Pictory has been an absolute game changer for Pastor Andy!
Today we talk to Pastor Andy who is a big fan of Pictory. Pastor Andy tells us how Pictory has been a complete game changer, how it’s saved him time and money plus how Pictory compares to other programs in the market.
Pastor Andy: I am a local Pastor and a Denominational Officer for the reformation that I am affiliated with and in the latter capacity, I actually operate an online Bible college.
We have assembled 60 courses that are available for the members of our reformation.
And I have done this historically from scratch using either Camtasia or some of the other more traditional video editing tools.
I have found that Pictory has been a game changer for me because I have been able to abbreviate my workload and the different things that I do to put together a course.
I've been able to reduce my production time tremendously. Instead of days to put together a course I've actually been able to do it in hours using this product.
Its vast access to images and videos is what I have spent the most amount of time on in the past. And so that has been a great work reducer and I just discovered the program.
I was using another product I won't call their name but it was a little clunky and always was freezing up and its performance was less than adequate.
And so, I came across Pictory signed up and became so enthused by its operation and its performance. The biggest thing for me is that it’s cloud-based.
My experience has been that cloud-based platforms are a little clunky, a little slow, and tend to freeze all kinds of problems of that regard.
But Pictory seems to have overcome that obstacle, that impediment. And I use it quite frequently. In addition to my church, I do a weekly podcast, a video podcast called This Week in Church History.
It's about 5 to 7 minutes where I take some snippets of church history and celebrate that. Again, Pictory has been a game changer for me because I can now do that in a matter of minutes or hours as opposed to days.
So, I'm an advocate. I'm a fan. I readily and hastily upgraded from your basic plan to your premium plan because the number of videos that I anticipate doing, 30 was not gonna be enough for me.
Pete Bennett: Well, that's amazing. That's incredible. I really like the fact that you're using this as part of your business-as-usual operations and that it's saving you time and money.
And it’s allowing you to get your content out there quickly and easily, which can be a problem if you're trying to use traditional editors, can't it?
Pastor Andy: Because we do so much in this area, the volume of work that we do in this area. I needed something that was quick, fast and that could get me to the marketplace as quickly as possible.
And Pictory has been able to do that and I do have a number of customized images that I have to use when I'm talking about specific products or specific individuals.
I'm able to go to the internet, find those items and then import them into Pictory as a batch upload and then resume my routine and continue to cut down on the production time that I was spending in the past.
Pete Bennett: That's amazing. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing with us your basic workflow and which features of Pictory you use?
Is it the text to video or the edit video text part that you use predominantly?
Pastor Andy: I use primarily the text video. I customize scripts that I do in word and then I import them into Pictory. Pictory does an amazing job of organizing and creating the slides for me.
And again, I've used some other products where I had to go in and hit the control and enter to insert a control break or a paragraph break. I don't have to do that with Pictory, so that saves me a great deal of time.
I'm just now, Peter, beginning to explore the imported video and using blogs and other websites. My focus and concentration has been text to video, but I'm equally anxious to explore and examine what the other capabilities are as well.
Pete Bennett: When you're ready to do that, please feel free to reach out. We're always here for you and can give you a demonstration, jump on Zoom and talk you through the best ways of using it.
When I use the Pictory most of the time I'm in the edit video using text part because I'll record zoom sessions, upload them and then I can top and tail.
I can cut things out. I can get rid of silences. I can get rid of 'ums' and 'ahs' and I can produce little snippets, little golden nuggets from the conversation.
Then I use those on social media or use them as highlight reels to show people a quick preview of the entire session, which they can then go and watch.
Pastor Andy: So am I to understand that I can take a Zoom session and use that as the basis of my production and workflow?
I do a weekly, what's called a weekly clergy round-table and if I could somehow import that in and utilize that, that would just be tremendous for me.
Pete Bennett: That's exactly what you can do. And in fact, when you and I finish speaking, I'll be using Pictory to edit this Zoom recording.
So you'll be able to see the kind of results that we can get. It'll even add captions at the bottom so that people who are hard of hearing can also find that content to be accessible, which I think is really good.
Pastor Andy: Excellent. Excellent. I look forward to it.
Pete Bennett: Unlike many of our competitors, we really want to be involved with the community. I'm sure you're already a member of the Facebook group.
If not, then please join and if you ever need us to provide support, demonstration, or whatever else we're here.
It's a software company, but there are people behind it and we never want to get away from that and become a huge faceless organization.
Pastor Andy: Okay, well, great. Again, I thank you for the product I'm very, very impressed and I'm not easily impressed.
I've been doing this for quite some time. I go all the way back to the analogue days, you know, not quite where I was doing the film cutting, but very close.
And so I've come a long way in this industry and in this niche. And I'm just very, very pleased with what Pictory can do.
Pete Bennett: That's brilliant. And we're really pleased to have you as a member of the community.
And, I'm particularly grateful for you spending a few minutes with me now and talking about how Pictory has made your workflow better and helped to save you some time and hopefully some money as well.
Thank you very much for your time, Sir.
Pastor Andy: Thank you. Bye for now.
Pete Bennett: Bye, bye.
If you liked this case study and want to check out another on social media and app engagement. Read the introduction below.
Josh is a Pastor and uses Pictory to create videos and highlights of his sermons. Today he talks to our CEO Vikram Chalana about how Pictory has improved social media and app engagement. Plus how using Pictory has made creating videos simple, quick and reduced video editing time.
