Video in Documentary linguistics

Louise AshmoreDavid Nathan

Introduction

Who uses video? How and why do linguists use video in language

documentation? What do you film when you use video? eg

particular genres or events? Do you plan how to film in terms of participants,

setting, framing, lighting, sound? What is the intended or possible future use of

the video material you record?

Methodology

Video represents what is 'in frame' - when camera is on - therefore highly constructed

Relevant contextual information extends beyond the edge of the frame (socially, temporally, spatially) - equally important?

The oxymoron of “video data” Should documenters use video to tell stories in the way

that filmmakers do? If so, how? Different techniques, genres and uses of 'video' (just as

there are different genres for audio and print) - different resources and methodologies

Role of editing

Possible purposes

a record of a communicative event with significant visual/spatial aspect (gesture, eye gaze, sign language)

as elicitationto produce films about contexts or cultural

practices to accompany language resources (e.g. educational resources, records of agricultural practices, material culture)

as a back up record

The high cost of video

Cost of equipment, complex to produce Intrusive in the field situation (relationships with language

consultants, power, portability, cost) - losses? Resource hungry (training, real time capture, data

management, transfer, editing) Storage costs (up to ~ £50 a year to store 1 min) Unstable technology (changing hardware, formats and

standards) What metadata and analysis? Archiving - expensive, requires compression! Difficulties of accessing: identifying, bandwidth, players

Question

Should linguists really be shooting video?

Community orientation

Communities like video productsCommunities can use products directlyCommunity can make video

does it only seem so because we take an amateur approach?

A new paradigm of documentation?

Discussion scenario 1

During her project, a linguist creates 100 hours of raw video. The archive asks her to make an appropriate selection for archiving. is this reasonable?how can she make the selection? who are the stakeholders?is this editing?what happens to the unselected stuff?

Question

How are the goals of language documentation served and advanced by the use of video?

Are these proportionate to the costs?

Discussion scenario 1

An archive receives a video for deposit. It has no sound. what are some possible reasons it has no sound?what can/should be done?

Discussion scenario 3

Two people in a room of a house in a village discuss how to make a certain food

How would you approach video documentation of this event in terms of managing situations, techniques, metadata/contextual information if the intended use of the recording is:a) as a record of speaker narrative to be (archived and) made

available to a range of researchers and community members

b) as a language-learning resource

c) for inclusion in a film for and about the community