The City Law School – Advocacy Videos Project for BPTC Evidence Module

The multimedia team recently completed a project with Robin Sellers at The City Law School to create advocacy videos for students undertaking the BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course) programme.

These involved three scenarios:

1. Dealing with a bad character application
2. Refreshing the memory of a witness.
3. Handling a previous inconsistent statement by a witness.

The videos provided an opportunity to contextualise the taught material for the Evidence module.  The practical application of this content is an area that some students find challenging, and a part of their course that is sometimes difficult to make time for.  Creating the videos allows the lecturers to demonstrate how relevant laws apply to the above scenarios, and how the judge and opposing advocate may respond to these situations, leading to permanent reusable resources available to students whenever they need them.

The project involved introductory “talking head” videos, which were delivered by two City Law School lecturers – Paul McKeown and Professor Adrian Keane.  These were filmed in our TV studio in front of a blue screen, which was eventually replaced by backdrops of The Royal Courts of Justice.

The courtroom sections of the videos were filmed at the Law School (Princeton Street), and starred Robin Sellers and four students on the BPTC programme.  Three cameras were used to capture the actors simultaneously and filming was undertaken by members of the multimedia team.  Robin wrote scripts for both the talking head videos, and the courtroom scenes, while the team were responsible for creating storyboards from the scripts to allow us to organise the filming.  The multimedia team also handled all post-production work.

Below is a clip of the courtroom scene from the “Previous inconsistent statement” video:

We asked Robin Sellers to provide feedback on the project, and to reflect on the experience as a whole:

If you would like more information on what the multimedia team can offer in terms of space or equipment then please visit our webpage https://www.city.ac.uk/about/education/lead/sle/mill.

To discuss multimedia project ideas for your module, programme or student service, please contact us at video@city.ac.uk and one of our team will be in touch to discuss the options available to you.  We are also available to provide training in aspects of multimedia creation, including editing, so that you are able to undertake small projects independently.  You can also join our special interest group The Educational Multimedia Group by enrolling on our Moodle module here.