How To Write A Video Script From Scratch

Let us set the scene. You’re sitting at your desk staring at that little blinking cursor on your computer screen. Filled with dread, your eyebrows begin to burrow in frustration. Your boss has asked you to write a script for an upcoming training video for your company and you have no idea where to begin. Fear not, help is at hand!

Take a breath and read our easy to follow steps…

Step 1: Planning

First of all, it helps to think through the task ahead. Start by writing a short brief for yourself that outlines what you want the script to achieve. Don’t panic, this doesn’t have to be too detailed.

Try to answer the following questions, which will help you focus on your goals:

• Who is my audience?
• What is my message?
• How do I want to convey my message?
• What do I want my audience to take away from this?
• What actions do I want my audience to take after watching this video?

Once you have this information written down you can start outlining your script. As obvious as it may sound, your script needs a beginning, middle, and an end.

Let’s have a look at this in a bit more detail.

Step 2: The Beginning

Introduce yourself, the presenter, the product or the message; whichever is relevant to your video. You also need to give the audience an idea of what the video is going to show them or what they are about to learn.

For example: “Hi, I’m Georgina from Southpoint Films and in this video I’m going to talk to you about how to write a script from scratch.”

Step 3: The Middle

The main event!

This is where you need to get all of  your information across. It will be the longest and most detailed part of your script. It may contain B-roll footage (secondary footage) or cutaways to the product. You might insert animations or graphics. There may be some interviews with colleagues or customers. The possibilities are endless!

Step 4: The End

To really stick the landing, your video is going to need a strong ending. For this, we recommend writing a “call to action”, which instructs your viewer on what to do next.

Depending on the purpose of your video, the call to action may be “visit our website” or “call our sales team”. If you’re looking to grow your online followers, you might use “subscribe to our channel” or “follow us for more videos”. This all depends on the type of video you’re making – but make sure it’s simple and clear. Don’t ask them to do too many different things, as they might simply do nothing!

Step 5: Polish and Refine

Once you’ve got your script written down, it’s time to give it a once-over or two. No script is perfect on the first draft.

For a video script, the best thing you can do is read it out loud. This will make sure that the words sound right when you speak them. It’ll also help you check that there are no nasty sentences to trip over. Remember the tongue twister  “She sell seashells on the sea shore”? You don’t want any sentences like that making their way in!

Getting a colleague’s opinion on the script is never a bad idea either. A second pair of eyes can help you strengthen areas of the script that are a little weak, or put a different spin on a key message. This tip was actually written by one of my colleagues when they checked through this article!

Even better, you could get someone else to read your script out to you so that you can put yourself in the audience’s shoes. See how it sounds, check the tone, make changes if necessary.

The question you need to ask yourself is: Do you think the script delivers on your brief? If not, you’ll need to rewrite it. Tweak it until you are happy and then give yourself a little pat on the back. Your script is ready!

Okay, so now what?

Well, you need someone to turn your awesome script into an amazing video, we can help you with that too! You can submit your brief here.

However, if all you need are some tips for appearing on camera on the big day then you can check out our article here which explains how to appear natural on camera.

If you think your script needs to be a bit more work, we’ve written an article to give you a few other tips that could help you improve your video script.