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Ed Heil : July 15, 2024
This blog was originally published in 2016 and was updated in July 2024.
You have brainstormed, planned, and created your budget, but are you ready to actually create that marketing video for your organization? If you don’t have a written script, you're likely setting yourself up for failure.
It may sound counter-intuitive for a company that prides itself on “unscripted” content to recommend a video script template, but you will discover the script is your roadmap to success. Producing a video without one can be like baking without a recipe – it might taste fine when it’s ready to eat, but there are no guarantees for success. In fact, we consider scripts essential to the production process.
Why? Because a video script isn't just about helping you determine your key messages. It's also the template for your video production, the building blocks for the project, and a crucial piece of communication from the producer to the video editor and graphic designer. It’s the blueprint for your entire project. And it’s so important that we’re willing to share our video script template to make sure that you’re on the right track.
A video script is an overview document that summarizes all of the relevant information needed for your video production. While the document may vary slightly depending on the specifics of the project, a video script will often help determine critical details, such as locations, camera framing and composition, action, dialogue, music, and on-screen graphics.
Whether you write the words for an announcer or narrator, gather remarks in sound bites, prepare scripted lines for actors, match graphics with music or natural sound, or combine several of those techniques, the script is the ultimate guide for your video production.
Videos, when produced effectively, are a compelling presentation of sound and images. A useful video script template should include, at minimum, three critical elements: audio, video, and graphics.
Much like the script for a play, with the dialogue and stage directions presented out side-by-side on a page, video scripts are laid out in three columns, showing the video, audio, and corresponding graphics. Of course, you may have another preferred approach to scripting your video, the important part is that you have a tool that can be used in a similar manner.
For example, this short script for a StoryTeller video blog reveals everything that will happen in the video from the opening animation to the final graphic. (Click the image to download.)
Every word and every image is carefully lined up on the page, so the editor can turn the words on the script, whether written or spoken, into the video you see below:
If you use a video script template correctly, you will recognize its value during every phase of production. Because the script helps you visualize the finished product, it will help you foresee any issues or concerns long before they would ever be considered for the editor, and in many cases, even before they are filmed.
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Pro Tip: Although the script is a valuable tool to bring together all three columns in your production — video, audio, and graphics — it can also be an effective litmus test, helping you analyze how well each of these three critical elements will work on their own. Read down the "audio" column to see whether your messaging works for somebody who's not paying attention to the video, the "video" column for somebody who doesn't hear the audio on social media, and the "graphics" column to make sure you're identifying key themes and messages properly.
In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that at StoryTeller we specialize in "unscripted videos." By their name alone, one might assume they don’t require scripts - so how do scripts apply?
Unscripted videos aren't planned word-for-word. Much like a documentary, the producer begins with an understanding of the key messages that need to be communicated, and the characters who will best articulate that information. The producer will write a list of questions, steering the conversation to ensure the interview subject delivers the desired responses. That response is captured in the words of the interview subject, not a "canned" or “scripted” response. But once filming is complete, the producer will examine all the footage from the interview and craft a script of soundbites for the editor. The right script – or in this scenario, the right outline of questions – will help the video stay on-topic and save time during the filming process.
Using a video script template works for long videos as well as short pieces, it works for documentaries and music videos. We used a similar format for news stories when I was at WCCO-TV, the local CBS affiliate in Minneapolis. If you're working on a video project and don't have your own video script formatting tool, download the StoryTeller template. I guarantee it will help you organize your project and improve communication with all stakeholders.
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