The AV Script

Part I: Content
Introduction
Your midterm project (poster and infographic set) was a
combination of copywriting and process writing. Process
writing was applied in sorting and organizing your cards in
your infographic set to their best effect. Your copywriting skill
was used in writing the content for the poster and those
cards, where you displayed your skill in choosing the best
words to talk about the subject matter given the limits of the
text space.

Your topic for your poster and infographic is also your topic
for your AV script. This begins the last two requirements for
the course, where you shift from text and image, to text and
the moving image.
 Take Note!

Remember that you are not executing the scripts

that you are doing for this class. They're meant as
a starting point for your future video classes.
The Shift to the
Moving Image
In terms of the writing, the one thing you need to remember
about this shift to the moving image, i.e., an audio-video
presentation or project, or a film project, is that you are
being made to imagine what the screen will look like.

In your About Page and Infographic Set projects you

actually see what the screen or infographic looks like; here,
however, you are only being made to imagine it, and putting
that in writing. So much of your scriptwriting’s success will
depend on your ability to describe what your moving
images will look like.
The AV Script -
Importance
The audio-visual script is important because it is the
kind of script you will encounter for many projects,
including but not limited to: event programs, corporate
presentations, project pitches, advertisement scripts,
documentaries, and even commercials.

This type of format is better suited to non-fiction

narrative, using factual information and factual people
with dialogue that can be actual (interviews) or scripted
(narrator), and may borrow from other forms (re-
enactments, dramatizations, animation).
The AV Script -
Your Project
For this particular project, you are going to write a script
for a three-minute documentary-style AVP (audio-visual
presentation) or video.

Your topic will be the one that you used for your
infographic project, which means you’re already familiar
with your subject and you don’t have to do new research.
You will be talking about the same issue and taking the
same stand, but transforming your content for an
infographic into content for an AV script.
The AV Concept Worksheet
What are the elements of an AV script that you need to
consider before you start writing it?

These are detailed in what’s called an AV Concept

Worksheet, which is usually a document that’s drafted for
a given project to make sure that everyone’s on the same
page about it before writing, planning, and prepping even
starts.

The AV Concept Worksheet captures the look and feel of

your video project—not just the words that it will have, but
also what it will look like and the tone it will take.
The AV Concept Worksheet includes basic information
about the project such as, but not limited to, the
following:

project title
total running time (TRT)
project background (subject, client, product, etc.)
objectives or goals
target audience or market
creative treatment
needed facts, data, sources
key message
But it also includes information about your treatment of
the project such as, but not limited to, the following:

(1) the tone it will use,

(2) the attitude it has about the subject,
(3) the music and/or graphics it will use,
(4) if it will use animation,
(5) if it will use a host, or voice over.

Think of the AV Concept Worksheet as your project brief,

which also functions as your guide for when you start
writing your script.
Independent
Work
Download and fill up the AV Concept Worksheet. Make sure
to read the sample answers in blue so that you can formulate
your own versions of those using your own topic.

Submit it before the end of class. You can revise and

resubmit it before our next meeting.