Most journalists use voice recorders for interviewing, and then face the tedious task of transcribing those interviews. Here’s a workflow idea to speed up that process.

Record the interview and create the audio file. My Olympus recorder plugs into the USB port on my laptop and I just transfer the file. Sometimes I use a Zoom H2, which records to a removable SD card. Several smart-phone and tablet apps can serve as recorders, too.

Then I import the files into an application called Express Scribe (costs about $30). In ExpressScribe, you can play back the files and adjust the speed for your typing speed. Better yet, spend $55 and get a compatible foot control. Mine has three customizable pedals – I set the middle one for play, the left one to jump back 5 seconds and the right one for fast forward. Between the speed setting and the foot pedal, I rarely have to stop typing. I’ve noticed my transcription time cut in half from the days when I’d have to stop typing to hit “play” and “rewind” on the recorder.

So far so good. We can stop here and we’ve already saved time. But, we’re still typing. Another potential piece to this process can solve that … almost. It’s voice recognition software, the most popular being Dragon Naturally Speaking. Problem is, it learns your voice only, after you read a sample text to it. It can’t recognize multiple voices. So just playing your interview file into it doesn’t work.

Here’s a solution: Using headphones or a headset, listen to the interview and repeat what your subject says into the microphone. It’s a little like being a translator – with practice, you get better. The foot pedal helps immensely. Dragon recognizes your voice and transcribes the words. All you need to do then is go back and clean up the typing – but as you get the hang of dictating – including saying the words “period,” “comma,” etc. – the files are pretty clean.

Doing a series of long interview with the same person? You could even create a Dragon user profile for that person and have them speak the sample text into your computer mic. Then, if your recording quality for the interviews is good, Dragon should be able to get most of it.

Dragon’s list price is $99.99, but Amazon and others sell it for much less. Dragon also offers a free smart-phone and tablet app called Dragon Dictation. It’s not bad for transcribing speech blocks that lasts a minute or less at a time. Once it’s done, you can email it to yourself. (I find this app even more valuable for dictating text messages rather than having to type them.)

So, assuming you already have the voice recorder, that’s a total cost of about $150. Next time you’re two hours into transcribing a long interview, ask yourself if that’s too much to invest. Even if it is, try a few elements of this workflow separately and see what works best for you.

Have a different process for transcribing interviews? Feel free to share it below.

We shoot ReachGlobal News videos using the Canon EOS 7D — a digital SLR camera that also shoots high-definition video.With a decent lens kit, this camera runs about $2,000. It’s pro quality, with dust and moisture seals and it can stand being knocked around a little while traveling. For less than half of that price, you can go with the Canon EOS Rebel T3i. It’s lighter and a little less durable, but shoots the same quality images and videos as the 7D. We’ve hiked mountains and rivers with an earlier-model Digital Rebel and it held up beautifully.

We prefer DSLRs for video because they also shoot great still photos, and it’s one less camera to carry when traveling. Image quality is incredibly good. The main disadvantage we’ve found is that there’s no autofocus for video — meaning you need to pay a lot of attention to your manual focusing when shooting. It’s not a big problem — just something to be aware of. The issue is being fixed, right now, by Canon, Nikon, Sony and others (very pricey, though).

If you’re looking for a camera to shoot video only, a nice range of digital options are available. We like the Kodak Zi8 (around $400), which is pocket-sized and extremely simple to use, yet shoots beautiful HD video. You won’t get quite the image quality of a DSLR and a big lens, but for most interviews and average shooting situations, this works great. It does autofocus, too.

Even higher-end cell-phone cameras tend to shoot OK video. Sound quality is bad, though.

In fact, we don’t rely on any camera’s internal microphone for audio. Instead, we do one of two things:

1. Plug an external microphone into the camera’s mic jack. Here’s a mic that can be attached to the camera’s hot shoe. Others can be hand-held. For interviews, you can use a lavelier mic that clips to a shirt collar.
   When shopping for a video camera, always look for an external microphone jack. Otherwise you’ll be stuck with bad audio from the camera’s internal mic. Unless …
2. You record audio with a good-quality recorder (we use the Zoom H2), then match up the audio and video files in editing. The big advantage here is that you can monitor audio levels both on the recorder’s screen and with headphones/earbuds; if you’re using an on-camera mic, you either have to buy extra equipment or just pray that the audio comes out OK.
   A separate audio recorder is especially useful if you want audio recordings of interviews, or want to capture natural sound and add it to videos later. The recorder is only a little larger than a cell phone. Note: The Tascam DR07mkII is another good choice for a similar price (around $150).

Finally: No matter what camera you choose, you need a tripod. Even when you think you’re holding the camera steady, video can be extremely shaky. Use a tripod for any interview and any situation where you’ll be focused on the same thing for more than a few seconds. An inexpensive tripod is usually fine, especially for a light camera. You’ll see a clear difference in video quality when you use a tripod.

EDITING SOFTWARE

We use either FinalCut Pro or FinalCut Express (now discontinued). FinalCut is made by Apple and is the most widely used among pro videographers. Apple’s iMovie is basically the substitute for FinalCut Express, and you can create a decent video with it. FinalCut is only available for Macs. For PC users, we recommend Adobe Premiere Pro (high end), Adobe Premiere Elements (probably all you’ll ever need) or Sony Vegas (a range of versions and prices; all are pretty good). Don’t settle for Microsoft Moviemaker, the one included with Windows. It’s very limited.

LINKS

Here’s a link to good instruction about producing a video story.

And here’s a blog called Journalists’ Toolkit, which contains lots of basic advice plus technical info on video formats and transcoding.