Hello there!
This blog post will take you through the elements of script writing and two examples to explain.
On March 14, 2020, Global News reported on the coronavirus outbreak in Canada, when it was still fairly new. This situation was broken down in terms of the case numbers in Canada by province, the statements of political figures and health officials and how people are being affected.
This is the script for this video from 0:50 – 3:24.
This video was composed of graphics, interviews and b-rolls. As shown in the script, there are only two graphics; b-rolls and interviews are what made up most of the video. There are eight interviews and six b-roll videos. This combination works effectively to tell the story because it demonstrates a good balance between showing information and telling information. All of the interviews are very concise, but informative, which is good for broadcast. The two graphics are shown on the screen long enough to be read and have good information. At the same time, they are not packed with information.
On Feb. 13, 2020, I reported on an event that took place at The Hart House Debates and Dialogue. The article is shown below.
This is the script for my article, adjusted to work for broadcast.
Writing a script for an article is very different from writing a script for a video. I found that the images I used in my article would work better as b-roll videos, since they describe the setting. My article has a lot of interviews from the panelists, so I dispersed them and made sure that there was a good ratio of interviews, b-rolls and graphics. My article does not contain any graphics, but I felt that it would benefit from them since it’s very helpful to use images and information to catch the viewer’s eye in broadcast.