With summer holidays out of the way and already half way through September, I felt it was time to get our teeth into carrying out some oral history interviews. I have a few people lined up but wanted to start with someone I already know well in order to hit the ground running.
I therefore contacted a former work colleague, Robert Mottram, a disabled person since childhood and for nearly two decades a disability equality trainer in the West Midlands which included working for two of the region's leading disabled person's organisations, Disability West Midlands and Coventry & Warwickshire Council of Disabled People.
Robert agreed to me visiting him at his home in Leamington Spa to conduct the interview. I briefed Robert on the telephone about what we are looking for within the HLF project so we were both very confident about how the interview would go. This was a rare occasion where I didn't even think written notes or questions were required as I know Robert so well and did not expect any moments where either of us would be stuck for words.
Unfortunately I did not have use of the car yesterday so it was a very long ride from Birmingham to Leamington on a 50cc scooter via the scenic route as I'm not allowed on the motorway on a moped, with my camera and recording equipment safely tucked away. This is the beauty of using small hand held digital recorder's, I'm using an Edirol which is a few years old but still gives perfect clarity in a digital format.
Before carrying out an interview its always worth checking out equipment to make sure everything is working and there's enough memory space. So before I left for Leamington some time was spent testing the sound levels and clearing some memory from an existing memory stick. A 2G memory stick provides plenty of space for recording, so I divided the interview into little sections of about 5 minutes.
It is always worth explaining the techie side of things to the interviewee before you start so they know why you are stopping and starting the conversation. Its about waiting for a natural end in the person's answer to a question; or a point at which they naturally hesitate. A slight hand gesture also let's them know you are going to click the stop button and the break of a few seconds often allows both parties to compose their thoughts for the next question. A break was also prompted at one point when Robert's personal assistant Roberta came through the front door, though in fairness she had been advised in advance that we may be recording so was very quiet and unobtrusive.
Towards the end of the interview, between recordings I asked Robert if there was anything he wanted to talk about that we had so far missed and this proved useful as there were a couple of issues he wanted to expand upon.
The final point I want to make as a tip to would-be interviewers was that I took some little ear plugs with me so that I could test the sound levels prior to the interview starting. This was very useful to do as you then don't have that constant worry in the back of your mind "is this going to sound ok?" You don't have to keep the ear plugs in during the interview, you can just keep one in or pop one in every now and then just to check everything is still clear and audible (we men are good at multi tasking too!). But it does help to make a good recording if you are prepared in advance.
Got a bit lost riding home and ended up going towards Stratford. Not too much of a trauma on a pleasant September evening riding my retro scooter through the lush south Warwickshire countryside. I could definitely do this for a living!
I therefore contacted a former work colleague, Robert Mottram, a disabled person since childhood and for nearly two decades a disability equality trainer in the West Midlands which included working for two of the region's leading disabled person's organisations, Disability West Midlands and Coventry & Warwickshire Council of Disabled People.
Robert agreed to me visiting him at his home in Leamington Spa to conduct the interview. I briefed Robert on the telephone about what we are looking for within the HLF project so we were both very confident about how the interview would go. This was a rare occasion where I didn't even think written notes or questions were required as I know Robert so well and did not expect any moments where either of us would be stuck for words.
Unfortunately I did not have use of the car yesterday so it was a very long ride from Birmingham to Leamington on a 50cc scooter via the scenic route as I'm not allowed on the motorway on a moped, with my camera and recording equipment safely tucked away. This is the beauty of using small hand held digital recorder's, I'm using an Edirol which is a few years old but still gives perfect clarity in a digital format.
Before carrying out an interview its always worth checking out equipment to make sure everything is working and there's enough memory space. So before I left for Leamington some time was spent testing the sound levels and clearing some memory from an existing memory stick. A 2G memory stick provides plenty of space for recording, so I divided the interview into little sections of about 5 minutes.
It is always worth explaining the techie side of things to the interviewee before you start so they know why you are stopping and starting the conversation. Its about waiting for a natural end in the person's answer to a question; or a point at which they naturally hesitate. A slight hand gesture also let's them know you are going to click the stop button and the break of a few seconds often allows both parties to compose their thoughts for the next question. A break was also prompted at one point when Robert's personal assistant Roberta came through the front door, though in fairness she had been advised in advance that we may be recording so was very quiet and unobtrusive.
Towards the end of the interview, between recordings I asked Robert if there was anything he wanted to talk about that we had so far missed and this proved useful as there were a couple of issues he wanted to expand upon.
The final point I want to make as a tip to would-be interviewers was that I took some little ear plugs with me so that I could test the sound levels prior to the interview starting. This was very useful to do as you then don't have that constant worry in the back of your mind "is this going to sound ok?" You don't have to keep the ear plugs in during the interview, you can just keep one in or pop one in every now and then just to check everything is still clear and audible (we men are good at multi tasking too!). But it does help to make a good recording if you are prepared in advance.
Got a bit lost riding home and ended up going towards Stratford. Not too much of a trauma on a pleasant September evening riding my retro scooter through the lush south Warwickshire countryside. I could definitely do this for a living!
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