Edit interview

The following material presents a five step process with guidelines for achieving these two desired outcomes.

• Step 0 - Get ready to edit
• Step 1 - Generate an initial interview Table of Contents (ToC) using the raw interview. The initial ToC is used in Step 2
• Step 2 - Create a draft of final interview ToC. This document is used during the actually editing and will likely change as the editing proceeds.
• Step 3 - Edit the Interview which presents guidelines about editing expectations. There are minimum requirements as well as some optional edits that can be done depending on the editor's expertise and comfort in editing. 
• Step 4 - Develop the metadata. Note: before starting it is useful to review Developing metadata.
• Step 5 - Publish the results to KEEP.

Getting ready to edit requires the following steps.

1. Step 1 - select interview.
   1. Review the list of interviews that need edits (see button above) and select one.
   2. If you would like guidance contact the Video History chair.
   3. Once an interview is selected let the Video History Data Manager know so that the interview status and interviews needing editing documents can be updated
   4. Create an interview folder and within the folder create folders for the various files you will use, e.g., files for the interview, pictures, title blocks, etc.
2. Step 2 - download the interview
   
   The "raw", i.e., unedited, interviews are saved on an ASU Enterprise Dropbox account. Since not everyone has access to this account there are two ways to get the raw interview.
   1. If you do have permission to access the Video History Dropbox account then:
      1. log onto My ASU and select "View More" from the gray menu bar
      2. From the popup menu select "ASU Dropbox" and then on "Continue"
      3. What you see next depends on what personal ASU Dropbox folders you have in addition to the Video History folders. Look for a folder named "Interviews Needing Editing" and click on the folder.
      4. You will now see a set of folders, one for each interview needing editing. Click on the interview you want and then download all the raw interview pieces. The download function is located in a popup menu that is opened by clicking the three dots on the right side of the listed interview.
   2. If you do not have permission to access the Video History Dropbox then contact the Video History Project Editing Chair who will arrange to get you the raw interview files.
3. Step 3 - check your editing program
   
   The raw interviews have all been saved as MP4 files so there should be no problem getting them to load in your editor. If your editor cannot load the video, contact the Video History Chair.

Before you begin editing the interview it is important to know and document what is in the interview. This is one of the more time consuming and least enjoyable parts of the entire process, but it is the foundation upon which much of the editing is built. The goal is to generate an ordered list of all questions asked followed by all the stores associated with each question asked. The start time for item in the list is added to each entry, i.e., a Table of Contents for the interview  The document might look something like the following:

1. Question 1 (@hr:min:sec) - level 1 heading
   1. Story 1 (@hr:min:sec) - level 2 heading
   2.  Story 2 (@hr:min:sec) - level 2 heading
2. Question 2 (@hr:min:sec) - level 1 heading
   1. Story1 (@hr:min:sec) - level 2 heading
3. etc.

Once this initial Table of Contents (ToC) is completed you have a complete list of the major topics (questions asked) and the stories related to the questions. The times help you locate the material during the editing process..

There are a variety of ways to generate this ToC but they all boil down to:

• listening to the interview from start to finish
• As you listen to the interview
  • stop the tape each time the interviewer asks a new question. note the topic and time and
  • then stop the tape each time there is a new story related to the question asked and note the story topic and starting time of the new story'

Note 1    Try to keep the story descriptions short but informative enough that you will remember what was being discussed when you go back and edit

Note 2    One of the issues you will need to address is: When is a story actually a story. Not everything discussed by the interviewee needs or deserves to be in the ToC. You will find the interviews are full of short little side stories that should not be included in the ToC. It will be up to you to decide whether the story is worthy of a ToC entry. There is no rule but stories less than a minute long are getting into the questionable area

Before you start adding title blocks or moving parts of the interview around you need a plan for what you want the final interview to look like, i.e., you need to update the outline you generated in Step 1 to reflect the edits you plan on making. The outline you created in Step 1 is the starting point for your thinking about how the desired look for the interview. As a first step in updating the initial ToC review the outline looking for the following possible edits:

• reduce the length of long story/question titles without losing story content
• rewrite the questions (level 1 rows) as statements about the stories to follow
• add a new level 1 row when you find a sequence of stories that have a common thread
• remove stores from the outline if on reflection the stories are too short or add little to the question being discussed.
• reword any entries that would benefit from a rewording now that you better understand what the story is about and how it fits into the entire interview.
• If you find duplicate stories or story topics either:
  • delete one of the stories or
  • move the duplicate stories together
• add draft section title blocks
• (optional) If a major topic is discussed at different places in the interview (often items at the end of the interview add substance to a question asked earlier) move the item from its location in the initial ToC to its new location in the draft interview ToC.

Once you’ve completed your review and updated your outline, you now have a document which will help keep you on track as you do the actual editing.

Creating an interesting, entertaining video, highlighting stories about ASU can require editing ranging from simply adding title blocks to massive reorganization of the stories. What editing gets done is a function of the editor’s skills and interests as well as the quality of the “raw” interview. There are minimum required edits, shown; below. Some optional edits are also listred. The material column accordion gives more information about each of these edits.

Minimum editing tasks

• Add Section Title Blocks
• Remove Inappropriate or Unwanted Material (if present)
• Remove Excessive Dead Air (if present)
• Create Smooth Transitions as necessary when interview material is removed or moved

Optional editing task

• Add pictures
• Add story captions
• Change story order

See draft editing guidelines

Once you have completed the editing you can complete the generation of the Abstract, Table of Contents, Subject, and Series metadata.

Read how to develop metadata

Publishing the interview to the digital repository (KEEP) requires several steps.

• Step 1 - create final interview video
  
  Once you have completed your editing you need to generate MP4 file(s) of the edited interview(s).  If you have created parts use the part name as the file name, e.g., EarlyYears.MP4. You should create the MP4 files with the highest resolution possible.
• Step 2 - upload interview to dropbox
  
  Save the file to the project's Dropbox.
  • If you have access to the Dropbox follow the login process given in Step 0 and upload the interview(s) to the "Interviews for KEEP folder.
  • If you do not have access you will net to contact the VHP chair for assistance.
• Step 3 - review
  
  All edited videos should be reviewed by one of the Video History Editors to make sure it meets the project standards. After uploading the interview, let the VHP chaird know the interview is ready for review, The metadata as well as the interview should be reviewed. IF the review turns up an problems you will need to address the issues and re-upload the revised version to the Dropbox
  
  Read the Interview review checklist.
• Step 4 - uploading to KEEP
  
  When the review has been completed send the metadata to the VHP chair and let them know the interview is ready for KEEP.  The VHP chair sends the metadata to the VHP Document Database Manager who will correctly format the metadata as necessary start the process of getting the interview and metadata posted on KEEP .