On April 5, I was set to interview Brett Swiecinski at the Wendy's near Rowan University for the Oral History project. I charged two of my cameras the night before - one digital camera with movie-taking capabilities and one camcorder. The reason I had two is because it would have been easier to upload the video from the digital camera, but I wasn't sure if the memory card would hold a 30 minute interview. Therefore I decided to tape with two devices to ensure that I would get what I wanted no matter what.
After I arrived at the Wendy's and met Brett, I discovered that the camcorder only had 5 minutes of battery life. Something had gone wrong during the charging process. I was fairly certain that the 4GB memory card in the digital camera would hold the full interview, so I went ahead with the interview just using that. After about 20 minutes, I stopped the video because I had run out of questions to ask. When I checked the camera, I saw that after 3 minutes of recording, it had shut itself off. Needless to say, I was frustrated and a little embarrassed.
Brett kindly agreed to meet up with me the following day to re-do the interview. I made sure the camcorder charged this time and decided it was better to use that since it is a camcorder after all. One of the girls from my group, Breanne, was able to come along to the interview this time as well. We stopped the tape after the first couple of minutes to make sure the sound quality was good. It was, so we continued. Having Breanne there was extra helpful in two ways. First, it allowed me to check the camera often to make sure things were running smoothly without feeling awkward and interrupting the flow of conversation. Second, she thought of questions I hadn't, so between the two of us, we got a 33 minute interview.
I've learned that test runs on digital equipment is always a good idea, even if you think something is fine. I also learned that it can be very beneficial to have more than one person conduct an interview. Sometimes group work can really pay off.
After I arrived at the Wendy's and met Brett, I discovered that the camcorder only had 5 minutes of battery life. Something had gone wrong during the charging process. I was fairly certain that the 4GB memory card in the digital camera would hold the full interview, so I went ahead with the interview just using that. After about 20 minutes, I stopped the video because I had run out of questions to ask. When I checked the camera, I saw that after 3 minutes of recording, it had shut itself off. Needless to say, I was frustrated and a little embarrassed.
Brett kindly agreed to meet up with me the following day to re-do the interview. I made sure the camcorder charged this time and decided it was better to use that since it is a camcorder after all. One of the girls from my group, Breanne, was able to come along to the interview this time as well. We stopped the tape after the first couple of minutes to make sure the sound quality was good. It was, so we continued. Having Breanne there was extra helpful in two ways. First, it allowed me to check the camera often to make sure things were running smoothly without feeling awkward and interrupting the flow of conversation. Second, she thought of questions I hadn't, so between the two of us, we got a 33 minute interview.
I've learned that test runs on digital equipment is always a good idea, even if you think something is fine. I also learned that it can be very beneficial to have more than one person conduct an interview. Sometimes group work can really pay off.
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