Editing Oral History Interviews

After ingesting all materials that came in with a new interview, the next step is to create a draft edit of the interview for the interviewee to review. This process is fairly straightforward, but differs slightly from audio to video. Additional draft edits may be necessary as the interviewee requests them, but those edits will likely be removal of content and simpler than the steps outlined below, which only need to be done for the first edit.

Audio

1. If multiple files, first concatenate in order to have one working file.
2. Trim off unneeded portion at beginning and end of interview (leaving a couple empty seconds before speaking begins). If additional notes of cuts to make were provided when interview was dropped off, remove that material as well.
3. Normalize audio. We typically normalize levels to -6 dB to be in line with all other material that we have online. The normalization effect can be found in Effects > Amplitude and Compression > Normalize.
4. Quickly visually scan through the file to identify any abnormalities that may need further attention (rare).
5. Export preservation and access audio files according to the file specifications. Reference file locations to determine where to output.

Video

1. If multiple files, first concatenate in order to have one working file.
2. Trim off unneeded portion at beginning and end of interview (leaving a couple empty seconds before speaking begins). If additional notes of cuts to make were provided when interview was dropped off, remove that material as well.
3. Normalize audio. We typically normalize levels to -6 dB to be in line with all other material that we have online. You can find this in Premiere by right-clicking on an audio track, selecting Audio Gain, and then Normalize All Peaks to:.
4. Quickly visually scan through the file to identify any abnormalities that may need further attention (rare).
5. If cuts are splicing two distinct clips together use Dip to Black transition effect between video, and Exponential Fade between audio.
6. Export a preservation audio and video file and an access audio and video file according to the file specifications. Reference file locations to determine where to output.