VOX POPS has a number of strands of activity. We do:
- Project development. We will help develop, support and give funding advice for your bid to a publicly funded body, such as the Heritage Lottery Fund. Our experts have worked for the HLF or have successfully submitted many bids to publicly funded bodies. We can help you write your bid.
- We can provide Oral History Training programmes and workshops for all ages, including young or elderly.
- We can provide bespoke programmes and support to meet your needs.
- We can help deliver Oral History projects by carrying out interviews and editing for you.
- We can do your transcribing for you.
- We can provide project management.
VOX POPS offers a variety of oral history training programmes. Most of our programmes can be designed to meet your outcomes, needs and budget.
We will discuss each programme with you individually to make sure that it meets with your requirements.
To give you an idea of the kind of training programmes we can offer, here is a typical training programme package:
Basic Package
This three-day package introduces you to oral history and to digital recording techniques.
Day One: What is oral history? Research techniques. Establishing links with the community. Finding your interviewees.What makes a good interviewee. Some of the ethical issues involved in oral history. Release forms. What to do with your recordings. Various outcomes. Archiving.
Day Two: The different kinds of recording equipment: digital, minidisc and tape. How to use the equipment. Where to conduct your interview. Finding good talkers. Group interviews or single interviews. Listening skills. Making the interviewee feel relaxed and able to talk. Asking the questions. How to ask questions that will elicit informative answers. The use of photographs and other props.
Day Three: Conducting the interview. You conduct your own interviews and listen back to them while we give advice.
Editing
This three-day package introduces you to editing software and editing techniques.
Day One: Editing software, getting to know it.
Day Two: Editing Practice. How much do we edit, dialect, mistakes, punctuation, Umms and errs. What computer editing program we recommend.
Transcribing
This one-day programme provides students with some basic understanding and practice in transcribing, i.e:
What to listen out for. What to include in your transcript. How to do it. Making sense out of it.
We have been involved with the following projects:- Jet Coast, an oral history of villages on the North East coast of Yorkshire
- The Citadel Theatre Company, St Helens
- Friends of Beaumont Park, Huddersfield
