Lights, camera, action!

After my little rant about podcasts, I can report this week that conversely I am fully in favour of what I still call video clips.  In the olden days, when I used videos as part of my AML training, we would wheel in a telly and everyone would gather round (no, not cross-legged on the floor – that was primary school) and we’d watch a few minutes, stop and discuss, watch a few more minutes and so on.  In fact, one of my most treasured possessions is a video called “Money Laundering: The Soap” produced by the New Zealand Bankers’ Association in 1996.  The soap it has most in common with is “Crossroads”: the scenery shakes whenever anyone shuts a door, and the actors are plainly reading from cue cards or from prompts written on the backs of their own hands.  But the days of people being able to pay attention to one wobbly video for 27 minutes are long gone: modern staff need speedy soundbites and high production values.  And I can recommend three video clips that provide these in spades.

The first has been produced by Santander: “MC Grindah’s Deadliest Dupes: The Money Mule”, in which “our boys learn about the dangers of letting someone else use your bank account”.  It’s 3 minutes and 27 seconds long, looks more “EastEnders” than “Crossroads”, and makes me laugh.

The second – more serious but still tongue-in-cheek – also deals with money mules.  Put out by UK Finance [formerly the British Bankers’ Association and others] and Cifas, it’s called “Sponsor a Child Trafficker” and, in its 1 minute and 49 seconds, mimics those sad daytime telly ads imploring you to pony up some sponsorship money for a dilapidated donkey.

And the third deals with another crime of our times: modern slavery.  Produced by the Salvation Army, this 1 minute 20 second video reminds us to look around our local communities for the signs of modern slavery.  It’s short on laughs but packed with information – worth every second of your time, and that of your staff.