2016 NFDS participant Coel Healy wins the Wheeler Centre’s second annual So You Think You Can Pod competition.
Coel was among three contestants whose proposed podcast series were workshopped and critiqued by a panel of audio producers in front of a live audience.
Coel’s So You Think You Can Pod submission was called ‘Waru’. It is the Martu word for fire and was pitched as a proposed six-part podcast series on Australia’s relationship with bushfires that is like none other. According to the Wheeler Centre website “The judges were impressed by Coel’s clear, focussed idea, its uniqueness and its potential for development into a richly imaginative, soundful body of work.”
After winning the live workshop/critique round, Coel has earned himself a Wheeler Centre mentorship and a prize pack worth $8’000.
In 2016, Coel participated in the National Features and Documentary Series with his work ‘Clay Pot Melody’. His piece focused on the ongoing effects of refugee migration and their national migration patterns to rural Australia.
Coel honed in on one refugee family and their experience living in the isolated regional town of Katanning in WA. The piece has since been turned into a film documentary.
The prize includes editorial, production and marketing advice, feedback from the team of Better off Dead and The Messenger, recording time in a professional studio, $3000 cash, tickets to Wheeler Centre events, three Hindenburg Journalist PRO licenses valued at $420 each and a kit of podcaster gear including a microphone, headphones and a portable recorder.
The CMTO would like to congratulate Coel on his fantastic achievement. We were very proud to mentor him during the 2016 NFDS.
2017 National Features and Documentary Series