setting up for the interview

Find a secure, private space, where doors close.

Try to make sure that people do not walk in and out of the room - if at all possible.

No extra people should be sitting around listening -- if at all possible. If your narrator really wants someone with him or her, you might explain why you'd prefer for it to be just one person at a time, but defer to the narrator's wishes.

Ask permission to move furniture and lights around.

Make sure there is enough light.

Avoid back-lighting.

The interviewer and videographer should be seated as close together as possible, so that as the narrator looks at the interviewer, the narrator is also facing the camera.

Turn off your cell phones and ask others to turn off their cell phones.

Turn off televisions, radios, and the like.

You may need to move away from (or unplug) air conditioners or other loud appliances.

Check the microphone for sound.

(This checklist is based on the original Texas After Violence Project Oral History Handbook by Antony Cherian and Mark Westmoreland, Seed Documentary Cooperative, prepared for our February, 2008 training, and the revision of that handbook by Antony Cherian and Gabe Solis, Fall 2008.)