Pre-production and scripting

Writing a script can be daunting, but there is an easy way to work through the process.


Outline
Start by writing an outline. List every major point you wish to make on your video. Remember the old method of writing a script:

Tell them what you're going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you told them

Which translates to Introduction, Body, Summary. So, your XYZ School outline might look like:

I. Introduction
A. Several long shots of school exterior
B. Shots of interior, physical plant, students and teachers interacting
C. Some two-shots of student-student, student-teacher, teacher-teacher

II. Our new building
A. Brief history of construction of building
B. Swimming pool, little theatre
C. TV studio and production facilities
D. Up-to-date internet access, CATV television system in building

III. Fine arts at our school
A. Music department
B. Drama
C. Speech

IV. School spirit
A. Pep rallies
B. Student council meetings
C. Several shots of students and teachers at sporting event
D. Annual car wash fundraiser for charity

V. Summary
A. What have we seen?
B. What have we learned?
C. For these reasons and more, XYZ School is the perfect educational environment for your student

Notice what we did here. We took the objectives from earlier and used them for our main talking points. It's starting to take shape.

Prepare a script

Here is a big secret in producing a video. You only have two things to work with: picture and sound. So when scripting, what will we see and what will we hear?

Your script is narration and accompanying pictures, word for word. Some people use a storyboard, where they sketch the pictures wanted while writing the narration, sound effects or music.
Other people prefer creating a two-column script, with a description of the pictures used on left (this also includes the titles), narration or music listed on the right. Adobe provides a nice template for a two column script.

We all have an idea of how to write the audio (or sound) portion of the script. It's a lot like writing the reports that we've all done in school. One difference is to write for the ear. That is, select words and phrases that are pleasing to the ear, since this will be delivered aloud. Save your flowery prose for another time.

For the video (or picture) column, list every video shot you want. Note if it is a wide shot, medium, close-up, or extreme close-up shot. Be sure to use a lot of different video shots. During narration, you might change shots as frequently as every five seconds or so.