At VideoScribe we want to provide as many businesses as we can with the tools to create great video marketing and animated content. Want to know how animated video can benefit your law firm or practice? We sat down with a professional to find out how he uses VideoScribe.
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Christian Weaver, I'm a barrister working in the field of human rights which handles actions against the state, inquests, and public inquiries. For example, I’m currently instructing on the COVID-19 public inquiry.
I am also the founder of ‘The Law in 60 Seconds’, which is a public legal education movement. As part of that, I have a book called ‘The Law in 60 Seconds - A Pocket Guide to Your Rights’ and I am currently on a tour of the country where I seek to educate the public on their legal rights.
What do you use VideoScribe for?
I predominantly use VideoScribe to educate people on the law through my YouTube series – ‘The Law in 60 Seconds’. I also use it whenever I feel that there are important messages that I need to convey and very often I find that VideoScribe is helpful when those messages are about the law. I most recently used it to explain my Awaab’s Law consultation and my video on protest rights which appeared on the BBC News homepage.
What were you looking for when you found VideoScribe?
It was during the pandemic and amid the protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by the police in America. People who had never previously protested were so enraged that they were willing to protest. I wanted to create a video that could inform people of their rights while at these protests. I wanted to use animated video as I was conscious that a video of me just speaking to a camera could be unengaging and also cause difficulties if a person was trying to listen to it in a noisy protest environment. I realized that, if it's in an animated format, even if they can't quite capture every single word I'm saying, they can follow what's on the screen; making the information that bit more absorbable.
A key benefit of VideoScribe is that you don’t have to be concerned about your background or set up visual recording equipment, you can just use your voice and then, at a later date, enhance those words by way of animation. In my search for software, I looked at a few reviews and tutorials and it seemed clear that VideoScribe was the simplest tool out there.
What makes VideoScribe stand out to you among other animation software?
VideoScribe stands out among other animation software for several reasons. Firstly, its user-friendliness is remarkable. Despite my initial lack of experience in animation, I found it remarkably easy to grasp after just one day of exploring the tutorial videos.
The platform offers a vast selection of images to choose from, resulting in a final product that appears polished and professional. I hadn’t seen other software that was able to do this to the same level of VideoScribe.
What really made VideoScribe stand out was the library of tutorial videos. You can learn how to create animated videos from scratch. While I’m sure there is other more intricate software out there, there's not a tutorial video that explains to the everyday user how to actually use it. It strikes a balance between offering sophisticated features for producing impressive results and being user-friendly enough for individuals without prior animation experience to comprehend effectively.
What is your favorite feature of VideoScribe?
My favorite aspect of VideoScribe is the speed at which you can animate. A key attraction to VideoScribe is the fact that it can suit a busy lifestyle. It’s time-wasting finding the perfect backdrop in your house, making sure you look presentable, and making sure there are no distractions. I think it's far easier to just animate. With VideoScribe you don't necessarily need a full storyboard of how you want everything to look, because it's very easy to just make a start and go as you go. You can quickly search for an image, find it, drop it in, and then move to the next thing.
What features do you think make the biggest impact?
The speed, large picture library, and perhaps most importantly the tutorial videos - I think they are brilliant. I would also like to highlight the range of hand choices available in the hand-drawn mode. It adds that personal touch to the video as you can have a hand that looks like yours.
How do you think your recent video impacted the Awaab’s Law consultation?
Awaab’s Law was passed following the death of Awaab Ishak. He was a two-year-old boy who died due to mould in his home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester and I represented the family as their barrister. I helped lead a campaign to get the law changed so that there would be better protections for people living in social housing. Before that law could come into force, the government wanted to make sure they got it right. So they created a consultation whereby people could feed in and see how they thought this law should look.
My primary aim was to engage with residents of social housing. Recognizing that not all occupants would be proficient in English, I sought to create a video that could effectively convey the message to those whose first language might not be English, using Awaab’s family as an example.
I also wanted to reach people who perhaps had some distrust of authority and these power structures, those like Awaab’s family whom the system has previously ignored. My objective was to make the information more engaging and captivating, and this is where VideoScribe truly excelled. With Awaab’s Law comprising numerous principles, articulating them verbally might have led to confusion, as distinguishing between different proposals could prove challenging. By presenting the content in an animated format, viewers could visualize the concepts laid out systematically, facilitating a deeper understanding of the law's intricacies.
What benefits do you think animated video has over the written word?
Animated video holds a significant advantage over the written word, in my opinion. It's inherently more engaging and demonstrates a concerted effort to convey information effectively. When you invest time and effort into crafting an animated video, it implicitly signals to the viewer that the content is valuable and worth paying attention to.
Moreover, animated videos aid in retention, both in terms of actively listening to the message and retaining the information afterward. They offer a higher level of storytelling compared to simply speaking to a camera. This elevated storytelling capability is crucial not only for delivering a call to action but also for leaving a lasting impression on the viewer's mind.
What is next for you and where can we find you?
I'm about to release my second book titled “Your Right to Protest, Understand and Use It”, which will be available online and in major bookstores from Autumn 2024. You can find me on X @ChristianKamali, on Instagram @christianweaver60, and subscribe to The Law in 60 Seconds on my YouTube channel @ChristianWeaver to see all the content I have created with VideoScribe.
Want to become an animated video wiz like Christian? Try out VideoScribe today with a 7-day free trial now!
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