Writing for Video

Why would you write a video script — when you can just fly by the seat of your pants to cobble together your story?

You want to maximize the emotional narrative and impact of your story. You also probably want to increase your opportunities for creative moments. You also probably want to avoid expensive mistakes, by not planning. And, you want to allow opportunities to uncover needs, target outcomes — when planning for different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc).

To begin — you need to figure out your audience. This means being specific — as to who your audience is.

Some beginning writers make the mistake of going too broad, with an audience. This is a mistake because you can’t please everyone — you will fail if you try.

Your audience can be someone like you or your best friend. Dial in their demographics, age, ethnicity, language — and try to get specific. In addition, you want to think about what skill level of understanding they bring to the table. For instance, your audience can be in their 20s, with no kids, and a bachelors degree in history — with staunch liberal views.

In addition, it’s good to keep in mind, the reason your audience cares about a story.

When you write a story, you need to create a narrative vehicle that includes:

-Empathy for your characters

-Connection to content

-The audience has to be able to identify with your characters

Think about, the emotional triggers that will cause your audience to have empathy for your characters, such as imitation and motivation.

You have to motivate your viewers. Monkey see monkey do. People learn from each other, and their social environments. By imitating and observing how others they want to be like behave, people enact behaviors they see as desirable.

However, the challenge is getting people to pay attention and then feel the motivation to act.

That said, there are a number of solid principles for motivating people to take action. Having a clear understanding of who your characters will be will determine the success of your story outcomes.

What’s more, here are some things to keep in mind when thinking about the characters: if your video is less than 5 minutes try to only have one or two main characters. However, this is not set in stone. Say if you have an expert witness giving brusque testimonials, you might be able to allow your audience to build empathy for more than just a couple main characters.

Next, think about your setting. Your setting or location(s) where you plan to shoot must take your main characters into consideration because you need to decide whether or not there is going to be a connection between the environment and your main characters.

With your setting in mind, plan out all the elements that funnels your audience into the environment and characters.

Once you have a setting and idea of who your characters are plan your from what point of view you will tell your story. Meaning, who is the main voice in your video? Is this voice in 1st person? (Is it an “i” voice?) Or are people going to be speaking from their own point of view? ( I.e. in an interview like setting) Or Is your video told from the point of view of a group of people that believe something? Or Is it in a colloquial voice? For example like a “how to” video that engages a person using the word “you” a lot. Are people going to see things through a protagonist’s point of view?

Once you have point of view, setting, characters, figured out, you need to lay out or structure what the “narrative arc” is going to look like. Some writers like to draw out their storyboards, organizing the type of style they plan to weave their story around. Your style can be in many forms: illustrative infographics, historical documentary, etc.

With your style in mind, I’m going to give you 7 main stages in which to tell your story through a narrative arc. This narrative arc is used by many great writers, from Shakespeare to Mark Twain, to Jane Austin, etcetera.

First, you’ll need to grab your viewers attention with a great opening or hook. Some writers might overload the beginning of a story with too much of the exposition.

Many successful copywriters find that viewers have very short attention spans. They’re especially short if they’re finding out about you for the first time. This is why it’s good to have a short teaser or hook to grab their attention at the very beginning. This attention grabber needs to weave into the climax (I’ll explain about climax after I show you the first 3 stages)

How do you grab your viewers attention in 2–3 seconds — when this seems easier said than done? Dollar Shave Club hooks you, with a dingy retail background and an actor who comes out the gate saying “our razors aren’t good…” In a sentence, with unpredictable confidence, the protagonist answers their viewer’s objections to getting a cheap razor — in other words through the hook and exposition.

Click for Dollar Shave Club Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

Exposition: This is where you introduce characters, setting, background. It’s important to keep this part to the point — while avoiding irrelevant facts or fluff — that doesn’t add to the overall story. You see the setting of a warehouse, which gives you the feeling of knowing exactly why your razor is only a dollar.

After the exposition, writers hone in on a challenge, or conflict, or struggle — something to overcome. This will add suspense as you move your way to the climax — or main point. Dollar Shave Club builds-up the conflict, through explaining the viewer’s conflict: overpaying for razor technology; forgetting to buy razors; having to make unnecessary trips to the store, etcetera.

Your climax can be about a major change or insight or discovery. It can be something that your main character learns — that leads into the next stage: the resolution. The decision(s) made in the climax can tie back to the opening hook. The teaser should become fully unveiled at this stage. In this Dollar Shave Club video, you as a consumer are over-paying for razors you don’t need.

What happens next is the resolution, or a-ha moment, that leads to a call-to-action. Dollar Shave Club exaggerates absurdities and contradictions through humor in order to earn your trust with humor.

And once you have the hook, exposition, challenges or conflict, climax, resolution, you need the most important part: your call-to-action. This is how, as a marketer, you get paid.

A call-to-action can come in two forms: direct or indirect. Direct can be you specifically asking your viewer to click on a button or enter an email or give you money, etc. An indirect message implies or nudges your audience to consider the thing you’re trying to persuade them to consider.