July 11

Video Marketing Storytelling and Scriptwriting

HOW TO WRITE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE VIDEO SCRIPTS

Now that you’ve got your video camera and lights turned on, what are you going to say?

Edward R. Murrow CBS news reporter
Broadcasting legend Edward R. Murrow was known for his captivating scripts.

Writing a script for your video is different from any kind of writing you have ever done before.

A good video script should be conversational.  Generally speaking, the style of writing required for a term paper in English class is way too formal for a video script.

Before we go any further, let me make clear that I’m not talking about writing Hollywood-style video scripts.  The type of video script I am referring to here could be a simple talking head or a documentary style video of the story of your business, or an internet video commercial, or really any simple video.

WRITER’S BLOCK STRATEGY

When you write a video script and don’t have a clue what to say, first pretend you are speaking to a friend.  What would you say in explaining your subject matter to a friend?  Write that down.  Then go over it and perfect it with more expressive words.

In my experience, writing is often about re-writing.  It’s great to get it right the first time, but in practice, good writing often takes multiple drafts.  Beginners often think they should be perfect in their first draft.  That actually builds up too much pressure and helps create writer’s block.  So if you can’t think of what to write, go ahead and allow yourself to tell the story in the easiest way possible at first, and then modify it until you like it.  I am not embarrassed to say that some of my writing doesn’t get very good until about the 3rd draft.   That’s OK.  Writing is a process.

Read your script out loud and listen to yourself.  Is it easy to read, or is it full of $10 words?   Since video scripts are meant to be read aloud, they should be both easy to read for the narrator, and easy to understand for the audience.   Don’t use $10 words when a 5 cent word will do.   And no, that doesn’t mean you think the audience is a bunch of idiots.  It means too many big words turn into tongue twisters that are difficult for the narrator to say and also difficult for the audience to catch.

Generally speaking, sentence fragments are OK because that is how people speak.  Conversational.  That is HUGE with this kind of TV writing.  It’ll sound natural when heard, so the audience will feel comfortable.  Again, test this by reading it aloud.  This style of writing has been referred to as writing for the EAR, not for the EYE.

ALWAYS READ YOUR SCRIPTS OUT LOUD AND LISTEN TO THEM, DON’T JUST READ THEM SILENTLY.  

Reading your script out loud is an extremely important step.  It’s really the only way to judge how it will sound to the audience in the final video.  Tone of voice, pacing, and word emphasis by the speaker can add meanings not captured with the written word.

VIDEO STORYTELLING Tips

I hope you enjoyed these tips on writing simple video scripts.  Here is a post describing the language of film and storytelling elements.  I wish you much success and joy creating videos!

Storytelling Elements for Video

FOOD FOR THOUGHT QUESTIONS

  • In your opinion, would you rather listen to someone read a very formally written script, or would you rather listen to a less formal reading?
  • Describe the writer’s block strategy given.  Do you think that will work for you?  Why or why not?
  • Describe why reading a script out loud is an essential step in judging the quality.
  • Why is it better to avoid complex words and sentence structure in this style of script writing?

 


Tags

how to write a video script, simple marketing script talking head, talking head video script, video marketing scriptwriting, video scriptwriting


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  1. This Video Production Tips blog is owned and operated by Lorraine Grula, a long time video production professional. Lorraine spent many years in the trenches as a television news photographer, field producer and video editor. She also freelanced, doing B2B videos, marketing videos and infomercials. Learn how to make videos from this award-winning, dedicated, lifelong pro. Connect with Lorraine using the buttons below.

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