Completely agreed!

My experience - several years ago the local Port began collecting  
oral histories of some of the elders who were invloved in the glory  
days of the port, which has long since been decimated by competition.  
The first session was good, two couples and two interviewers and four  
hours of material collected in a day's work. Second sesion included  
video - hours were spent lighting the room, covering windows, etc,  
and more hours with cutaways and retakes. Only three people speaking,  
and only 45 minutes of material collected. Then they ran out of money  
and the project stalled...

I think the video element wasted most of the resources, and talking  
heads are something I would not watch myself anyway! It would have  
been more effective to marry the speaking with historical films  
already in the can, if a video was the desired result.

But really, the end result will be words, text, print, and not  
recordings, so efficiency and economy would trup all the rest I believe!

Lou
Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689

On Jan 28, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Bob Olhsson wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From Paul D:
>> Wouldn't it be great if we started recording/posting u-tube oral
>> history videos?
>
> My experience has been that people become way more self conscious  
> when a camera is involved.
>
> I don't think a talking head is nearly as valuable as the huge  
> amount of information that would probably be lost to self  
> consciousness.
>
> Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
> Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
> Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
> 615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com    http://womb.mixerman.net
>