Helmut Kopetzky, Free lance Producer and coach to EBU Master School | How do you see your role as a coach? I always have made a distinction between programme maker / editor and coach. In the first place, editors are responsible for their programs – coaches are responsible for their coachees. Even to call them “trainees” doesn’t hit the point. “Coaching” is more general: I work with an individual on his/her format and develop his/her specific talents, encourage “coachees” to be themselves (no copies or clones) and to make the results of this process fertile for their companies. This process is hard to be perceived by remote observers, it’s rarely straight forward – detours can be most enlightening ! And it takes time. BUT: the results of this process are long lasting and more effective as any functional training could be. Coaching is the opposite of professional drill.
| Why did you join the EBU Master School? At the end of the Nineties when Peter Leonhard Braun,
then head of the feature department of SFB Berlin, sent out “missionaries” to all continents in order to spread the idea of Radio features I was involved in about 50 national and international workshops. So - when I was asked to take part in the EBU training project for the first time, it was quite consistent to agree. Can you tell us more about the picture (of you) with the cow? It is a Swiss cow grazing in the Alpine Tessin region. In fact it’s a “fighting cow” – very black and very heavy, the bells weigh 6 pounds and more. Every year the “Queen” is selected in a tough competition making its owner prominent and even wealthy. I recorded a herd of more than 60 cows being released from their stables in the early morning as a soundscape in my 16-hours-radio-event “A Day in Europe” (Hessischer Rundfunk 1999) and Heidi, my wife, was brave enough to take this picture. |
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A unique European Corporate School The EBU Master School on Radio features, this year in its third edition, is a unique European Corporate School for young radio producers. Organized by EBU International Training in partnership with EBU Radio Department, the ARD/RBB Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and Deutschland Radio (Germany) and the VRT (Belgium), EBU Master School is an innovative training format composed of 2 Master Courses and coaching over a period of 12 months. The Master School aims to nurture a pool of talented and young radio producers from EBU member organizations who will lead the way in creative features. They design and produce their own feature under the personal coaching of famous and experienced documentary makers who will transfer their knowledge, tips and values over to them. Brand At the end of the course the EBU Master School delivers an accreditation to each trainee who successfully completed the programme. A CD-Rom produced at the end with all features promotes the Master School and the young producers. The annual International Features Conference gives the Master School an international exposure and its trainees a recognition by their peers. 
| | Course schedule January – March 2006: On-line coaching on Project proposal March 2006: Berlin Master Course March – June 2006: On-line coaching on Project development (topic refocus, recording one scene & interview excerpts) June 2006: Brussels Master Course July – Dec. 2006: On-line coaching on Project development (interviews, recordings, script, music) Dec. 2006 – Jan. 2007: Final editing with the coach and broadcast of the feature
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The Master Courses provide an intensive training on fundamental competences, tools and techniques for radio documentary such as storytelling, the use of sound, music, interviewing and recording techniques, dramatic art through lectures and case studies, practical exercises in groups, individually or with coaches. Coaching and group learning sessions give trainees the opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts. The on–line coaching aims at accompanying the trainee all along the production of his/her radio documentary, strengthening his/her self-confidence and helping him/her to find better methods and richer ways in radio production. Coaches are also present during the final editing to assist the trainees. The EBU Master School creates a dynamic network between Radio stations and most importantly builds bridges between generations of producers: learn the lessons from the past and build the future together. Furthermore, trainees become part of a international class and experience the fruitful exchange of ideas and approaches while benefiting from cultural differences. For the 2006-2007 EBU Master School, 14 young producers were selected – out of 28 applicants from 11 EBU members organizations:
(RTE, Ireland; ARD/RBB Germany; PR Polish Radio, Poland; CR, Czech Radio, Czech Republic; ORF, Austria; Danish Broadcasting Corporation, Denmark, Hungarian Radio, Hungry; NRK, Norway; Eesti Raadio, Estonia; BBC, United Kingdom; VRT, Belgium). |  |
Master Course I
ARD/RBB Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin, 12 – 15 March 2006 >> programme The 14 young professionals met in Berlin at the kind invitation of ARD/RBB Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg for an intensive 4-day course. 12 training modules were delivered by the coaches among which: - short and long feature formats,
- creating images, dramaturgy and story telling,
- interview and recording techniques,
- sound & music,
- pitching your feature.
| The Berlin Master Course – what participants said: – “It opened my mind. Especially lessons about dramaturgy and creating images.”
– “It gives me the unique opportunity to meet different feature coaches and to learn about their different approaches and their different ways of working, etc..You can learn from everybody something!”
– “It opens me new perspectives on how to do an interview.”
– “Thanks to the meeting of other students, it is a true inter-European exchange of radio ideas.” |
| Master Course II
VRT, Brussels, 18 – 20 June 2006
>> programme The group met again in Brussels, at the kind invitation of VRT, for the Master Course II. Each of them presented his/her radio project to his/her coach and fellow trainees, exchanging programme ideas and concepts. Further more, each producer had a personal session with his/her coach to incorporate newly acquired material into their work.
| The Brussels Master Course – what participants said: – “Meeting other feature-makers, listening to their recordings, hearing other’s opinion on your own material, exchange thoughts ..it’s inspiring!”
– “I could share my doubts and problems with everybody during 3 days. We were together again! great!”
– “This interchange between European radio colleagues and brainstorming about your feature project helped you to go into a concrete direction.”
– “Working with my coach is very interesting.” |
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| Edwin Brys, Head of Radio Training Department, VRT and EBU Master School project coordinator | “The EBU Master School got the status now of a strong brand in radio training. We started in 2001 with 12 candidates, now 28 apprentices sailors were trying to jump on the gangplan and fight for a cabin. Some of our trainees were invited at the captain’s tables of the Prix Europa and Prix Italia.
We never intended to form prize winners, the training and coaching process being more important than the result, the trip though the waves more rewarding than the arrival in the harbour. But of course, we are proud of the international recognition of the efforts made by a very small training unit: you as coaches, Nathalie and her most efficient EBU staff and a group of young, motivated radio boys and girls from all over the continent.” | 
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