The Art of The Video Script

“I love you”

When someone says that to you, isn’t it amazing how different the meaning can be, depending of course on who said it.

If it’s your best mate, the sentence would probably be finished with “……bro” and be followed by a slap on the back, or a friendly nudge in the ribs.

If it came from Mum, it might be said in that familiar way that only develops inside families, from time spent together and an understanding, which is way too deep to explain.

What about from a lover, perhaps a demonstration of connection, a gesture of commitment or loyalty, maybe a pledge of togetherness through thick and thin.

Each of these examples has a different delivery but uses exactly the same three words. The same ‘script’ if you like, and what a brilliant one it is. In the film Moulin Rouge, Ewan McGregor’s character said “the greatest gift in life is just to love and be loved in return", and who would argue with that. Now that’s a script I would have liked to have written.

So the art of creating the perfect script for video and animation based projects, comes down, like many of the best things in life, to three key factors. They are right script, right delivery and written entirely with the audience in mind.

At three motion, I spend a lot of time bringing those factors together. The first thing many folks say to us when we start work on their creative projects is “I am not very creative”, and I say “that’s good, because we need you to be an expert in your field, to help our team, then we will do the rest”.

By understanding our partner’s audiences, we adjust the delivery and tone of the scripts we write to be informative, emotive and fun. Once we are well briefed on the information which needs to be shared, we work up not only those all-important words but also the creative treatment required to make a real impact.

To see how much this varies, compare the script I wrote for Angel with Digidads. The starting point on both was understanding the very different audiences, before developing words and visual components to bring the stories to life, in film and animation.

Both scripts were recorded in the studio with our fantastic sound engineer. I shared the sound booth and coached those involved, none of whom were professional presenters.

We create many videos where professional voiceover artists have been requested, but given the option, I always look to bring those we are working with into the studio, to keep that incredibly personal connection, which a read from someone genuinely involved in the project always brings.