Vox pop or “voice of the people”, is basically a collection of interviews of random subjects put together to give listeners an idea of public opinion or mood. For video and television vox pops, the interviewer approaches people “in the street” and asks them simple questions about the topic. Businesses uses vox pop to try and determine public opinion on products or services. Gauging reactions to a particular helps them to improve their offerings and decision-making.
Accurate and clear transcription of vox pops recordings is important for a variety of reasons. For instance, if the market research recording is to be used in a documentary, it is better to have a written version so that an in-depth analysis can be carried out. Moreover, the transcript helps to edit the audio–video work before the final broadcast. Here are some tips on recording vox pop to ensure a useful and clear transcript:
- Think about the location – it could be the street or a university corridor. Some background noise, such as traffic, will make it authentic but the sounds should not be too loud as this will make it difficult for the transcriptionist to hear what is being has said.
- An interesting vox pop will include a mix of male and female voices of different ages and accents. If your vox pop subject is a controversial one, try to get opinions from people with varying views. Interview at least 10 persons.
- Don’t ask a question that will result in a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ response.
- Keep your recording machine in RECORD/ PAUSE mode. After you record yourself asking the question, put the machine in PAUSE mode whenever you ask the question again. When the person answers, switch to RECORD mode. This method will ensure that you won’t have to edit the question several times.
To document your vox pop recording, find an experienced transcription company. The right company would have a team of skilled transcriptionists that can accurately reproduce the vox pop recording, capturing all the important points and feedback. Moreover, an experienced transcriber can insert a time-stamp option (in minutes and seconds) at regular intervals to locate the important points in the recording by just looking at the transcript. Multi-level quality checks would ensure top accuracy in the final transcripts.
Point to note: some recording equipment include a bleep sound option to help transcribers put in the time-stamps. However, using recording equipment with this bleep option may reduce the accuracy of transcripts as it would obscure the voice of the speaker.
You can use a noise canceling microphone if you want to prevent background noise from obscuring the recording. You can arrange for another microphone to record vox pops with the background noise on. For transcription, send the one which was recorded on a noise cancelling phone and mix the two sound recordings for your broadcast.
