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Writing to Pictures: the basics
The document outlines essential rules for writing for video, emphasizing the differences between video and print writing. Key principles include prioritizing visuals, keeping content concise, and ensuring clarity in storytelling. It also suggests techniques like avoiding redundancy, using contrast, and organizing information in groups of three to enhance engagement.
Writing to Pictures: the basics
- 1. Writing to pictures“ Write drunk, edit sober” Ernst Hemingway
- 2. Writing to picturesRule 1 Writing for video is completely different to writing for print
- 3. Writing to picturesRule 1 Writing for video is completely different to writing for print In print you order facts with the most important at the top In video you follow the Figure-of-eight, or put the most interesting thing first In print your article could be anything from 500 to 1,000 to 3,000 words long. In a 2 minute video you have room for 360 words. In print your words can be read over, and over again for understanding. In video, people will only watch your video once.
- 4. Writing to picturesRule 2 In video, pictures lead . Always
- 5. Writing to picturesRule 2 In video, pictures lead . Always You choose the pictures first then write the words. You edit the pictures first then record the voice over. Do not write your script first and then put pictures over the top!
- 6. Writing to picturesRule 3 Keep it simple . Keep it short .
- 7. Writing to picturesRule 3 Keep it simple . Keep it short . We speak at around 3 words per second In a 60 second film, that's 180 words. In a 2 minute film it's 360. And that's without any interviews or other voices. With so few words, every one must count. Keep your sentences short. Really short.
- 8. Writing to picturesBBC News package on Remembrance Sunday Duration: 2'35 Word count: 192 Telegraph article on Remembrance Sunday Word Count: 519
- 9. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 1. Don't tell people things they can already see 2. Hold hands 3. Contrasting Pairs 4. Groups of three
- 10. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 1. Don't tell people things they can already see “The Queen, dressed in black, carrying a black handbag, walked up to the cenotaph and lay a single wreath, watched by dignitaries...” Bad :(
- 11. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 1. Don't tell people things they can already see “ The Queen lay a wreathe watched by thousands of by-standers...the numbers swelled by the increase in deaths in Afghanistan since the last remembrance day...” Better :)
- 12. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 2. Hold hands “Thousands of people turned out in Whitehall to honour the one minutes silence.... ...these soldiers gathered in Camp Bastion in Afghanistan to remember the fallen.” Bad :(
- 13. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 2. Hold hands “ The turnout in Whitehall was the biggest in recent times... ...and here's why...since the last remembrance Sunday the number of British fatalities in Afghanistan has nearly doubled.” Better :)
- 14. Writing to picturesHow do you make your writing better? 2. Hold hands Good words to help your sequences hold hands: But...
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- 18. And here's thereason...
- 19. And for proofjust ask...