Precious Places Oral History Project Methodology

February 3, 2004

Summary: Community groups from up to twenty Philadelphia neighborhoods will work with a humanities consultant and a videomaker to collect and preserve community history interviews and develop a short videotape about the special places, buildings, or public spaces that hold community memory, are in danger of being lost, or help define the neighborhood.

Aims and objectives: The goal is to use video as a storytelling device to capture a snapshot of Philadelphia in the beginning of the new century and millennium, at a time when many Philadelphia neighborhoods are undergoing significant changes due to various development initiatives. While some communities are thriving, others face uncertain futures. Producing a documentary videotape provides a chance to honor the local experience and to raise awareness about the richness of community histories.

Precious Places is an opportunity for neighborhood residents to be the author of their community's history. While the experienced videomakers and humanities consultants are present to facilitate the process, community members will conduct the research about the place, contact elders and other subjects in the neighborhood to arrange for interviews, and operate cameras, sound, and lighting equipment themselves.

Each project will document the community's past through a variety of video recording techniques, including oral history narratives provided by neighborhood residents. The stories and memories residents share capture the life of the community and provide an opportunity for all city residents to become aware of the area's unique neighborhoods. It also provides a chance to look at how development policies impact on a neighborhood's "Precious Places".

Framework: Precious Places will provide community groups with the opportunity to use videotape as a storytelling medium. Each community group will answer these questions: What is the story you want to tell? How can it be expressed in a compelling way using video? The starting point for each community group's story will be a place in the neighborhood that has significant historical, cultural, religious, and/or political meaning for residents. Once the place has been identified, elders and others community residents who hold the community's memory will guide the story's narrative. The stories these interviewees provide, along with the visual images the community groups capture, shape the documentation of the place.

*Neighborhoods: We have received and accepted proposals from the following community groups: Asian Americans United (South Philadelphia), African Cultural Art Forum (52^nd Street), Audenreid Beacon Center (Gray's Ferry), Chester Consortium for Creative Community (Chester), Community Leadership Institute (Norris Square), District Community Action Council (Cliveden), Fairfield Cemetery, Frankford Group Ministries (Northeast Philadelphia), Friends Neighborhood Guild (North Philadelphia), Germantown Historical Society, Manyunk Neighborhood Council, Mt. Moriah Cemetery( Southwest Philadelphia), New Kensington CDC, Nicetown CDC, Norris Square Neighborhood Project, Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, Odunde (South Philadelphia), Overbrook Environmental Education Center, Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center, Uptown Theatre and Development Center, and the West Powelton Steppers.

Timeframe: The first meeting between community groups and their facilitators (humanities scholars and experienced videomakers) will take place on Tuesday, February 10. Planning and training will take place throughout February, March and April. Primary production will take place on one shoot day, Saturday, May 1, with May 15 as a back-up date in case of rain. Each group will have two weeks to edit their projects between late May and October 2004. Public screenings of all the finished works will take place in the late fall of 2004 at both a center city location and in neighborhood settings.

Product: There are two main products of the Precious Places project. Each group will edit the footage into an 8-minute (approx.) documentary. The collection of edited works will be screened by Scribe at various locations in Philadelphia, beginning in the late fall of 2004. In addition, the unedited footage will be archived in a place where scholars and the public can have access to the material (possibly Temple University's Urban Archive.) The participating community group and Scribe will share copyright of the recorded material.

Project Outline:

1. Major Pre-Production Tasks:
   1. Formation of a four to five person community member teams, who will commit to putting in the time and work to see through the project through to completion.
   2. Setting the parameters of the project:
      • Specify place (or places)
      • Time period to be explored
      • Approach (whose perspective? oral history? Community diary? Activist piece? Walking tour? Etc. etc. etc.)
   3. Community members conduct initial research in neighborhood and begin outreach for potential interview subjects (4 to 5 people.)
   4. Research of archival and supporting materials
2. Training and Planning Sessions
   1. Community group will meet periodically with facilitators from February through April for 4 to 5 meetings. Meetings may be divided in sections, with equipment training and production planning procedures facilitated by the videomaker and research procedures and interview approaches facilitated by the humanities scholar.
   2. Each group should ideally have at least three equipment-training sessions prior to the shoot to make sure community members are familiar with the operation of the camera, working with natural/ambient light, use of a tripod, monitoring sound and use of external microphones.
   3. Story development will probably occur at each meeting and will include identifying narrative, interview subjects, scenes to be recorded and use of archival materials to supplement storytelling.
   4. The project Technical Director will coordinate equipment needs for both trainings and the shoot date.
   5. Videomaker will train group members in videotape logging in preparation for editing.
3. Research
   1. With support from humanities facilitators, community groups will conduct research about the place that they will document.
   2. In addition to conversations with community residents, community members will be guided in the process of research at newspapers, community journals, urban archives, library collections, and personal collections. They will locate photographs, video footage, maps, and public records.
   3. Community group will also conduct preliminary interviews with tape-recording equipment or detailed notes.
4. Written Materials
1. Community group will work with facilitators to create a written shooting script.
2. In preparation for shoot date, community must have a confirmed list of 4-5 people they will interview, the topics and questions the interview will cover, and a list of the locations they will shoot.
3. Community members with their videomaker facilitator will create a list of equipment needs.
4. Community members will submit these written materials by March 29, 2004 in order to give Scribe enough time to provide feedback before the shoot day.
5. Dress Rehearsal and Planning Day
1. We would like to schedule time over the weekend of April 23 for a dress rehearsal and pre-shoot meeting.
6. Precious Places Community History Day
1. Saturday, May 1, 2004 will be the production day. Each group will spend the day recording in the neighborhood, including taping interviews and documenting selected sites.
7. Post-Production
1. After completing videotaping in the neighborhood, humanities scholars and videomakers are invited to continue with the project through editing. Members of the community groups should be trained in logging prior to the shoot day. Each group will be given 14 days to edit their footage into an 8-minute piece. A Consulting Editor will be hired to assist the project teams. The project's Technical Director will coordinate editing schedules. Editing will take place at Scribe from late May to October 2004.
8. Screening
1. Scribe will organize public screenings of all the completed works in the late fall of 2004. Scribe will also assist in organizing screenings in each of the selected Precious Places neighborhoods.