a and gave it a new spin by having interviewees write and down and physically show their answers to the question.
In the above, the 50 People, 1 Question concept served not so much as a model to be copied, but as a starting point and as a source of inspiration.
A group of my own students in Hong Kong adapted the approach to suit their needs (they were the ones who noticed the original series of videos). In addition to the in-the-street-interviews, they also conducted sit-down interviews which allowed the interviewees to really talk a lot more and go into greater depth.Because the video was entered in a documentary video competition, they decided not to have a long introduction, but to get to the point almost straight away, starting with the interviewees repeating the question (so the viewer knows pretty much what to expect from the very beginning). Also, much as the students wanted to do the camera-focusing effects, our consumer-grade camcorders didn’t really allow for that. Because the students collected quite a lot of footage, they are now working on a series of related films. Here is the main video:
If students are interested in making a Fifty People, One Question video, they can first think of a suitable question. The questions in the orginal videos are quite good as they are a little unusual and would help avoid pre-thought-out ‘canned’ answers. The PostSecret video was interesting in that it showed just how much some people are willing to reveal on camera. The two student projects on this page dealt with more straightforward questions, an approach which also seemed to work well.
If students are working on oral history projects, they should think of a question and period of time they would like to focus on (e.g., What was life like for you as a labourer in the Braceros Program?, What was life like for you, as a black person, growing up in America? What was life like for you in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation?). Another very important consideration is the scope of the study. How many interviews will each student group conduct? Will the whole class focus on a specific theme or will groups be allowed to choose their own area to focus on? Will the students only present the interviews or will they integrate what they have found with other sources? The students might find that their interviewees have other interesting things to talk about, but it would be good to start with one area to focus on and a clear idea of the scope of the project.
As the oral history approach has been used for a long time, there are a lot of supporting materials describing the whole process of conduction oral history interviews. The following website describes this process: dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html
A detailed downloadable guide is also available from the Smithsonian Institute (this is very useful and it provides samples of release forms and other kinds of documentation like personal information forms): http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/interviewingguide.pdf
The following PowerPoint presentation (in video form) video clip gives a detailed overview of the whole process:
This clip, from the University of Leicester, focuses on the technical aspects of the interview (e.g., seating positions, audio recording techniques, cameras angles, lighting, and getting the interview started etc.) and gives examples of good and bad interview techniques:
For both types of projects, students should formally gain the consent of the interviewees by having them sign release forms (an example is here: www.smccd.edu/accounts/brenner/lsci110/OralHistoryReleaseForm.html) and personal information forms.
If your students do work on a 50 People 1 Question video or oral history project, let me know. I’d love to see their work.
~by Stephen Richards (longzijun)
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