Friday, July 10, 2015

Help, Tips, and Advice for writing a script


























Help, Tips, and Advice for writing a script
By Angelina Harlow

Creating a commercial is a great way to set yourself apart, promote your company, and reach an entirely new audience. Developing a commercial involves several components including, brainstorming, script development, production, and post-production. In this article, we are going to provide some tips and important information everyone should know when creating the script component of a commercial.


Storyboard vs. Two-column layout
If you are a creative person who works better visually, you will want to create a storyboard by brainstorming how you want the commercial to present visually and then add dialogue later. A storyboard is just a series of squares where you map out how you want the scene to look with comments and notes put on it.  If you like seeing the script written down first and then add the visual later, a two-column layout is the best place to start.  You can find a two-column layout anywhere online and it is set up for you to brainstorm the audio and video of the commercial.  

Link to Download


















Script Length Guidelines
Once you have decided how long the commercial is going to run, you will need to gear your script to fit the length.  Here’s a breakdown of the proper length for a script based on the seconds of airtime you buy. This applies to radio and television commercials.

This appears commonly in Radio Scripts
10 seconds- 25 words
30 seconds= 65 words
20 seconds= 45 words

Geared more towards television commercials
60 seconds 125 words
90 seconds= 190 words
120 seconds-250 words

Things to keep in mind:
  • The person delivering the announcement also effects the number of words that can be spoken effectively in that allocated time frame so just keep that in mind. It can be shorter or a bit longer for all of these breakdowns!
  • When writing think of your audience and how you want to appeal to them. There are 3 different appeals you can use ethos, pathos, and logos.
  • Get at least 3 shots of the same scene just incase something is wrong with one of them. This is a golden rule in production.
  • Check your audio levels or make sure your audio person is making sure you don’t have many peaks in it.     
  •       Don’t try to fix all your mistakes in post-production, make sure you try to get it all done in production.
Keep these tips in mind when begin to write your script and you won’t run into as many problems when production starts because you will have a clear vision of your commercial.

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