|
View the h-oralhist Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in h-oralhist's September 2002 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in h-oralhist's September 2002 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the h-oralhist home page.
I'm so glad to hear someone allude to the human voice, Andy! I produce videotapes on women in nontraditional careers and women's history, literature, and art. I do all the voice recording myself (using a Marantz cassette tape recorder and a super-duper microphone; the mic makes the big difference in quality, I've found). I do use transcripts (which someone else does for me, as I've found that otherwise I get too sick of the material to edit it properly). But my goal is to use an hourlong interview, say, as the basis for a much shorter (3 to 5 minute) mini-oral history. I've found that the real art of what I do is letting the speakers' voices come through intact and at the same time making their points punchy enough not to bore the audience. But each speaker's voice is so distinctive! I've found that sometimes even when two speakers seem to be saying something very similar, their intonations can indicate subtle differences in meaning that can complement each other. And I personally find unedited transcripts boring and tedious to read. The unedited tapes are much more lively and interesting although of course it takes much longer to listen to them than to skim transcripts. Jocelyn Riley Her Own Words Oral Histories of Women's Lives PO Box 5264 Madison WI 53705-0264 herownwords.com American Indian Women's Stories Lives of Artists & Writers Women in Nontraditional Careers
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
|