Help, Tips, and Advice for writing a script
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.  |
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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.
