Learn the secrets to effective Public Service Announcement screenwriting.

1. How to write a script
that
doesn’t
suck
P.S.A

2. “public service announcement (PSA), which is any
message promoting programs, activities or services
of federal, state or local governments or the
programs, activities or services of non-profit
organizations.”
- FCC

3. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY
BEFORE YOU START
WRI T ING

4. “I don’t think screenplay writing is the same as
writing — I mean, I think it’s blueprinting.”
- ROBERT AL TMAN

5. WRI TE A BRIEF
4 SENTENCES — 1 / 2
PAGE

6. GET THE DETAI LS
MANAGE
EXPECTAT IONS
Due date
for visuals
for text
Role definitions

7. GET THE DETAI LS
MANAGE
EXPECTAT IONS
Design requests
Approval process

8. WRI TE TO COMMUNICATE
IDENT I FY YOUR
AUDIENCE
this guy
this lady
these folks

9. WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW?
AUDIENCE TAKEAWAY

10. SINGLE CAL L -TO-ACT ION
YOU ONLY GET ONE

11. L IBRARIAN INFORMAT ION EXTENSION SYNDROME
AVOID L IES

12. Things to remember while writing a script
REASONS TO MAKE A
P.S.A
Boosts attendance
Makes you look good
Publicizes a little known service
Documents a time or place

13. Things to remember while writing a script
SCRIPT AL L OF THE
WORDS
that guy

14. Things to remember while writing a script
SCRIPT EVERYTHING

15. Things to remember while writing a script
READ YOUR WORDS OUT
LOUD

16. “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
- WI L L IAM SHAKESPEARE

17. Things to remember while writing a script
WORDS PER MINUTE
RAT IO
Length of PSA 10 sec 15 sec 20 sec 30 sec
# of words 20-25 30-35 40-50 60-75

18. Things to remember while writing a script
WRI TE FOR THE SHOOT

19. Things to remember while writing a script
SHOOT FOR THE EDI T

20. • 3. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c21944
• 5. Library of Congress hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.11271
• 6. "Mark Muir Mills" by Thomas J. O'Halloran, U.S. News & World Report Magazine - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.03109.. Licensed
under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Muir_Mills.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mark_Muir_Mills.jpg
• 8. "Douglas Fairbanks at third Liberty Loan rally HD-SN-99-02174" by Paul Thompson - Downloaded from http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Still_Details.cfm?SDAN=HDSN9902174&JPGPath=/Assets/Still/1999/DoD/HD-SN-99-
02174.JPG. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglas_Fairbanks_at_third_Liberty_Loan_rally_HD-SN-99-
02174.JPEG#mediaviewer/File:Douglas_Fairbanks_at_third_Liberty_Loan_rally_HD-SN-99-02174.JPEG
• 9. "Suffragettes, England, 1908" by Not given - The New York Times photo archive, via their online store, here. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suffragettes,_England,_1908.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Suffragettes,_England,_1908.JPG
• 10. "Tage Erlander 1960-tal" by Unknown - Ericssonkrönikan. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tage_Erlander_1960-tal.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Tage_Erlander_1960-tal.jpg
• 14. Danny Kaye in Unicef Commercial, 19/Apr/1955. UN Photo/MB
• 13. This image is a work of a Works Progress Administration employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 105)
• 15. Meyer London, The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel
• 18. "Filming scene TheGirlsOfTheRange 1910" by William Selig - [1]. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons -
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filming_scene_TheGirlsOfTheRange_1910.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Filming_scene_TheGirlsOfTheRange_1910.jpg
• 19. File:Colonel Frank Capra (right) of the US Army Signal Corps confers with Captain Roy Boulting of the British Army Film Unit on the editing of the film 'Tunisian Victory' in February 1944. D18377.jpg D 18377 from the collections of
the Imperial War Museums.