Video Script Writing24

Video Script Writing
Welcome
Selecting transcript lines in this section will navigate to timestamp in the video
- Hi! I'm Rick Allen Lippert. Welcome to Video Script Writing. This course will guide you
through the video script writing process, with a primary focus on informational videos. We'll
also include commercials and public service announcements. Along the way, we'll explore the
modes of persuasion that are used to motivate viewers to your goals, whether it's to buy a
product, make a donation, or change a behavior. I'll start by exploring what a script for an
informational video should be and identifying the goals that you should have in mind before
diving into the writing process. Next, we'll look at how to format a video script, in word
processing applications like Microsoft Word and Pages, with a focus on using templates for the
heavy lifting. Then we'll go through the actual steps of writing a short script for an informational
video, from conception to finalization. Now, let's get started with Video Script Writing.
How to use the exercise files

- [Instructor] If you are a premium member you have access to the exercise files used throughout
this title. Once you download them, open up the folder. Let's first look at chapter three. Here are
some files that we'll direct you to use at the appropriate time. In chapter two are some files that
I've created that we'll be using to create the templates that we'll use throughout the rest of the
course. Let's install these. I've created them for both Word and Pages, a 2-column Script and an
Informational Video Script. I also have some raw text that we'll use when we create the
informational script in Google Docs. Let's install the templates. Start with the 2-column Script
for Word, double click on it. That opens up. It shows you the title page and it has the template
that you use for the 2-column Script. Let's save this as a template. It automatically puts it into the
right folder and in the right format and it has the name of the file, so just click Save. Now, if
you're on a Windows computer, you already know there's no Save As Template option in the File
menu. You'll need to select Save As and then save the document as a .dotx file inside the custom
Office templates inside your Documents folder. So, navigate to your Documents folder, open up
Custom Office Templates and save your template file there. Let's close this and confirm that we
do have our file in the template. Click on File, New From Template. Now we have in our
template chooser this tab called Personal. When you click on that, now you see the 2-column
Script. So, we'll close this and we'll double click on the Informational Script Word file and here
is the template that I've created for the Informational Video Script. It's really a modified screen
play and it has all of the elements that you'll need for your writing. File, Save As Template, enter
the Templates folder with the right name, click on Save. So again, if you're on a Windows
computer, there is no Save As Template option, you'll need to do the Save As drill that we did
before. Save As from the File menu, name it with a .dotx file and then put it in your custom
Office templates inside your Documents folder. And close that, we can confirm that one more
time and there is our Informational Video Script. Now, if you're using Apple Pages, it's just as
easy. Let's double click on the 2-column Script in Pages, here's the title page and the script
template. Go to File, come down to Save As Template. Yes, you want to add it to the template
chooser and there it is with the right name. So, we can just click on that. We can cancel this,
close that and open up the Informational Script Pages file and this is the same template that I
created in Word and again, File, Save As Template, add it to the template chooser and just click
on it and there it is. You're good to go. Now, if you're not a premium subscriber, you don't have
access to these exercise files but you can follow along from scratch with your own assets.
Defining informational video

A new industry blossomed with the advent of small portable video equipment back in the 1970s.
Back then, we called it non-broadcast video, because everything else that was made, was made to
air on one of the three television networks. But rather than define something by what it isn't,
other terms emerged. Corporate, training, promotional, industrial, marketing, and the ubiquitous
AV. One thing all of these forms of videos have in common though, is that they convey
information. For that reason, I prefer to call whatever I'm writing and producing an informational
video. And informational videos have goals. And I think you should limit those goals to three or
four at most, per video. Informational script writing uses a different set of tools from
screenplays, yes we hope to entertain our audience, but we're also writing a script that will solve
a problem of some kind. Video scripts often need to specify shots and the use of graphics, often
the information is presented by a narrator either on camera or voice over, or both. The most
common format for an informational video uses two columns, one for visuals the other for audio.
Another method uses a modified screenplay format that includes a column on the right
specifically for voice-over narration. The main consideration we need to remember is that we're
writing for the ear, not the eye. However, it's still important to observe grammar, spelling, and
punctuation rules. Because video script writing is ultimately heard by viewers, writers carry a
responsibility to use correct English. What we write influences how people speak so it should be
proper. The challenge is balancing proper English with conversational word choices. And even
though the public won't see the script, proofreading is a must. There simply is no room for
mistakes. The best way to do that is to start at the end of the script and read it backwards from
bottom to top, right to left. When you take yourself out of the writing, the mistakes jump off the
page. And since everything we write is meant to be heard, the best way to determine its
effectiveness, is to read it outloud. Really aloud, not just imagining what it sounds like, or
whispering to yourself. You really must read it out loud in your best narrator, or newscaster, or
actor voice. So if you're an experienced screenwriter, coming to informational video scripts is
very different. And if you're new to video scriptwriting, this is really different.
Establishing goals and purposes for an informational video

Informational videos have goals, and I think you should limit those goals to three or four at most
per video. The ideal video should probably have a single goal, but that's often not possible. In
addition to goals, videos have purposes. Those purposes can be to motivate someone to do
something, to train someone to do something, or to simply inform them of new information.
When we motivate someone, what we're really doing is persuading them. And quite often we
want to persuade them to change or adopt a behavior. We might also want their support with
time or money for a worthy cause. And then we might also want to persuade them to buy a
product or a service. Think of a long infomercial. Another common video purpose would be to
train someone. It can be something as simple as how to do something. How to install RAM on a
laptop computer. How to cook macaroni and cheese. How to install, whatever it is that this
person has bought from the store. We can provide them with step-by-step instruction or we can
give them overall guidance on the process that they need to be looking at. Yet another common
video purpose is to inform someone, and this can actually be incorporated with the other video
purposes. We want to educate them on some new material. We want to provide them with history
or context, give them a sense of why they're learning this information now. These three purposes
are not discreet. In fact, most informational videos will use a combination to solve the problem
that necessitates the video. Imagine asking a viewer to support a worthy cause without providing
historical context. Or just think how difficult it would be to train someone to do something a new
way without persuading him or her on the value of the change.
Understanding modes of persuasion

Whether you're writing a script to motivate someone, to train someone or just to inform
someone, you'll need to persuade the viewer. And in order to do that, you'll need to understand
the three modes of persuasion that writers use to get us to do everything, from buying a product
to supporting a charity. To voting for a candidate. The three modes of persuasion that we use are
logos, ethos, and pathos. Sounds Greek doesn't it. Well' it is. Aristotle came up with these ideas
about 2,000 years ago. And we're still using them today, because they work. We'll look at each
one of them individually, but a good way to get a grasp on how they all work is logos aims for
the head, ethos is all about putting your hand in someone else's, and pathos aims for the heart.
Logos is the logical approach. It uses facts, evidence, and reason to make its argument. Lines that
you might use are, it just makes good sense, just use your head. Another mode of persuasion is
ethos, the ethical approach. This one relies on trust image, reputation, honesty. That feeling, that
you can rely on this company, on this person because they will do the right thing for you. This
also incorporates the use of the celebrity endorsement, assuming that the celebrity is ethical. One
of the lines that you'll use in this approach is, it's just the right thing to do. Put your hand in mine,
I will lead you the way, or take it from me. And then, the third mode of persuasion is pathos, the
emotional approach. This appeals to viewers' passions, feelings, their raw emotions. This is also
the root of the word pathetic. You may not need it, but you know you want it. We hear this time
and again because Pathos is the mode of persuasion that is used most often in advertising. I need
a car but I wan't that luxury model. I need shoes but I really want those high dollar sneakers.
Another line that you would hear is, follow your heart. You deserve the best. Once you
understand these three basic modes of persuasion, you can use them to craft the message in your
video script. And feel free to use them in combination. Most informational videos will need a
little of each one to achive its goal.
Comparing script writing to home building

I equate the information of video production process to that of home building and in this movie
I'll attempt to illustrate what I mean. A video starts with a script, just like a home starts with a
blueprint. You wouldn't want to build a home without a blueprint, you shouldn't want to shoot a
video without a script. Things on a video shoot will change and evolve. Locations, actors,
weather. But you have to have a starting point and that's the script. To continue the home
building analogy, the first thing that you do after you have your script is to shoot. After you have
your blueprint for your home, then you pour the slab or you build the foundation. In my part of
the world, homes are built on cement slabs, but in the video this is where you do all of your
shooting. You shoot everything that you need and may be even more than you think you need
because you just don't know what you're going to need when you get into the editing room. But
it's the shooting and the foundation upon which everything else is built. The next stage in the
production process is capturing or importing the media that you have created, much like in the
homebuilding process the frame has to go up. In the capturing and importing, this is where we
bring in all of our raw media All of the takes that we shot, even the ones that we don't think we're
going to use. There may be something good in there that we can find. And even on the takes that
we know we're going to use, we want to bring in the excess footage that are called handles.
These are the few seconds before and after the good part of the take that give the editor
something to work with. It will be trimmed later and we won't see this. Much like in the framing
process when they bring all of the lumber to the job site, more than they think they're going to
need, and then they build the frame from that big pile of two by fours or whatever they're using
for framing. There's no attempt to be pretty at this stage of the home-building process because
they know that everything will be covered up later. The editing process is much like the finishing
process. In the editing process we're now making our edit decisions. This is where we're
selecting the exact in and out point that we want each shot to have. We finesse it on the timeline
to make everything pretty. Much like in the home building process, this is now where everything
in that home that was just a frame now starts to take shape and it is made pretty. Then, the
exporting I equate to the staging of the home, the exporting is where you're getting the video
ready to show and you may have to export different versions for different venues. You have a
web version, you have a DVD version, you have a broadcast version. The staging of the home is
where you're getting it ready to show to all of the potential buyers. And then the last stage in the
video is distributing. Whether it's put on the web, put on a disc, put on TV, the video is now
viewed. Much like the home has now been sold and it becomes occupied. It's a rough analogy, I
know, but the important thing is that the finished video started with a script. Yes, there will be
bumps in the road and problems to solve, both in the shooting and in the editing. But by having a
script, you'll always have something to refer you to the original intent.
Defining and using script terminology

Every industry has its jargon. It's that shorthand language that enables quick communication.
Perhaps you've overheard a waitress in a diner repeat your order to the cook using words that
were nothing like what you had just told her. It's the same with video production. We have words
and abbreviations that we use in writing scripts that would mean nothing to someone outside of
the business. So we're going to talk about script terms, and I'm going to use the template that's
included in the exercise files. And there'll be more about these terms when we get to the movie,
writing the first draft. But the first term isn't really a script term, it's really just a word processing
document term. And that is Header. I think it's important that every script have a header on every
page. Because as pages get separated, this makes it easier to put them back together. Now a style
that I've created for the video script template includes the graphics, music and sound effects
style. Each of these look the same on the script, so I created a style to apply to each one of them.
And you'll see the music in description that's highlighted, it will use the same style as that for the
graphic description that's underneath it. Moving to the line below that though, where it says
interior scene description. In screenplay terms, this is called a slug. We'll use this same style
though if we're just indicating what the shot description is. And so, I've named this style in the
template Slug/Video. This big paragraph here is referred to as the Action paragraph. This is used
in screen play, and we use it in the video script as well, to just describe what the action is that's
going on in front of the camera. The Character Name is the name of the person who's speaking in
this scene, followed by the dialogue that he or she is saying. In this style that I've created for
your template, I've added the Character Name/VOC because this could also be your on-camera
narrator. A screen play term that we continue to use in the video script is called the parenthetical.
This term here is a screen play term that is also used in the video script. The parenthetical is your
advice to the actor of how you think he or she should deliver the line. Actors generally don't like
being directed from the page by the writer, so please use the parenthetical sparingly. This is the
dialogue. This shot description highlighted here, this is again using that slug / video style. For
this template I've created another style for the narrator. I put this in all caps to separate from the
voice over copy that the narrator says. This voice over is another style that's in the template. And
again, more about all of this when we get to the movie about writing the first draft. There are
three basic shot types that you'll use in your scripts. They're the Long Shot, abbreviated by LS;
the Medium Shot, abbreviated by MS; and the Close Up, abbreviated by CU. There's no need for
you to write out the whole words long shot, medium shot, close up. The abbreviations will work
just fine. The long shot is a full body shot. We see the feet. We see the head. A little bit of room
above the head. A little bit of room below the feet. The full body. The Medium Shot is basically
waist up, and the Close Up is basically head and shoulders. And this can be a tight head and
shoulders, meaning that we just see the tips of the shoulders. We don't go all the way down to the
collar bone. There were variations on the shot types, the Extreme Long Shot and there's no
rhyme or reason as to how long that can be. It can be really long or just kind of long, but the
extreme long shot gets the abbreviation either ELS or XLS, either one will work. The Medium
Long Shot sounds like it's an oxymoron, but it's not, it's a little too wide to be a medium shot. It's
a little too tight to be a long shot, so we'll call it an MLS, a medium long shot. There are two
variations on the close up; the Medium Close Up, which is a little bit looser than the regular
close up. And then the other extreme would be the Extreme Close Up, where you're showing a
very tight part of a person's body or a very tight part of a piece of equipment or something. The
abbreviation gets ECU or XCU. Now we typically don't indicate many camera moves in a script,
but if you do, I want you to know what some of these are. The Pan, is where the camera moves
horizontally from side to side, the tripod remains stationary and just the camera itself moves
horizontally side to side. As opposed to the tilt, where it's the same stationary position, but now
the camera is moving up and down in a vertical manner. The zoom is where you zoom into a
tighter shot or zoom out to a wider shot. We typically don't indicate in the script these types of
shots, but just in case you need to, I want you to have an understanding of them. The boom or
dolly shot, also sometimes is called a truck shot. This is where the camera, tripod and everything
physically moves from one place to another. On a shoot, those places are referred to as marks.
But all you need to know is that the camera is moving. Handheld is a legitimite camera move,
but it's hard to watch over an extended period of time, so please, use handheld videos sparingly.
Now if you're using the two column script, typically your video will be on the left and your audio
will be on the right. The sources that you would use for your video, which would be on the left,
would be original video that you shoot. If it's not someone's interview or a talking head narrator,
we often call this b-roll and that's just a throwback term to the earlier days of television. Another
video source would be archive video, and this can be simply old film or old film that's been
transferred to video or even old photographs. Graphics would be artwork that an artist has
created for the video. And animation would be graphics that move, that has been created for the
video. Talent is a source of video, and this can be either your on camera narrator or actors
performing a scene. When it comes to those talent sources, we have the VO, which stands for
voice over where we don't see the narrator. As opposed to the VOC, which is the voice on
camera when we do see the narrator. And that's different from an SOT or SOT. The sound on
tape is the sound bite that you get from an interview subject. And dialogue is simply those
performances by actors. On the audio side of the script, you have your talent, providing the
audio. You have natural sound which is abbreviated NATS. That's the sound that's recorded with
the video when it's shot in the field. When you indicate music in the script, it's typically
prerecorded music. Probably from a music production library as opposed to live music which
would be being performed for the camera. Another audio source would be sounds effects, which
is abbreviated SFX. If this is on the right hand side of the script, SFX stands for sound effects. If
it's on the left hand side of the script, then it could stand for special effects. It can be confusing,
so it's real important to make sure that you're clear in what you're doing. The Graphics Sources
that you'll use, and these would appear on the video side of the script, would include full screen
text, much like what we're using here. Imported files, which would be created by an artist and
brought in for the video. Or animation, which is basically little movies created by an artist that is
brought in for the movie. And this can be an animated logo. The lower third super or key is one
that we use an awful lot in script writing. And this is where we indicate that the person talking on
camera gets their name seen on the screen. It's called the lower third because it typically appears
in the lower third portion of the picture. It's often called the super, even though it's technically a
key. Super is short for superimposition, which is another throwback term to the earlier days of
television. When we're dealing with logos, those graphics that we indicate in our script. It can be
a full screen logo that just holds up there. Maybe we put some texts underneath it, or it can be a
full screen animated logo where it sweeps in from all corners of the screen and establishes itself.
When you see the logo in the lower right hand corner or lower left hand corner, that logo is then
referred to as a bug. If you look in the lower right hand corner of this movie right here that you
are watching, you'll see the lynda.com logo. And in this particular instance, it's referred to as a
bug. And you'll notice that it's very translucent, and we can actually look through it. I mentioned
earlier about not directing from the page, and that applies to not just the actors but also the editor.
It's better to suggest to the editor what you would like to hear or see, rather than specify And that
includes music, the type or genre of the music. Rather than indicate a particular song, indicate
the type of music. Is it energetic? Is it instrumental easy going? Is it a period type of music? You
can indicate the tempo or the feel. You can say it's up tempo energetic, or medium tempo easy
going. You also don't want to specify any special visual effects. Let the editor bring something to
the table. Let them choose what special effect the video gets, as well as transitions. And editors
just know the right transition for that moment. I say, let them be creative. Remember, the script
is the blue print for the production team to use when completing the production. A clearly
written script will make their jobs much easier and the client much happier.
Identifying types of informational scripts
In this chapter, we'll be looking at how to format the two main types of video scripts. Let's take a
look at them. The two column script is the one that most people are familiar with, because it's
been around for decades. The main thing here is that the video is on one side, the audio is on the
other side. Typically, it's the video on the left, audio on the right, although there are no hard and
fast rules that that's the arrangement. The main thing is that if we see it on the screen, it goes in
the video column. If we hear it, it goes in the audio column. The video script format starts as the
screenplay format. Screenplay format is great for writing movies, but it falls short a little bit of
the needs for an informational video script. The most significant addition to the screenplay
format to make it a video script, is the addition of the voice over column. The main thing about
this format is that we see it first on the page, and then we hear it on the page. And we'll be using
both of these formats throughout the rest of this course.
Setting up a title page and two-column script in Pages

- [Instructor] In this movie, I'm going to be using Apple Pages to create templates for a title page
and a two column video script. They use the same procedures, so let's get started. I have a new
document here in Pages. I like to start by hitting Return three or four times just to give me a little
bit of space at the top of the page in case I need it. We're going to insert a table, so let's click on
the Table button, and for the title page, I like to use this table right there. And the first thing I
want to do is deselect this box down here in the inspector that says Alternating Row Color. By
unchecking that box, now I don't have the alternating row color. The next thing we need to do is
delete these columns, C and D, so that we end up with just two columns, and then we need to add
more rows. So we're going to go with a total of 10 or 11 rows. That will give me the space that I
need. So then we click in the first one and start filling in the information that we need on our title
page. Here's the information I think needs to go onto the title page. Of course, the title. I put a
place here for the code number, because you may work for an ad agency or a production
company, or maybe you even need your own code for billing purposes. So there's a place for
that. Of course, you're probably working for a client, and you have a contact with that client. You
also have a producer, director, as well as you, the writer. You may be all three of these people,
but you may not be. And then places for the draft number and the date of your production. Now,
I like to use Courier font, so I am going to click on the whole column, hold down the command
key, click on the other column, come back over into the Inspector, click on the Text tab and
choose Courier. I use Courier a lot, so it's right there. I also like to use 12 point Courier. I have a
background in screenwriting, and I'm just very fond of 12 point Courier. Then we'll move this
separator line over here, and now this gives us plenty of room over here on the right hand side, to
fill in all of this information. Names, email addresses, telephone numbers, that kind of thing. You
may not need all oft this information. You may need other information. But that's how you do it.
Let's click off of this, and we'll call this done for purposes of a title page template, so let's go up
to the File menu, click on File, come down to Save As Template. And it will ask you do you add
this template chooser? Of course we do. We'll create a new template, there it is right there. We'll
call this the Title Page Template. Hit the return button, and that's the name of it. So just to try
this out, let's double-click this, open it back up, here's our title page, let me close this, and let's
keep working. We need to add a page break here to go to the next page so that we can actually
create our script. So we'll insert a page break. Now this brings us to the next page on the script.
We need to insert another table, so we'll click on table. I like to use this one here on the first
panel, top right, for the actual script. Once again, we'll come down here and uncheck the
Alternating Row Color, and delete rows C and D. Then in the header field here, we'll type in all
caps Video, tab over and do Audio. And highlight both of those, Command + Click both of
those, and back in the text field come down here and we'll center those. Now, this gives us a
pretty good start on our script template. Like I said, I do like to use the Courier font, so let's once
again select the A column, hold down the Command key, select the B column, come back over
into the font and choose Courier, and 12 point. Now whenever we add other rows to our
template, they'll be in the 12 point Courier. I do think we need to have a header, so double-click
up in the header area, and let's repeat some of the information that we had on the title page. Title,
draft number, space over a little bit more, date, space over a little bit more, writer, and then over
here in page number, we will insert a page number. We'll highlight page two. Over in the
inspector, let's click on the Document button. Come down here to the numbering, click on Start
at One, and under Create New Section, click on Starting With This Section. And so now our
page number is one. Let's put a couple of things in here. Logo, animation, tab over, music. I like
to always hit Return so that there's a little bit of extra whitespace within each cell. You can fill in
each cell with your script however you want to format it, but this is the basic structure. So now
that we have this as our template, let's take the word Music out. Take out Music. Take out Logo,
Animation. Let's take out the extra space here and get it back to where it was. And let's save this
as our script template. So back up to the file menu, down to Save As Template, add to the
Template Chooser, and we'll call this one Two-Column Video Script. And hit Return, and now
we have our two-column video script in our template chooser as well, and note that they're listed
under My Templates.
Setting up a title page and two-column script in Google Docs

- [Instructor] In this movie, I'll be using Google Docs to create templates for both a title page and
a two-column video script, because they really do use the same tools. Let's get started. I like to
begin by hitting the return key a few times. This brings my cursor down into the page a little bit,
gives me a little bit of extra room in case I need to put something over the table, plus it helps
center the table within the middle of the page. We're going to insert, click on insert, a table, come
down to table, go over to two columns, come down to about 10 or 11 rows, and this is the
beginning of our title page. Let's fill in the information on the left-hand side. So this is the
information I think that needs to go onto a title page. Of course, the title of your production. I put
a place here for the code number, in case you are doing a production for an ad agency or a
production company, or maybe even for your own internal record-keeping, where you have a
code assigned to the production, there is a place for that. Of course, you're working for a client,
that client has a contact person, and then there are other people associated with the production.
Here's a place for their names and information. Place for the draft number and the date, because I
think each version of the script needs to be documented. Let's change the font. I like 12-point
Courier, because of my background in screenwriting, so I am going to highlight the word date,
I'm going to change Arial font to Courier New, and to 12-point. Now so that this font will apply
to everything that we type, I'm going to change the style of the normal text by clicking on normal
text style, the little arrow, and then update normal text to match. And now everything we've
written in normal text style has been changed to 12-point Courier. This is, essentially, our title
page, with one last thing to do, and that is to drag the separator line over, just to give us more
space on the right hand side for names, email address, phone numbers, things like that. Now,
Google Docs is always saving, so you can't really save a file as a template, but here's what we're
going to do. Let's go up here, where it says untitled document, and then rename and call this Title
Page Template. Now, when we click back into our folder, we have our title page template. So
here's how I think you need to do this. Click on that to access it, it opens back up. The first thing
you want to do is go to the file menu and make a copy. So now you're dealing with a copy. Let's
call this next one the 2-Column Video Script Template, because that's what we're going to be
going on to next. You'll probably want to share it with some people and copy the comments.
We'll save that for later. So now we have, our two-column video script template is what we're
working with. There's the title page. Clicking there, we're going to add a page break. Click on
insert, come down to break, and page break. Now we're dealing with the first page of our script.
So we're going to draw another table, back up to the insert, menu, come down to table, and again,
two columns by, oh, about 10 rows or so, and that'll give us a good start for our two-column
video script. We want to put the words in all caps. Video, and then tab over to audio, and then, I
like to center and bold things like this, audio and video. We could just start typing our script at
this point, in the video column. Something like, logo animation, and then music. I like to hit
return and add a little bit of white space in each cell, because I think it helps with the readability
of it. But before we call this done, I think we need to add a header. So let's double-click up in the
header area. I like to hit the return key one time, because that first line of the header is awfully
darn tight. So we'll repeat some of the same information that's on the title page, just in case
things get moved around a little bit. Just in case the pages get separated, at least you'll know what
goes where. And because I'm a writer, I like to see my name on every page. So I'm going to
space over to where the page number will go, and we're going to insert, again, we're going to
come down to header and page number, this time we're just going to go to page number, and
we're going to select the top-right one, so that we don't number the title page. We'll start our
numbering with page one of the script. So we do that. I also like to put a period after this page
number, just cleans it up a little bit more. Let's take our music and logo animation. We don't have
to save this. As you recall, we don't have to save it, because Google Docs is always saving. So
when we go back over here, now we have two documents that we've saved. We have our title
page template, and we have our two-column video script template.
Comparing the informational video script to a screenplay format

- [Instructor] Chances are that if you're not using dedicated screenplay software to write your
scripts, then you're using Word, or Pages, or Google Docs. Word and Google Docs have
screenplay templates available, but they're insufficient in different ways when it comes to an
informational video script. I'll be showing you how to create templates in those applications as
well as in Apple Pages. There are some fundamental differences between screenplays and
informational video scripts, and in this movie I'll show you what those are. Here's the first page
of a screenplay I wrote several years ago. I'm showing it to you for two reasons. One, I own it;
and secondly, it has all five of the screenplay elements on one page. It starts at the top with the
slug where you see the exterior abandoned oil well day. That's called the slug or the scene
heading. It's very important, and it's used in planning the production. The action paragraph
describes what's going on in the scene. The character name tells everybody who's talking.
Dialogue tells that actor what to say. Then lastly is the parenthetical, which is a note to one
particular actor. Please use this sparingly, because actors really don't like being directed from the
page. When it comes to informational video scripts, we use those same five terms plus a few
more. Here's a template that I've created for this course. It uses all of the same elements that the
screenplay does. I've added with the character name the slash VOC to indicate an on-camera
narrator. I've also added a catch-all description of shot, graphics, music, and effects. Then we
have the audio column, which is very similar to the two-column video script that identifies who
the narrator is and what the narrator is saying as a voiceover. Where this differs with the two-
column script is that now you see what is happening before you hear what is being said. In the
next few movies I'll show you how to create your own template using Microsoft Word or Apple
Pages or Google Docs.
Using Word to create an informational video script template

- [Instructor] In this movie, I'm going to create an informational video script template by
modifying the screenplay template in Microsoft Word. But when you look in the Template
Chooser, you won't find Screenplay, so let's search for one. Click in the Search Templates field
and type screenplay, and one appears, double-click it. It downloads from the Internet, and here it
is, and I must tell you, I think this is a rather lacking screenplay template, but what it does have
are the styles that we need, so click on the Styles pane and this reveals all of the styles that we
need to use. So let's take advantage of those. Highlight the title, I'm on a Mac, so I'm pressing
Command + A to select everything in the file, and then I'm pressing the big Delete key, so now I
have a blank document, a clean slate, and I can start fresh. I think you need to have a header, so
double-click up in the header area and let's put in some of the information that would go on a
title page, like the title, the draft number, the date, and because I'm a writer, I like to see my
name on every page, and then space over toward the right hand side and let's put a page number
in. Now, you would think that you could go up to the page number and insert one there, but it
doesn't work for me. I have to go to the Insert Field, click on that, and come down to Page, and
then click OK. Now, if you're on a Windows computer, the Field button isn't found directly in
the Header & Footer ribbon. You'll need to click Document Info first, then, click the Field
button, which you'll find at the bottom of the dropdown menu. Then you can add the page
number. Now, I must tell you that we do have a movie earlier in this course on creating title
pages and we have one specifically for Microsoft Word. We also have courses on Microsoft
Word so if you want more information on Microsoft Word or any other word processing
application, just check out the appropriate course. So double-click off of that, close your header,
and then let's put in some text that we'll modify to create our template. I've created some
template text. We'll use this to create the rest of our template. The first thing we need to do is
highlight all of it and click on the Normal style. Click on Normal, that turns it into 12 point
Courier. That's my preferred font because I have a screenwriting background and that's what all
screenplays are written in. The one modification we want to do to this style is to change the
name or add to the name, so up in the Current style field, click on that arrow, choose Modify
Style... Now, to modify a style on a Windows computer, you'll need to either right-click the style
you want to modify and then select Modify, or, click that tiny little Styles button in the lower
right-hand corner of the Styles pane. Then, from that dropdown menu, select Modify. Either
way, the option is called Modify, rather than Modify Style, like it is on a Mac. In the Name field,
select before the word Normal and type Action with a slash. What we're doing is we're telling the
Styles pane that this is the Action paragraph. That's the only thing we're going to do here, so we
can click OK. Now let's start by modifying some of this stuff. Highlight the interior location day.
That's the scene heading or the slug. In the Styles pane here, it's just called Scene Heading, so
click on that, and then up in the Current style field, click on the arrow, choose Modify, and we
want to add the word SLUG in all caps because SLUG and SCENE HEADING mean the same
thing but if you come from screenwriting, you're looking for the word SLUG. Let's change the
name of the color from whatever color that is to automatic so it will be black, and because we
can, and I like to have my slugs in bold, let's apply a bold to that, and then we can click OK, and
click on the SCENE HEADING one more time and there we go, there's our style. Now we've
already done the Action paragraph here. Let's highlight this character/voc and click on the
CHARACTER style. We're only going to make a couple of modifications here, so click on the
arrow, choose Modify Style... We're going to add the /VOC to the name. This VOC stands for
Voice On Camera. This is your on-camera narrator, so this style works for either an actor playing
a role or the narrator talking to the camera. Let's look on the color and change the color to
Automatic and one other thing we want to do here is we don't want the space following the
paragraph, so click on the Format and go to the Paragraph and click on the arrow here next to
Spacing After and take that 10 point down to 0, and then click OK and click OK and now, we
don't have any extra space between the character name and the dialogue. Let's highlight the
dialogue and choose Dialogue. We're not going to modify the dialogue. Let's do the next
character/voc, highlight that, click on CHARACTER/VOC, highlight the next dialogue, and then
click on Dialogue again, and now let's deal with the parenthetical. Highlight that, click on
Parenthetical, and let's modify one thing about this and it's that space after, so click on the
Format button here, go to the Paragraph, click on the Spacing After, take that down to 0 because
there shouldn't be any space between the parenthetical and the dialogue. That's all there is to the
screenplay part of this, but we need to make this the informational video script, so we have to
create three new styles. Let's start up at the top with the graphics and music. Highlight that. In
the Styles pane, click on New Style and let's call this, type in all caps,
SHOT/GRAPHICS/MUSIC/FX with slashes in between them. SHOT slash MUSIC slash
GRAPHICS slash FX, so type in the Name field, in all caps, SHOT slash MUSIC slash
GRAPHICS slash FX. The style following, we want that to be Normal. We don't want it to be
bold, but we do want it to be all caps, so click on the Format button, choose Font, and let's make
that All caps. We click OK, and we click OK, and then we find our style over here, the
SHOT/MUSIC/GRAPHICS/FX, click on that. That changes it in the script. Let's highlight this
one for different shot because this is a catchall style, we can use the same style again for shot,
and let's do this other Graphics and music, highlight that, click on the style that we want to use,
there it is. Now, the last part is the audio column, and we'll do this body of text first. This is the
narrator copy, this is the voiceover copy, so highlight that, we need to create a new style. We'll
call this type in upper and lowercase, Voice-over. The style following will be Normal, and we
need to make a couple of more changes to this. We want it to be bold. We don't want it to be all
caps, but we do need to modify the paragraph to be the indentation to be three inches and the line
spacing to be 1.5 lines. We'll leave the spacing after at 10 point. Click OK, click OK, and now
find our style over here, there it is, Voice-over. We're starting to wrap this up here. Now select
the Narrator VO and we'll create one last style. We'll call this one, in all caps, NARRATOR. We
want the style following to be Voice-over, that's why we created that one before the
NARRATOR. I do want this to be bold, and down in the format tab, we also want this to be all
caps, and we want to adjust the indentation on this and we want the indentation here to be three
inches. Click OK, and click OK, and then find our narrator style, and there we go. Now, we have
lots of extra styles in here that you may not need to use, so if they get in your way, click on this
List and go to Styles in use. To do this on a Windows computer, open your Styles panel by
clicking Options, and then select Show styles in use, and now we have just the styles that we're
wanting to use, and our template is now complete. This has every element that you'll need for
your informational video script, but to make it a template, we need to go up to the File menu,
click on File, come down to Save as Template... It will save it in the Templates folder as a
Microsoft template file, but we want to change the name to Informational Video Script, and click
Save, and then to confirm what we've done, click on File, go to New from Template... Our
screenplay is still there, so let's clear the search field, and click on the Personal tab, and here is
the template that we just created. It's pretty cool. The text I'm using here to create this template
can be found in the exercise folder, and here we are. There's your informational video script
template done in Microsoft Word.
Using Pages to create an informational video script template

- [Narrator] In this movie I'll be using Apple Pages to create a template for an informational
video script from scratch because since version five there is no screenplay template found in the
chooser. Let's get started. The first thing I like to do is always put a header in. I think the header
includes a title, the draft number, the date, and because I'm a writer I like to see my name on
every page and then we need to put a page number in and I like to have a period after that. Now,
I think we ought to reformat this and make it Courier 12 point and bold and we can update the
style here so that our header and footer always has this style. Now, we do have a movie on
creating a title page and if you need all of that information I think you need to take a look at that
movie. If you want more information on Pages we have some wonderful movies, essential
training for Pages, that I think you can learn a lot from. Now, let's get into the body of our script.
I have written some text that we'll reformat and we'll use that to create our informational video
script template. So here's the text that I've created. It doesn't look like much now. We will
reformat different sections of this as we create our styles. We will go about it in what seems like
a random way but believe me there is method to my madness and it will all make sense when
we're done. The first thing we need to do is highlight all of it and change the style of the body to
Courier 12 point, 12 point Courier, because we're going to build on this style for the rest of our
template. Let's click on the update on this so that it will remember that. The first style we want to
do is the action paragraph. So, highlight the four lines of action paragraph and in the field over
here click on the arrow, click on the plus sign. We're going to create a new style and we're going
to call it action paragraph. Let's click off of this. While our mouse is down here at the bottom in
the line spacing after let's highlight that zero, turn that into 12, and then go to the more tab up
here where we want to confirm that our following paragraph style will be the same. Now we can
click on the update. Let's move one line up to what is the slug. Highlight the interior location
day. Let's go back over to the style tab here and let's click on the arrow and the plus sign and
we'll change this. Type in all caps slug slash scene heading. They really mean the same thing.
We'll click off of that. We do want this to be bold and we want it to be all caps. Now, slugs are
always in all caps. The bold is a personal preference because we can do that. I think we should.
Let's click off of that down here and down at the bottom of the inspector after paragraph let's
highlight that and make that 12. Now let's go up to the more tab and the following paragraph
style, let's make that action. Now we can click update. Now let's go to the graphics and music.
Highlight that and let's create a new style for that. And we'll call this in all caps shot slash
graphics slash music slash FX. So write in all caps shot slash graphics slash music slash FX.
We'll click off of it. Our following paragraph style, we also want it to be the action paragraph.
Let's go back up to the style tab. We want this not necessarily to be bold, although you could if
you wanted to, but we definitely want this to be in all caps because we want that to be set off on
the page, and then we want to change our after paragraph spacing to be 12 points. So now when
we hit enter then update now we have the style that we want. Let's go down to the dialogue.
Before we do the character name let's do the dialogue. So highlight that, and let's create a new
style. Click on the arrow, click on the plus sign, and we'll call this one dialogue. We'll click off
it. We need to do several things to this, but we won't be doing anything in the style palette other
than changing the spacing after the paragraph to 12. Let's go to the layout tab and we're going to
do some indenting here. We want these numbers in the first field to go 1.62. In the one called left
type 1.62 and in the one called right we want that to be 1.5. One six two, one six two, 1.5. Then
under the more tab the following paragraph after dialogue will be action. That's why we did the
action first because so much of this goes back to action when you hit the return. Let's update this.
Now go back over into our body of text. Highlight character slash VOC and let's make that
following, oh, we need to create the new style first, and we'll call that character slash VOC. We'll
make it all caps here in a moment. We do want the following paragraph style to be dialogue.
That's why we're doing things out of sequence. Under the style tab we want this to be all caps.
And we don't want any space after. But we want to change the layout to 2.75 and 2.75 and that'll
be all we need, 2.75, 2.75. We've already changed the following paragraph style to dialogue, so
we can click on update. Now to just test out our work highlight the different shot and under the
styles choose shot graphics music FX. Under the character name highlight that. Click on the
styles character VOC. Dialogue, highlight that, click over here, choose dialogue. Now, the
parenthetical, we need to make the parenthetical. So highlight that and we'll make another new
paragraph style and we'll call this parenthetical. I like to put the parenthesis on there because we
can. We'll click off of this. Our following paragraph style will be dialogue. Under the style tab
we're not changing anything here but under the layout tab we are changing this to be 2.16. 2.16.
2.47. And hit return. Our parenthetical moves. We can update this. Now let's do our graphics and
music and change that style to shot graphics music. Now let's do the voiceover copy before we
do the narrator VO. Highlight the voiceover, copy, click on the new style, create a new style. We
want to call this voiceover. We can click off of this, go to style. We want this to be bold. We
don't want it to be all caps but we do want our line spacing to be 1.5 and we want our spacing
after the paragraph to be 12. We want under the layout tab we want this to be 3.75 and 3.75. And
then under the more tab we want the following style to be action. Then we can update that.
Highlight the narrator VO. Let's create a new style for that and we'll call this one narrator. Click
off of that. Under the paragraph following style let's make this voiceover. Going back to the style
tab we want this one to be bold. We want this to be all caps. We want 12 as the spacing
afterwards. Under the layout we also want this to be 3.75 and 3.75. And now we can update that,
and now we have a script. By golly, we have a script. We'll click down here, hit return. We'll end
our script with logo animation the way probably most of your scripts will be. We'll highlight this.
We'll choose the shot graphics and now our script is essentially done. But this is still kind of
cumbersome here. We have all of these styles here that will get in the way. So let's put them in
the sequence we want and assign a function number, a keystroke to them. The first one we want
is the slug scene heading. Just click on that, drag that up here. Click on that little arrow right
there, go to shortcut, and give that one the F one. Then let's drag the action paragraph up here
and give that one the F two. Then let's do the character VOC. Drag that up there, give that one
the F three. Then we do the parenthetical and give that one F four. Then comes dialogue, F five.
Shot graphics and music, F six. Narrator, F seven, and voiceover, F eight. So now you have
keystrokes that you can just tap to get to these different styles. So now let's save this as a
template. Go to the file menu, come down to save as template. Yes, you want to add this to the
template chooser. It takes you to the template chooser. You type informational video script.
Click off of it and now you're in the template chooser. You can also collaborate with your script
by clicking on the collaborate button. There's more about Pages in the Pages essential training
course. I hope you'll check that out.
Using Google Docs to create an informational video script template

- [Instructor] In this movie, I'll be using Google Docs to create an Informational Video Script
template from scratch, because the add-on screenplay formats that you can get are insufficient
when it comes to customization for the Informational Video Script. Let's get started. The first
thing I'm going to do is change the name of the document from Untitled document to
Informational Video Script. Then, I'm going to click off of this and paste some text that I've
created that we'll use to reformat and create our template. You can find this text in the lesson
files. Let's highlight all of it and we'll add, let's highlight all of it and we'll change the font to
Courier New and 12 point. Let's also change the line spacing from the default 1.15 to single-
spaced and let's add custom spacing after the paragraph 212 point. This will save us a lot of steps
later on. Now, we'll change some of this as we go. Let's start by changing the graphics and
music. We want this to bold. You can set this off any way you want to. If you want to make it
italic, you can. Normally, I would have this be all caps, but I do want you to know that Google
Docs does not save the capitalization. If you want to capitalize it, go up to Format. Click on
Format, select Style, come down to Capitalization and click on UPPERCASE. There you go. We
need to save this. This is going to be our Heading 1 style, so click on Heading 1 and open that
button, click on that arrow, and select update Heading 1 to match. We should probably update
the Normal text as well, because we didn't do that. Let's update the Normal to match. Now, let's
go to the interior location. This will be our slug or our scene heading. It should also be bold. In
true screenplay form, it should be capitalized as well, but just remember that the styles will not
be saved when you do that. Let's save it anyway. This will be Heading 2. We will click on that,
update that. Our character/voc, this is where you would, any actor who would be appearing on
camera or your on-camera narrator. Let's make this bold and let's also make it italic, because
unless you want to type in all caps or make that separate step every time, then let's do this. But,
let's also change the line spacing and remove that space after the paragraph. Then, we want to
indent this and we want to indent this to two inches and then we want to save this. This is
paragraph style number three, so let's go to Heading 3 and update heading to match, and it will
remember that indentation. Our dialogue is next. Let's select that. Indent this to 1.25 on the left
and indent the right margin to five. We'll update this style. This is Heading 4, so we'll update that
to match. Our different shot here, this is that one that we created for the graphics which was
Heading 1, so we'll go back to Heading 1 and see it doesn't remember the capitalization that we
put in there earlier. The character/voc, again, if you recall, that was our Heading 3. We'll come
back to the parenthetical. The dialogue, remember we did that. That was Heading 4. The
parenthetical, I am going to not create a style for that because they really shouldn't be used that
much. I do want to remove the space afterward on that, and then let's just hit the tab key three
times and tab into that. The graphics and music, we've already created. That was, again, Heading
1. Now, here's where it really becomes the customized Informational Video Script. The Narrator
vo should probably be in all caps, but let's make it bold and italic and let's indent this to 3.75 on
the left. We don't need to move the right margin. We'll leave the line spacing afterwards. Let's
update this style. This is heading number five and we'll update Heading 5, and I'm using these
headings. Now that I've run out of headings, I'm going to go to the Format tab to do the next one.
I'm going to highlight all of that. I'm going to change the line spacing to 1.5 line spacing. I'm
going to make it bold. I'm going to move the margin, the left margin, to 3.75. Now, I need to
make this Heading 6 and there it is. I can go to Heading 6 here and update that to match. This is
now looking like a script, but if you want to be able to use these styles in the future, a very
critical thing you have to do is click on the Style tab, come down to the Options, and say, Save as
my default styles. When you do that, now these styles that we created will be in your Style tab
and they'll look just like that. Now, as I said, it doesn't remember the capitalization, so if you
want to capitalize something, you have to highlight it, go to the Format tab, come down to
Capitalization and choose UPPERCASE. For whatever reason, Google Docs does not remember
the capitalization. Maybe in a future update, but not in the version I'm using. How do we know
this is going to work? Let's go back to our recent documents and there it is. Remember, Google
Docs is always saving, so if you want to use this as a template, you will need to go to the File
menu and make a copy and then you can work on the copy of the Informational Video Script,
keeping your template intact.
Analyzing the audience

The scriptwriting process doesn't really begin with writing. It starts with asking questions, lots of
questions. The first question I want to ask whenever anyone approaches me about making a
video is, what's the budget? However, I've learned to wait a while before asking that. Instead,
one of the first questions anyone should be asking when approached about making a video is
who's the audience. Another question is, what's the need. Remember, videos solve problems. So
you ask, what's the need? Are you going to train, are you going to motivate, are you going to
inform, or are you going to do a combination of two or all three of these? You have to ask, what
is the main topic? Remember, we're solving a problem of some kind. And that problem might be
just the need to have uniform information distributed to everyone. So, what is that topic that you
want to convey? Hopefully, there won't be any more than two or three of these topics, because
then the video gets to be way too long. When you're asking, who's the audience, one of the
questions you have to ask is, what is the size of the audience? In other words, will it be
thousands of people? Millions of people, maybe? Seeing it on the web. Or, will it be a smaller
group of people? What are the demographics? Demographics are those quantifiable measures of
things like age, income, gender, occupation, things like that. And why this is important is,
because you would talk to a group of engineers with much different language than you would a
group of teenagers. Having this demographic information is very important. Psychographics are
less quantifiable. These are what people believe, or at least what they say they believe. Their
religious faiths and beliefs and political views. These aren't as quantifiable because sometimes
people will say they are one thing when they're really something else. And remember, there is no
such thing as a general audience. You also have to ask, how will the video be seen? Where will it
be seen? And how will the audience absorb it? Will this be seen on the web only? Are you doing
this strictly for YouTube or Vimeo or will this be embedded on the company's website? What'll
be seen in the meeting? Will this be a discussion starter for a training session with a small group
of sales people, or will this be an inspirational video for a large conference of attendees to get
them motivational about the coming event. Will this be seen one on one? Is this a sales video that
will be seen by a person in his or her living room or kitchen, facilitated by a sales person? Or
will it be just sent out on a DVD with no way of knowing if, whether or not anyone has ever seen
it. You have to ask these questions of your client so that both of you will get a better
understanding of what the viewing environment will be. Because this will help you tailor the
language in your script to meet the need of the video. So you have to visualize the audience.
Now, these are by no means the only questions you should be asking when you're talking to
someone about making an informational video. However, it's imperative that you as the video
script writer have a thorough understanding of both the topic and the audience before you can
begin to find the right approach to your script.
Determining the look

Part of the video script writing process involves asking questions about the video structure and
its desired outcome. It's at this point where questions about budget fit more comfortably. As
much as I would like to ask someone about the budget, I let that person tell me his or her vision.
That way it moves the discussion away from a number, and to fulfilling a vision. So, as you're
determining the structure, how broad or narrow will your scope be? Will it cover lots of history
or will it get right to the point? I suggest you keep your main points to three or less. When you
start getting more than three main points, I think it's better to break it up into shorter movies
because otherwise the movie just gets too long and complicated. I think there is an argument to
be made for having several short videos versus one long video just because of the attention span
of our audiences today. When you're asking about the length, I think it's a good idea to try to
limit videos to five minutes or less. If you have to go to six, you know, that's okay. Seven
minutes is okay. There's a comfort factor of the audience. When they start shifting their weight in
their seats, you've lost them, and you will lose them at about six or seven minutes. If you need
your video to be longer, again, consider making several short videos versus one long video.
Ultimately you have to ask the client, what do you want the audience to do? Do you want them
to adopt or modify a behavior? Do you want them to start recycling? Or adopt a more healthy
lifestyle. Do you want them to consider a proposal? Perhaps the company has several health care
proposals from which the employees can choose, and your job is to make the video that informs
the employees of all of their choices. Or do you simply want your audience to write a check to
donate to a worthy cause or perhaps, donate their time? In the course of a training video, of
course, you want the audience to know how to do something. So, ask the client, what do you
want them to know how to do? As you narrow your approach, consider the narrative structure.
This is much like a little movie with actors in a fictional setting, perhaps role playing as if they
were customers of the company or even employees of the company. Quite a few informational
videos have used the newscast format, where you have the make-believe anchor in a studio that
you've created. Conveying information as if it's news and also tossing to the field reporters who
then interview subject matter experts out in the field. Or is your approach going to be the old
tried and true documentary method? And if so, there are several ways of approaching the
documentary style. Where it's all voice over, video that's shot in the field that we call B roll. Or
is it a mix of voice-over and voice on camera, where we see your narrator when we have nothing
else to look at? Or will there be subject matter interviews providing sound bytes for your
content? Will there be re-enactments where you recreate a moment in time. A quick word about
humor. You may be tempted to write a very funny script, but I caution you that humor is funny
until it's not. And I speak from experience. What you may find very funny another person finds
incredibly offensive. So, be careful about humor. It really should not be left to amateurs. So,
asking all of these kinds of questions can save you a lot of time and energy if you have to rewrite
the whole script because you assumed they wanted one thing, when they really wanted another.
Getting started with an outline

An outline is a great way to make sure that everyone has seen the same thing as the script
develops. That said, not everyone writes an outline prior to writing the script, or at least not
everyone shows his or her outline to anyone. In this movie, we're going to assume that an outline
is an expected part of the process. So when you're writing your outline, you basically want to
start with the general information before you get into the specific purposes of the video. There's
an old saying in journalism. Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and tell them
what you told them. This is the journalistic approach to the three act story telling structure. One
of the things we don't include in an outline is narration, or even dialog, rather we paraphrase
what the dialog exchange will be. But we don't put the actual narration or the dialog in there,
because then it would be the script, and this is the outline. We just describe what is happening in
terms of action. And therefore, we don't specify shots unless it's really important that we see a
close up of that whatever at that particular point in the script. Instead again, we just describe
what is happening visually. We describe that there will be a sequence of shots about this
particular topic. In an outline, we're concentrating on the content rather than the visual aspect of
it. I think it's best to use bullet points, much like we've done here. Another thing we don't specify
are specific music cuts. It's better to just indicate that there will be a change in music at this
particular point. And that, that change will be something like up tempo intense versus say
something like slow tempo easy going. The reason you present the outline to the client at this
point is to make sure that everyone's making the same movie, that they are literally that they are
on the same page. It's much easier to change the whole focus of the video at the outline stage
than it is later on when you've invested a whole lot more time in writing the script, and certainly
much later when you've already done the shooting. At the presentation to the client expect
changes. Good ideas come from everywhere. And I think it's a good idea to welcome that input
and incorporate those changes into subsequent versions of the script. So after you've rewritten
your script and incorporated those changes and you submit it to get approval, remember that you
may need to do that several more times. You may need to rewrite that outline and submit that
outline two or three times, maybe even more, before you finally get the go-ahead to write the
script. By outlining the video script prior to writing it, you'll discover things that may need to be
put in as well as left out. It also helps to find the best structure, that natural flow from one area to
another. In fact, you can look no further than this course to appreciate the value of outlining.
We've gone through now six drafts of just the outline to get ready for production.
Writing the first draft

With fewer exceptions, the first draft of any writing is unfit for human consumption. Good
writing evolves from rewriting. Therefore, we all have to start with a first draft. Keep in mind
though that there is no one way to do this. Everyone will have a different approach. I will show
you what elements I think should be included and how I include them. For the topic, I will use
the fictional company ConectEco to introduce a hand held solar powered charging device. I'll be
using the modified screen play format in Word. We'll start by going to the File menu and
selecting New From Template. Now, if your template gallery doesn't open in the My Templates,
just click on My Templates and there you'll see these two templates in your gallery. If you didn't
install the script templates as described in the How to Use the Exercise Files movie. Or if you
didn't complete the the projects in the previous chapter, you may not see these templates in the
template browser. For this project, we're going to use the video script format. I'm going to make
this video documentary style with the CEO as our narrator both on camera and voice over, a
testimonial from an engineer, and a couple of sound bytes from interviews that have yet to be
shot. You may notice that this template is very similar to but not exactly the same as the template
we built in the previous chapter. But this template is included in the exercise files. For this video,
I'm going to use a documentary style with the CEO as the narrator, both camera and voice over A
testimonial from an engineer, and a couple of sound bytes from interviews that have yet to be
shot. Let's start though with the title page. I'm going to call this video Power in Your Pocket. I
think it's a dynamic title. The only other thing we'll include here will be draft one. We'll worry
about that other information later. Let's start by describing the music. In this case, I think the
music should be energetic. It should be kinetic, and it should be up-tempo. The graphic that we'll
use will be the animated logo And let's add a title, power in your pocket. Our first scene I think
should take place outside where people are actually using this product. We'll make this in a park,
we'll make it Exterior-Park-Day. And we'll change the action to simply be, people enjoy a
beautiful day in the park, flying kites, throwing disks, picnicking. Now, what we're going to here
while looking at this will be the CEO doing the voice over. So I'm going to get rid of all this
extra stuff right here, because I don't need it right now. And I'm going to get ready for the CEO.
So that you don't have to watch me type this whole script, because believe me, that would be
very tedious. I am going to show you where the exercise files are, and in this will be Power
Script Elements. And in this will be all of the elements we're going to use for this video. Give
myself a little room there because I want to open up this Style palette and be able to see it as well
as the elements. So what we're going to hear while these people are enjoying their day in the park
will be the CEO doing some voice over. We'll start by setting up our narrator. We'll put that style
there. I'll double click all of this. Copy that, paste that there. There it is. Next, we'll have all of
the verbiage that the CEO will say. So I'll just paste that there, and then make that the voice over,
and the same with this one here as well. Now, I'd like to take just a moment to talk about Modes
of Persuasion. This was a movie earlier in the course where we talked about the three modes of
persuasion: logos, ethos, pathos. To start with, our CEO is using pathos, talking about the
emotion that you get from using the sun and the wind to enjoy life. And here in the second part
of this, the persuasion starts to turn to logos, where we're talking about the logic. Did you know
that the sun and wind are key to our future? This is a logical question. We're going to explore the
persuasion a little bit more. But before we do that, I don't want you to have to watch me type this
whole script. So what I've done is I've included in the exercise files the finished script as I've
written this. So let's look at that, and I'll walk you through the rest of the script. In chapter three
will be the power pocket draft one script. We'll open that up. We'll close this. And now we have
this whole script to look at. You can see that I've included a little bit more in the title. I've given
myself credit as the writer. But here's the good part. We have music, our animated logo, our title,
and here's where we have our modes of persuasion at work. We all enjoy the sun. This is all very
good. We now move the CEO into the studio in front of a green screen where we are keying
beauty shots behind him. And then he goes on and talks about it's true. As fossil fuels reserves
become depleted and we continue to embrace greener practices, these powerful forces of nature
will become more important. So this is the logos part of the argument. We're making a case
where the only logical conclusion would be to use natural sources of energy, as oppose to fossil
fuels. As we move on to the script, we then add the line introducing the K-Eco mini panel.
Because this is a marketing video, so we do need to say the name of the product fairly early in
the script. We then move to the engineering lab where we have an engineer address the camera.
This is where we bring in the ethos part of the persuasion, where we comfort the viewer into
realizing that these people really know what they're talking about. They've done this. They're the
worldwide leader in large scale solar panel production. They know what they're talking about.
You can trust them. Then we have a couple of sound bytes from interviews we haven't shot yet.
So in this case, we're going to paraphrase what the bike rider on the mountain trail will say about
how comfortable he feels, or she feels, about knowing that they always have power. The home
owner in the dark house. That's a scary feeling, and nothing motivated like fear. So the home
owner's talking about that feeling of security, knowing that there is emergency power available
to them. Then we have a series of shots. And this is a great time to change the music, because
we're changing the feel of the video at this point. So in this series of shots, we're changing the
music to a dynamic medium tempo, which of course is liable to change but you have to start
someplace. And now we're going back to the pathos part of the persuasion by showing people
enjoying life giving the viewer something to relate to. As we're watching people enjoying the
product the CEO asks how many ways can you find to enjoy it. And then describes it, and then
reassures this that this is a really great thing. And at the end gives us the call to action. Find this
little gadget at the KinectECO retail store near you. The music then comes up and out, the logo
animation swirls around. And that swirling log animation with the swelling of the music, the
crescendo, will drive home that point and the viewer will rush out and find this little mini panel
because he or she can't live without it. I maintain that viewers remember how they feel at the end
of a video much more so than at the beginning of it or even the middle of it. Many times we
forget what that middle part is, but at the end. We may not remember any particular details, but
we remember how we feel at the end of it. And those of us in the media production business
we're gate keepers of peoples emotions, we're actually puppet masters. And we tell people how
we want them to feel. Choosing the right music is a great way to do that. So that's our first draft.
Don't go out and shoot the first draft. As I said earlier, the first draft is usually unfit for human
consumption, and there's a very good chance that your client will have some changes. So, submit
the first draft and wait for those changes, and then we'll talk about the second draft in another
movie.
Presenting the script
So the first draft is done, and now it's time to present it to the client. Hopefully you've gone over
this script more than a few times. So it's not technically the first draft, even though that's what it's
called. What works best for me is to read aloud the script the first time the client sees it. Since
most people don't know how to understand a script, I find it best if I walk them through it. So I
generally like to give my clients a copy of the script to read along. But I want you to know that
there are pros and cons to giving a copy of the script to the client. Among the pros is, it
empowers them. They have a copy of the script in their hand. The downside to that though is that
it can be a distraction if they don't follow along with you. However, if they are following you, it
gives them an opportunity to focus on your spoken word, on how you're delivering the narration
and the dialogue. If they're not following you and they're looking at just the printed word, they're
not focused on the inflection and the pauses that come with narration. Remember, we're writing
for the ear not for the eye, and it's awfully hard to put emphasis on the printed word that come
from the spoken word. Another benefit to giving a copy of this script to the client as you present
it, is that it gives them something to write on as they take notes directly onto the script at the
place where the notes are applicable. If they're not following along though, and they're reading
ahead or reading behind, they're generally not paying attention to you, that's not a good thing at
all. However, if they are paying attention to you, it gives you an opportunity to translate the
script jargon. Those letters and those abbreviations that we use, that they just don't understand.
This is now a time when you can explain what CU and LS, and things like VOC stand for. Now,
as you are presenting your script, I want you to describe what's going on, not just read the text.
They can read it, you can describe it. It's not just a long shot of the building, but it's a long shot
of their headquarters building, bathed in the golden sunlight that comes from golden hour. You
can also describe what the music is going to be. You can say that during this sequence of these
shots, that the music builds to a crescendo at which point we cut to this very important shot that
is so important to the story. This gives you the opportunity to be enthusiastic. Which doesn't
work well on the printed page. It's hard to put enthusiasm in print. You however, are performing
this script to your client, which is essentially the first audience that you have. And this
enthusiasm can be infections, so that you can instill in them just how wonderful this script is.
And because it's a performance of sort, you are reading the audience, reading your client. And
you know when to back off, pace yourself, and give them the opportunity to absorb what it is that
you're telling them. Now, after the applause has died down from your presentation, expect
changes, they are coming. Everyone's a critic. You've heard that word a thousand times and
because it's true. I suggest that you embrace their suggestions. Everyone has an idea, and good
ideas come from all kinds of places. The feedback that you get may come right away at that
presentation meeting or it may come weeks, or it may be even just a few days later. But the
feedback will come, and it's up to you to incorporate all of that feedback into your second draft.
I've found that presenting the script to the client is more engaging than just sending them a copy
and waiting for a reply. They're right there in the room with you, paying attention, not just
glancing at it occasionally while they're doing other work in the office. This personal
presentation though, may not be possible given the long distance nature of some of our work. If
that's the case, you might try Skyping and your reading. And while everything about the script
may change later on, at least you've given them the opportunity to hear your voice and see your
vision.
Revising the draft
This movie will make a lot more sense if you watched the previous movie, Writing the First
Draft. That's where I constructed a short informational video script that introduced a new
handheld, solar panel charging device. I used some of the material from the website of the
fictional solar panel manufacturer, Connect Eco. So I met with the client, I presented the client,
and of course, the client had some changes that they suggested. The first change was the CEO
didn't want to be on camera. He delegated that to his Vice-President of Research, Talia Wilson.
And they also wanted to make sure that her name and title was included in the script. The editor
would've probably done that anyway, but they wanted to see it in the script and I think it's a good
idea. They wanted to refine the focus of this script to just solar, since they're introducing a
handheld solar panel charging device. So they wanted to remove all mention of wind from this
script and focus just on solar. Then they wanted to change the title from Power in your Pocket to
a Pocket Full of Power, and believe me, there was a lot of discussion over whether or not Pocket
Full should be one word or two words. We finally settled on two words because we thought it
sounded stronger. And lastly, the marketing guy insisted that there be a beauty shot at the end of
the script. The director would have probably shot this anyway, but it had to be in the script and
so there we're going to put it in the script. So let's make these changes and we'll do the easy ones
first. We'll start with the first draft and the first change we'll make is with the title. So we'll just
change this from Power In Your Pocket to A Pocketful of Power. And I'm going to highlight this
and copy it, because I'm going to use it a couple of more times. The next place I'm going to do it,
is in the header. So let's just open up the header at this point. Go to page one of the script,
because that's where it appears. And we'll paste that in there. We'll make it draft two. And we'll
close that, and let's make sure we make it draft two on the title page. And this would be a good
time to save the document. We don't want to overwrite draft 1. We want to keep it intact, but we
also don't want to lose any of our changes should something happen to the computer and it freeze
up. So let's go to the File menu and Save As, and we'll just change the D1 for draft 1 to D2, and
we'll save that. So now we've made the changes of the title, let's make the other easy change and
change the CEO to Talia Wilson. And we'll copy that so we can paste it down here, and we'll
change the him to her. The CEO also appears at the end. So we'll change that and we'll paste that.
So now we've made the easy changes. Remember one of the other changes we want to make is to
add her name. So let's go up here where it says, key, the beauty shots behind her. And we'll just
come down here. We're still in the graphics music sound effect style. So we'll just type key,
lower third, name and title. We don't have to repeat her name and title here on the script. The
editor has that infromation available. So those are the easy changes. We've done the title page,
the script, the header, we've added her name, we've changed the gender. Now let's incorporate
the focus change that the client wanted. They want to take out all mention of wind and focus just
on solar. So I've rewritten this first sentence. It's a long sentence. As fossil fuel reserves become
depleted and we continue to embrace greener practices, these powerful forces of nature will
become paramount energy sources. That is a mouthful. It's well-written for print, but I think for
broadcast, for electronic media, it can be a little stronger. It's better, I think, to use shorter, more
concise sentences than a longer sentence. So let me just start making this change. Depleting
fossil fuel reserves mean just one thing. We must embrace greener practices. And we'll make that
a period, and we're still using the motor persuasion logos because we're making a logical
conclusion. Fossil fuel reserves are depleting, we have to do something better, it's just logical.
This powerful force of nature will become, I think primary is a better word than paramount. Will
become a primary energy source. So now I've taken that one very long sentence and changed it
into three shorter sentences. Making the message much stronger. Now I could go on and refine
all of this even more. But I don't think you want to watch me type. There are two big reasons to
revise. First, to incorporate the changes suggested by the client and secondly, it's a great
opportunity to take another look at tightening up your sentence structure and word choices.
When you give the client a little more than he or she expected, you demonstrate that you're a
vital part of the team.
Writing a commercial script

I think we can all agree that there are some really good commercials out there, also called spots
or adverts if you're British, as well as some really bad ones. I believe the best ones tell a story or
at least incorporate storytelling aspects. In this movie, I will deconstruct a spot for fictional sport
drink, to show you what that script might have looked like in the two column format. But before
we do that, I want to talk about some basic commercial genres. This is by no means a complete
list, but they include the price and item. We see a lot of these with automobiles, furniture, other
home items. The testimonial spot, which can be either a real user of the product or service, or a
simulated user. Sometimes you'll see in fine print at the bottom of the screen, compensated
endorsement. What that means is that that person is hired to say those things. The voice-on-
camera, this is someone that you may or may not recognize. It can be a testimonial of sorts, but
it's usually just a talking head. Walking you through, telling you the virtues of this product. We
see a lot of product comparisons, especially with over the counter medications. Our product is
better than their product. And then, my favorite is the institutional or slice of life, little mini
movies, these are my favorite because they tell a story. People love stories, but I have to caution
you about using humor, I can tell you from personal experience, that what you may find funny,
the client finds really offensive. Some basic guidelines when writing commercials. Use your
adjectives sparingly. Nothing is that great. We have to have very concise sentence structure,
because we're dealing with a very short amount of time. And longer sentences are just harder to
understand for the viewer than shorter sentences are. Try to use action verbs. And what I mean
by that, is avoid any use of the verb is, because that becomes passive language, and not active
language. Just describe how the music feels, unless you have paid for the right to use that music
in your commercial. And lastly, a commercial must have some kind of call to action. You don't
get the sale, if you don't ask for the sale. So that's why we see phone numbers and website
addresses at the end of commercials and we hear people saying, call now, act now, buy now. So
now, let's look at this commercial for H plus Sport. >> You work hard and play harder. Water
can't give you back what you lose. H plus sport has what you need. Natural electrolytes from
plants, not chemicals. H plus Sport isn't made in a lab. Too much sugar dehydrates you, and robs
your energy when you need it most. H plus sport only has five grams. Everything you need,
nothing you don't. H plus sport natural rehydration. >> So lets recreate the script for that spot.
We'll start with the template from our Template Chooser. We'll use the two column script. Then
to fill in this script, we'll use something that I've put in your Exercise Files, the Hplus Script
Elements. Everything that you need is in here. We'll start in the scrpit however by putting the
title, Hplus Sport and we'll indicate that it is a 30 second spot. This will be draft 1. And let's go
ahead and add the title to the header. Hplus Sport 30. And it is draft 1. So now all I'm going to do
is copy and paste a few of the elements to get you started to show you, how the script might have
looked and then I'll show you the finished product. We'll start by adding the Music. I think it's
real important to always start with the music, and always start with the audio because, believe it
or not, audio carries so much more of the message than you can imagine. I'm just putting the VO
Announcer in here one time, I'm not going to put the announcer indication in every time just
because it's going to be a single narrator for the whole thing. Let me go over here to the Video
Column and do a couple of these to get you started, and then we'll see what this looks like. So as
I'm copying and pasting, you can see that this is broken up into various cells. Now this Hero shot
with Visual Effects, if you recall in that spot. We could see over some of the shots, just a logo of
the product flashed several times in a very wild way over shots of the athletes, and those hero
shots were specific actions that the athletes were doing. Throwing the football, making that long
jump. Those were the hero shots, and then the logo effect was added over that sometimes with
another glowing visual effect. So let me finish this and we'll come back and I'll show you the
completed script. So this is my version of the completed script of this spot that we watched
earlier for the Hplus sport drink. I've copied and pasted all of the elements from that file into the
script and I've cleaned up some of the spacing. But you can see that it starts with the music,
before we go to the announcer and then we have all of the announcer on the one side. Everything
we hear is on the right side of the script, and I want to point out a couple of things about the
structure of this script. You work hard and play harder. Water can't give you back what you lose.
This is logos. We're using logos to make this a logical argument. Water can't give you back what
you lose, that's logical. Hplus has what you need. Now we're talking about ethics, or the trust
factor. Natural electrolytes from plants not chemicals, more of that trust and also some of the
logos. Hplus isn't made in a lab, a factual statement. Too much sugar dehydrates you and robs
your energy when you need it most, this is still logos. We're talking about facts here. Only five
grams of sugar. Everything you need, nothing you don't. That actually is sentence fragment.
Everything you need, nothing you don't. The complete sentence would say, everything you need
and nothing you don't. We're taking out the word and we're just contracting that and then Hplus
natural rehydration. On the video side of the column, we start with an animated transition that
goes into this rapid montage. Everything is shot in this empty stadium at night. So I put a slug up
here to indicate that it is the empty stadium at night. And then the first shot of the stadium lights.
And then there's a series of shots of these solo athletes training, the sprinter, the soccer player,
the long jumper. And I talked earlier about the hero shot with the visual effects. And so I went
through the spot and just highlighted the major portions of the action. A spot like this, you can't
really script each and every one of those shots because that would just be foolish. The director is
going to be on set, telling the athletes what to do, working with the cinematographer, arranging
all of these shots because a spot like this really comes together in the editing room, and can't be
totally conceived just on the page. And of course it ends with a beauty shot of the product on the
field. The good news is that telvision commercials are no longer limited to the 30 or 60 seconds
of the past. Spots can now be as long as they need to be. Especially when they're shown on the
web. The not so good news, is that they might need to be shorter than 30 seconds, in that case
you have no room in the script for anything frivolous or unnecessary. If you can write a short, yet
effective commercial, then writing a longer informational video script should be easy.
Writing a script for a public service announcement (PSA)

There's no substantial difference in the writing of a public service announcement from a
television commercial. But rather than promoting a for-profit company that provides a product or
a service, your client must be a non-profit organization or a government agency. In this movie I'll
write a 30 second PSA in the video script format for a fictional school and I'll show you how I
got there. But before we do that, I want to just mention a few things about writing PSAs. They
really can't be any style that you want, just like commercials can be any style. PSAs always rely
on the viewer's sense of duty to do the right thing, we don't always need to hear someone telling
us anything Many effective PSAs have been simply music and pictures or music and text. We
don't always have to hear someone talking to us. The script format can be the same as it is in
commercials, either two column or the video script format. And it may or may not have a call to
action. It may not need a call to action if it's an institutional spot, and you just want the viewer to
be aware. But if you want the viewer to do something, to donate money or time or to change a
behavior, then you need to have that call to action. So, now let's take a look at the Roux
Academy of Art Media and Design website. There's the home page for the Roux Academy of Art
Media and Design. This is a fictional school in New York City, and it is a non-profit
organization so they do qualify for PSA. The home page tells us an awful lot. It's bright, it's
colorful, and when you have a client that deals with art, and media, and design, your visual
possibilities are endless. I do want to take a moment, and call to your attention, this phrase at the
very top right hand corner of the home page. This will be important. We'll actually incorporate
this, into the script. To get a better idea of the programs that this school offers, we're going to
look at some of these. They offer animation, fashion and textile design, fine art, and visual
culture. Graphic design as well as music and photography, so a lot of visual inspiration upon
which to draw for the script. So let me show this script that I've come up with, and we'll talk
about that. So let me show you the script that I've come up with, and I'll talk you through it. So
because this is a school of design, we don't need to go into a television studio, into a sterile
environment. This school is loaded with visual backgrounds, so I've just included a design studio
as a place to start. The director will get to pick which studio in which to shoot. Because this
school is full of young hip people, the logical spokespeople would be hip young students. So,
they're going to talk right to the camera. I've put an iPad in her hand, he has a video camera. She
says I have so much to tell you about Roux Academy. And he says and I have lots to show. At
that point the music pops into this uptempo, driving energetic music that's going to carry us
through the rest of the spot. There'll be a flashy transition from the pair of them on camera to this
series of shots that you can see will take us all over the campus. You notice here it says, NO
NATS, what that means is that in the finished spark we are not going to hear any of the natural
sound that was recorded when the video was shot. At the bottom of the script, the narrator comes
in and uses that line that was on the home page of the website. We are passionate about the role
of innovation and creativity in solving the design challenges of tomorrow, join us. There'll be a
logo animation that will swirl in with the logos of the social media sites or the contact
information. No website, no phone number, no email. They want their viewers to contact them
through social media. And then the energetic music swells and then it's out. And that's the end of
this spot. A second draft of this script might change this narrator to go back to the two students
that we saw and heard at the beginning of the script. One of them would say the first line and
then the second would say the tag line of, join us. The needs of many non-profit organizations
can be many. Pick just one for the message of your PSA. It's better to have different spots for
different purposes than to cram several messages into one announcement.
Finalizing the script
There's an old saying that writing is rewriting. I think what that means essentially is that
everything improves with editing. So you've submitted the first draft, maybe even the second
draft, the third draft, fourth draft or more. But now it's time to finalize that script. I can't stress
enough how important it is to read your script out loud, the whole thing, every word. And if you
can have someone else read it out loud for you, that's even better because then you can actually
hear what that script says as opposed to just hearing yourself read it out loud. Although there's
big value in that as well. This would be the time you would do the storyboarding, if it's required.
If it's not required, well then just send it on to the stakeholders and get the approval from all of
the stakeholders you've been working with so far, everyone who's approved the script so far. But
now, you'll find out about that Senior Vice President no one told you about, who wants many
changes to the script. So, you go back and you write the real final draft, and then get all of those
approvals one more time. Then when you're ready to shoot the script, you break down the script.
And what this means is that you make a list of the locations, the sets, the video gear that you'll
need to complete this shoot, and any additional equipment that you'll use in the shoot. And you
can use a spreadsheet application, you can build a table, or you can just write a list on a piece of
paper. When it comes to the people in your breakdown, you want to make a list of the actors or
any narrators that you're going to use, as well as any extras and the number of extras that you're
going to use, and any props any of your actors handle, and any of the costumes that they wear.
Your script breakdown will make your shoot go a whole lot smoother. Now you may not be the
person who actually needs to do the script breakdown, but if you're also the producer of the
script that you've just written, this is a very vital step that will save you a lot of time later on. It's
important to remember that the script is simply the blueprint for the video being produced. It's
the plan. And that plans change, but you have to have a plan. The more detailed your script is,
the better your chances are for a smooth shoot.
Challenge: Write your own script

Now comes your chance to try your hand at writing an informational video. Here's my challenge
to you, I want you to write the first page of an informational video using the Video Script
template. In this case it's going to be for an fictional Olive Oil manufacturing company. Use the
paragraph from the provided print material with the CEO as the narrator. That print material is
located in the Exercise Files. Pick an interesting location to place your narrator. You have the
world at your fingertips at this point. You're creating something out of nothing. Find an
interesting place. Don't just assume that the narrator should be in a studio. I want you to indicate
all sources of music and graphics and sound effects. Use your imagination. Come up with
something really original, and then feel free to use the narration as either all voice over, or all
voice on camera, or a combination of both. There's nothing that says the narrator has to be all
voice over, or all voice on camera, you can pick whichever one you want, use your imagination.
And then feel free to create new visual, and aural effects, again, you get to use your imagination,
because you're right now going to create something wonderful. Out of nothing. I think this will
probably take you about 30 minutes or more, to complete this challenge. When you're finished,
check back with me, and we'll compare our scripts.
Solution: Write your own script
So here's how I tackled the challenge. This video needs to provide a little bit of historical context
as well as bring this up to date, so I titled the video, Two trees olive oil, then and now. The first
element I changed was music. I just heard a solo violin. This might be stereotypical and it might
not make it into the final video, but it's what I heard in my head. The animated logo graphic is
kind of a no brainer. Everyone has animated logos. But if they don't already, they will by the
time this video is over. I then put the title in there, and then I started visualizing. I saw the CEO
walking through an olive orchard, so I changed the slug. The director will decide what part of the
orchard, and what time of day to shoot. I didn't worry about that. For the action, I simply wrote
in present tense. I used the verb walks. I wrote in present tense what I wanted her to do. I put her
name in all caps simply because in screenplay writing that's what we do. The character's name
gets all caps the first time we see her. Then I added the graphic for the lower third name super. In
the character name I highlighted character name and typed in her name. So far, this has all been
rather formatting stuff. Now it's time to convert the printed word to the spoken word. I copied the
paragraph from the exercise file and pasted it over the first block of dialogue. Now I like to avoid
starting sentences with subordinate clauses, so I moved the phrase in 1903 from the beginning to
the end. Now I knew I didn't want her to be on camera for this whole first page. So I looked for a
natural place to switch from voice on camera, to video, and back to voice on camera. I found it
right after the first sentence. I then placed my cursor in front of the second sentence, and hit
Return. Then I highlighted the portion I liked, and chose the voice over style, to change the
formatting. Here's a side note. If I were dierecting this script, I would shoot all of her on camera,
here, just in case I didn't have any archival photos. I copied her name and pasted it above the VO
text, and chose the narrator style. I added a paragraph break here, to give her a pause and a
chance for the audience to absorb the story. I copied and pasted her name again, and put it above
the last part of the text that she's going to say on camera. I added this back to scene to indicate
that she's still walking in the olive orchard. Now back up here at the beginning of the script.
Between the VOC and VO split, I added as a slug video archival film and photos as well as the
sound effects. The editor or director may choose to disregard this, but at least I put it in there.
And there you have it. One paragraph of some website verbage Converted to the first page of an
informational video script.

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Video Script Writing

How to use the exercise files

Defining informational video

Establishing goals and purposes for an informational video

Understanding modes of persuasion

Comparing script writing to home building

Defining and using script terminology

Setting up a title page and two-column script in Pages

Setting up a title page and two-column script in Google Docs

Comparing the informational video script to a screenplay format

Using Word to create an informational video script template

Using Pages to create an informational video script template

Using Google Docs to create an informational video script template

Analyzing the audience

Determining the look

Getting started with an outline

Writing the first draft

Writing a commercial script

Writing a script for a public service announcement (PSA)

Challenge: Write your own script

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