When dealing with violent crime, how much can you put in a podcast?
How do you keep focus on a story that takes years?
"I think the first lesson we learnt was that when it comes to covering a trial in South Africa, you’d do well to avoid committing to an end date," says Becky Lipscombe, former BBC producer and co-creator of podcast series Blood Lands.
"At the very least, you need understanding commissioners or editors who are invested in getting to the end of a trial process that dragged on and on, way beyond several delivery dates."
Tip 1# - Know what you can control
Becky says there is immense benefit in getting people to listen to your episodes, early and often. "We were very lucky to have a group of people – some with lots of audio experience, others with none – who would listen to our early mixes and point out where they got confused, or where it wasn’t clear who was speaking," she says.
BBC Africa Correspondent and co-creator of Blood Lands, Andrew Harding wrote a book, "These Are Not Gentle People", on the same case as the podcast series. "I began visiting Parys soon after the killings in January 2016. I spent just over 100 days there, but scattered over four years," says Andrew.
"I had planned only to write a book, but as people began to open up and the story got darker and stranger I realised it would be a shame not to do a radio version too."
"It was a fascinating process trying to boil down everything into five very distinct chapters, each with a big hook or twist at the end to try to keep listeners engaged. And as Becky mentioned, taking huge pains to make sure the listener was never, ever lost or confused took a great deal of rewriting and drafting," Andrew says.
Becky says a huge challenge was keeping the episodes as tight as possible. "We had such a lot of material. We could have done a whole five episodes just set in the court, following the twists and turns of the trial, the rotating cast of prosecutors, the mystery of a post-mortem report and an ER doctor’s recollection that didn’t match. In the end we had to go with the clearest possible storyline, whilst trying to keep enough of the material that gave a sense of how it is to live in Parys with the divisions that still exist," she says.
Andrew says he doesn't know how the people featured in the series feel about the final product. "The court process is still unfolding. Sentencing has been delayed for over a year so I’m sure this is still a very raw issue for all involved. I know the community is very aware of the book and the series. I’ve been in touch with several people involved. But I decided it was not my place to chase them up for a reaction, and so far no one has offered me one," he says.
LISTEN NOW: When two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse they trigger a frenzied series of events that expose the enduring tensions threatening the country.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | BBC
Tip 2# - How do you keep focus on a story that takes years?
"I would go down for a few hours every month or two just to check in with people. I got to know some very well, and I think they found it useful to talk to someone removed from their increasingly traumatised communities," says Andrew. "But I had a day job to focus on too, so it wasn’t like I was just hanging around waiting for the next court date."
The story is incredibly violent and there is a fair amount of detail in the series.
"We needed to get across what a violent attack this had been. We did that in a number of ways. We had an unnamed ER doctor relate, very clinically, a list of injuries he’d found on one of the victims. We had Andrew run through, at the crime scene, a selection of blows and kicks that had been aimed at the two victims. And I think both these methods gave a sense of the frenzy of this attack, and the anger behind it.
"We played a bit of a trick in episode one, giving audiences the impression that this was a “traditional” farm attack – meaning black attackers and white victims. That enabled us to dig into the fears of the white farming community in Parys, and then to turn that on its head when we revealed that it was the other way round," says Andrew.
"We had incredibly powerful court testimony, and WhatsApp recordings, so they did much of the hard work in terms of the violence," he says.
All the best,
Paul
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LISTEN NOW: When two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse they trigger a frenzied series of events that expose the enduring tensions threatening the country.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | BBC