And the 2015 Winner is… Cassie Galpin

Many congratulations to Cassie Galpin who is the winner of the 2015 Graham S Brand Award.

This prestigious prize is presented every October to the student on the University of Westminster’s Media Course who has written and directed what’s judged to be the best radio feature of the year.

The award is given in memory of Graham S. Brand, my late writing partner and a much-loved former student of the University. Mrs Brand, Graham’s mother, and I visited the University last Friday to give a talk to the Media students and to present the cheque to the winner.  This year’s standard was delightfully high and it was a tough decision.

Cassie’s winning entry was a ten minute radio feature entitled “Ancient Trees.”  It was a wonderful atmospheric piece about the myth and folklore of ancient trees and their place in the English landscape.   It combined terrific interviews, with a strong, focused narrative, and great music from Philip Glass.

I asked Cassie how she came to choose the subject.  “I was inspired to chose ancient trees as the subject because they are so amazing. Many are tall, many are old, and everybody has a story about a tree.”

And how did she go about the nuts and bolts of the actual production?  “The audio for the piece came together very quickly.  I had arranged my interviews within a week and I travelled around London and the South East to collect them. Trees are very visual, they don’t make much noise so I had to collect other sounds to include, for example, walking through leaves and the quacking of ducks.  I needed to make sure I asked my interviewees to describe as much as possible so that it’s possible for the listener to imagine what the trees look like.”

Many congratulations to Cassie from myself and Mrs Brand for an outstanding piece of radio.  After finishing her third year, Cassie wants to continue making audio / radio pieces and at the moment is “taking every opportunity to gain experience that I can.”  She is a very worthy winner.

Huge thanks as always to radio course leader, Dr Matthew Linfoot, who organised the visit so well

Connections:

Find the award winning Cassie Galpin on twitter here @CassieGalpin

And course organiser Matthew on twitter here @WestminsterRadio

More information on the Graham S Brand Award.