Oral History Workshop

Saving Family History Through the Eye of a Camera
A workshop on using a digital camera for oral history

April 25, 2009
Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, 600 Interstate 30 East, Greenville, TX
Registration 9 a.m.
Program 9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

The workshop is limited to 30 participants. Please pre-register by contacting John Armstrong at justjohn@geusnet.com. There is no charge for the workshop.

Presenters:

Glen Gainer, Historian, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Adam Northam, Digital Collections Librarian, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Clay Woods, Web Designer & Video Editor

This workshop will cover the basic principles of interviewing techniques, editing, and digital format preservation.

Glen Gainer will discuss the methods of selecting and contacting interviewees, formulating questions for the interviewee, lighting and framing for the interview, conducting the interview, and concluding the post-interview process.

Adam Northam and Clay Woods will demonstrate off-the-shelf software for editing videos and migrating audio cassettes and VHS videos to digitized format.

The workshop is designed for those just starting into the field of digital audio and video oral history. No experience needed!

Your hosts are the members of the Hunt County Historical Commission.

Glen Gainer: Texas A&M University-Commerce historian for the WWII Veterans and Home Front Project. Glen has conducted more than 180 interviews with veterans in the past 2 years using a digital video camera.

Adam Northam: As digital collections librarian, Texas A&M University-Commerce Adam has responsibility for the digital video lab at the James G. Gee Library. He is familiar with video editing software and the procedures and techniques for transferring VHS and cassette, and reel to reel tape to modern digitized formats.

Clay Woods: Word Works Web Design. Clay will demonstrate video editing with user-friendly, inexpensive software designed for the consumer market.