[game_preservation] Opportunity for arcade machines, Aug 11,12

[Simon Carless]

On this front, the amazing Jason Scott (who did the GREAT BBS Documentary -
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com) is working on two game-related docs right now
- one on arcade games and one on text advetures:

http://www.getlamp.com/
http://www.arcadedocumentary.com/

These are both going to be vital historical documents - and BBS Documentary
is even Creative Commons licensed! I put the 'ArtScene' episode up on my
LegalTorrents site if anyone wants to see:

http://www.legaltorrents.com/bit/bbs-documentary-artscene-episode-mpg.torrent

s!

On 8/7/07, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org> wrote:

>

>  Hey Sean,

>

> A bit of advice I know of; although take it with a pinch of salt, I am not

> a professional, and every rule or technique can be broken.

>

> And I hope this is useful and not too long-winded - I usually do student

> TV training in person.

>

> Sean Gugler wrote:

>

> Time is of the essence, please offer up suggestions on how I could best

> use my time there!  My wife and I have a low-fidelity digital camcorder,

> we don't mind attempting to interview guests as they play, but we're not

> experienced interviewers at all; tips would be welcome.  We could film

> ourselves, but we're not experienced interviewees, either, so that's an

> unlikely route to videos anyone would actually want to watch.

>

>  First, there are a few basic ways you can interview people:

>

> 1. Off screen questions

> 2. On screen presenter

>

> For audio quality, a microphone is good, but it isn't always needed - the

> problem is any group of around 10 or more people is loud background noise,

> which causes a few problems for onboard (non-directional) camera mics.

>

> The first, off screen questions, you need to make sure the person answers

> in a way so the interviewer doesn't need to be heard to understand, unless

> you intend to add some voiceover in editing:

>

> Not very good (confusing if you cut the question, ie; missing the "thing"

> (so it might not be viewed as an opinion) and the actual thing they are

> saying is interesting!):

>

> Q: What do you think of game preservation?

> A: Well, its quite an interesting thing to do, and I feel it is important

> to preserve ...

>

> Much better (the answer can stand as its own statement, read any news

> article and it does this):

>

> Q: What do you think of game preservation?

> A: I think Game Preservation is an interesting thing to do, and I feel it

> is important to preserve ...

>

> The bonuses of the off-screen method is no "real" interviewer is needed!

> It can be edited into almost anything. It is however, disjointed, and

> requires editing.

>

> For the on-screen questions, its a lot easier, and a matter of making the

> questions concise, and allowing the person to answer until they are done

> (and look interested while doing so, you're on camera!). An additional bonus

> of this method is being able to easily "follow on" from a question, meaning

> more interactivity in the interview, and less editing later (although

> editing is harder, since it is more continuous).

>

>  One of the organizers, Scott Evans, is an avid collector of arcade gear

> and lore; he has a high-fidelity camera he's used in the past to capture

> story-telling sessions from Atari alumni and others during the expo.  We

> might be able to borrow the use of it if it's not committed to similar

> session captures this year.  I'm also happy to introduce him to

> preservationists here, if you don't already know him.  He's managed to

> scoop up a lot of prototype hardware and unreleased games from Atari's

> occasional house-cleaning and eventual closure, many of which have been

> shown at the expo.

>

>  This is a good place to suggest questions, basically, be relevant, and

> know the person you're interviewing. For entertainment journalism you might

> find a lot of questions are "the same", but for documentary and historical

> things, you are going to be the only one asking the questions to the person,

> so can ask what might be otherwise silly or common ones.

>

> First, make sure the viewer knows who is being interviewed - if off

> screen, asking them to say who they are and what they do (or what they are

> doing at the thing you are covering) is vital!

>

> Then you can rattle off into questions; for instance, Scott Evans collects

> Atari items; you might want to ask:

>

> 1. What he thinks of digital/hardware game preservation archives ("do you

> think they are important? if so, why?"), and if he has contributed to any

> and what they might be

> 2, 3. Why he collects, when he started collecting, what his collection

> contains (anything interesting or unique)

> 4, 5, 6, 7 Why he helps organise the event, what he gets out of it, how

> long it has been going, the events history

> 8. How people might get involved helping (if this is something he does)

> + the questions below the next quote, which are things like "favourite

> game" and other general questions.

>

> I'm not good on anything more specific - I don't know game preservation

> very well, but a question about a recent event - such as the Illinois

> funding from the Library of Congress, might be good to bring up ("what are

> your thoughts on ....")

>

>  I could also use guidance on how to present myself ... "Hi, I'm a

> representative of the IGDA Game Preservation SIG, here's our Wiki link,

> umm ... got history?"

>

>    This is possibly the easiest thing to practice, the main thing is to tell

> them who you are, what you are doing and what you might ask. You summed it

> up kind of, perhaps:

>

> "Hello there, (I notice you're doing XXX), I'm with the International Game

> Developers' Game Preservation SIG doing some filming and interviews, do you

> mind talking about and historical games for a minute?"

>

> You might talk to them anyway, and just bring up filming anyway (thus not

> needing the "I notice" part ;-) ) but if you are not, then asking them about

> what they are currently looking at or doing is a good idea ("I notice you're

> looking at XXX game...I'm with the International Game Developers' Game

> Preservation SIG, do you mind talking about XXX game and historical games

> for a minute?").

>

> Some are just *made* to be interviewed. Look out for easy targets - people

> dressed up (I don't expect you'll see any, but this applies to almost

> anything) or those who are actively talking to people - stall owners,

> helping staff, whoever :-)

>

> And of course, if you can organise interviews without the camera pointing

> at someone, such as Scott, there is no need for introductions as such.

> However, if you plan to do On screen spontaneous interviews, people don't

> have forever, so it can be worthwhile filming while asking the question so

> you can leap in with some things:

>

> 1. Who they are, where they are from (some might not want to answer this,

> that can be fine!)

> 2. What old/rare games/machines they enjoy and/or collect, when they

> started collecting if they do, and why they collect (the first 2 amount to

> "Who, where, what, when, why", and are pretty generic for any interview.

> Since it is a niche field all 5 can be important.)

> 3. What they might think of digital and hardware archives

> 4. What they are doing at the event (have they brought anything or played

> anything interesting? are they selling something or talking?)

> 5. What they intend to go see / enjoy at the event (or what have they

> enjoyed/seen so far)

>

> I hope this helps - and while not having a microphone might be problematic

> (mainly the noise) it might be worth a shot interviewing away from people in

> a quiet room, and filming in general the event. Another thing is getting the

> camera aimed correctly - if doing questions off screen, then having the head

> of the person with no head room is a good idea (space above the head looks

> rubbish) but not zoomed in too far (seeing their hands might be important,

> or they might move around a lot). If there is an interviewer too, zoom out,

> and again make sure there is little or no head room.

>

> This wraps up interviews 101 (not short eh?), and most of this is pretty

> common on other things. I wish I was in America, they do have a lot more

> events then here to cover :-)

>

> I hope others can provide some additional questions, I just know some of

> the interview techniques (there are many more if you thought that was it :)

> - and different ways of doing them, in different environments, and so on).

>

> Andrew

>

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>

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