Huge congratulations to Senior Lecturer Dr Lance Dann who won the Gold award for Best Drama Producer and Marley Cole, Workshop Media Manager, who won the Bronze award for Best Sound Designer. Two University of Brighton staff members have won awards at the UK Audio Production Awards, organised by Radio Independent Group and sponsored by Audible.

Lance Dann, who is course leader for Television and Digital Media Production BA(Hons) created the hit Brighton-based techno-thriller Blood Culture, which at one stage knocked The Archers off the top spot in arts podcasts in the UK. The project was developed from a story that he created with University of Brighton colleague Phil Connolly about the illegal trade in blood.

The RIG awards committee describe the series as being: “a captivating drama that worked on many levels. The judges described the use of music and sound effects as ‘brilliant’ – taking the listener beyond the audio experience into an immersive world. The entry was at times deliberately bewildering, drawing the listener further into the complexity and drama of the story.”

Speaking about the awards Lance said: “It’s amazing and a wonderful surprise that a project that started with Phil and I scribbling down script ideas in our lunchbreaks, should end up getting an award against some of the biggest producers in the country. It just shows how much hard work everyone put in and how great Marley’s sound work was.”

Blood Culture has also been nominated for best Fictional Storytelling at the ARIAS (UK radio industry) and Best Podcast/Online Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards. The series was produced by Resonance 104.4FM and funded by The Wellcome Trust.

[Image: Lance Dann receiving his award from BBC Radio 1 presenter Gemma Cairney, photo credit: Dawn Chua]