The Trial Technologist's View » Video Deposition

What to say when asked if you want a MPEG or DVD..

Blake Boyd — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:12:54 +0000

Every video deposition we take we ask the client what format they want their video in. There is two standards in the industry; MPEG1 and DVD, each are completely different from each other.

MPEG1 – This is the format of choice for all the trial presentation software packages.

PROS:
- Can fit 2 hours on a CD
- Practically any computer can play this file type
- Easy to edit

CONS:
- Degraded video quality
- Will not play in a CD/DVD deck (like the one in your living room)
- Can not convert to DVD and have DVD quality

DVD – This is just what it sounds like, a disk no different from one you’d rent from Blockbuster.

PROS:
- “DVD” quality
- Will play in any DVD player
- Can convert to mpeg1

CONS:
- Not compatible with trial presentation software
- Difficult to edit

So which should you ask for? Well that depends on what you’re going to be using it for. If you know that you’re going to use Sanction, Trial Director, etc. you will save some fees by ordering a mpeg1. If you are planning on playing back video clips on a TV you should ask for DVD. MPEG1 does not look good on televisions as the quality is pretty low.

Video Depositions: Picture in Picture

Blake Boyd — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:33:49 +0000

I’m working on a bunch of video depositions that opposing counsel had taken.. Synching them for trial.. He’s using a PIP (picture in picture.. where he turns into a little box at the top right and the elmo takes up the whole screen, and vise-versa) with an ELMO, and while that used to be a decent idea, in today’s world it’s a big no no if you’re using technology in trial.. here’s why:

(example: He’s examining the police office and pulls the police report up)

1. It’s a major distraction trying to focus on the document, we humans tend to process what we see before what we hear, and so while the picture is switching, we look at what is happening and tend to over look what we hear, which happens to always be a question or answer, since it takes a few seconds to switch between ELMO and camera.

2. It’s almost unreadable when we show the video in trial. Unless you get so close you can’t see the whole document it becomes blurry during the video conversion process. Unless you’re playing back HD video (which it’s not being recorded in nor do any trial presentation software package support) you just see a page with something on it.

3. We do this with Sanction or Trial Director, it’s one of the basic features, and it only takes a couple of clicks to tell the video to move panels and pull up a document in another, essentially the same as PIP. And, you can actually read the document. BUT, I still revert back to issue #1, in that it’s a distraction.. I once worked a case where we had over 300 different blowups and exhibit call outs in only 7-8 hours of video.. my eyes were literally bouncing back and forth as documents came up and down.

4. It adds an unnecessary cost if you plan on using technology in your trials. I’m not sure what we charge for this feature in our video depositions, because I always talk clients out of it.

When it comes to issues like these this is the difference people that use technology, day in and day out, make.. we go to trial, and we know what does and doesn’t work with the latest technology =).

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Soft Tissue Attorneys’ Deposition Technique [video]

Blake Boyd — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:29:58 +0000

In this example my client was able to save the expense of live testimony. At the same time, he got his demonstrative evidence of the surgery admitted, and sometimes getting this sort of evidence admitted can be an authoritative issue if you have no one in court to prove it up.

While completing some last minute synch’ing for one of the two trials that we provided litigation support for last week, I came across a great technique that I had never seen done before.

My client pulled up the doctor’s website (the deponent), where he had an animation of the surgery that was preformed waiting to be played back. The camera focused on the laptop screen and this is what the jury saw (remember it’s a 100″ screen they’re viewing this on):

The next question was:

5 Q. All right. Thank you. And the — Those slides
6 as well as the chart that you described earlier, do
7 those reasonably and accurately depict this type of –
8 of surgery and also the condition that you described for
9 us earlier?
10 A. Yes.

While it may not be on the top of your “what to do in a deposition” list, it’s wise to consider displaying your demonstrative evidence while in the video deposition.