazine, which has been running since 1986, will publish its final edition on 28 July. The pandemic killed the outlet, the latest casualty of Britain’s declining music press.
🔬 Research
Congratulations to former Yahoo News editor Caithlin Mercer (@CaithlinMercer), who has joined The University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute as Associate Director of the Journalism Fellowship.
Princeton’s Andy Guess (@andyguess) looks at Americans' online media diets.
🎧 Podcasts
BBC Radio 4’s Media Show: Who cares about local news?
🤖 Technology
Google News Initiative has listed some handy tools for publishers.
Facebook’s Oversight Board is still hiring and has engaged Executive Search firm, Perrett Laver, to look for staff, including a Director of Content.
📧 Contact
For high-praise, tips or gripes, please contact the editor at iansilvera@gmail.com or via @ianjsilvera.
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