Speaker 1: To get started, the most important thing that we cover in this class is that writing video content isn't that scary. It is a soundtrack and a video track. That is it. So I want you to get in the mindset of whenever you're writing something for a video, whenever you're coming up with an idea for a video, your end goal in the editing process is you're going to have an audio track on the bottom and a video track on top. So that means you are in control of sound that is connected to a visual. That's it. So whenever you're writing something, whenever you're coming up with an idea for something, that's your process. Welcome to Broadcast Script Writing 101. So I'm going to go ahead and do a recording here about how to format it. What I like to do is I go into either Microsoft Word or Google Docs, whichever you prefer, and you make a table. There's different ways to do this, but if you know how to do a table, typically, you know, you come up to this area. You do a two column table with a lot of rows in between. And so that's going to give you little places to draft your video. You write visual on the left and then audio on the right. And whatever you have on your right side, you're going to mirror of what image goes with it on your left. So this is really going to simplify your process for both yourself and your editors of, OK, this is what I'm saying on this side. And this is the visual I want represented by this on the other side. Super easy. Once you have a template for your script, you might get a case for writer's block and not know what to fill it in with. To remedy this, try using Hey, You See So. Hey, You See So is a script writing hack that was developed by journalist Bob Dotson on how to best tell a story. Here's how it works. Hey grabs your attention. You makes the story relatable. See details you want to share. And so is the call to action. Here's some further examples of what I mean by that. So Hey is the hook for your audience, meaning you want to get them interested. Here's an example of a soundbite. This new story package is about bees. So it starts with the sound of buzzing to create intrigue. A couple other ways you can get viewers attention is by sharing a weird fact, a startling statistic, something funny or something that invokes deep emotion. After that, you'll want to communicate a you. You means that you want to make your story relatable. And you want your audience to know that this story is about you and the you is interchangeable. A lot of news stories pick one person that represents a bigger something that's happening. Take, for example, the family featured in the bee story mentioned earlier.

Speaker 2: This has been a family endeavor. We originally got started into instilling our kids kind of farm values and ethics in an urban setting.

Speaker 1: The you means something in your community, something that's valuable to you. Relatable. Next is see. So here you have gotten someone's attention. You've made it about them. So they're super hooked. And then this is the point where you want to set your examples.

Speaker 3: Local beekeepers have reported colony collapse since 2006.

Speaker 2: I had 120 hives and in one season I got wiped out to 12. Little puff smoke.

Speaker 3: Despite the decline, bees and their keepers are still hard at work to keep the colonies thriving. But they feel that the EPA is not working hard enough. So nationally, many are taking action.

Speaker 2: The point being with the lawsuit against the EPA is we feel like they haven't performed their duties to regulate the pesticide industry.

Speaker 1: So you see the struggle. You see how he handled it. The see is just an example of, you know, this is specifically what I'm talking about. And then you have the so, which this is your call to action. So you've gotten their attention. You've made it about them. You've gotten them to see and understand your point and essentially empathize with you. And then so what are you going to do with this? That is where the so comes in. You need to give people a call to action of what do you want them to do?

Speaker 2: We have to move forward, but the pesticides we're using now are totally inappropriate for the environment.

Speaker 3: He's referring to neotenicanoids, seeds that are pretreated with pesticides before they're planted.

Speaker 2: We used to treat it only when we saw a problem. Now we treat every seed regardless. And every cell of that plant has that poison in it.

Speaker 3: Miles will be heading to California later this month to pick up new colonies to distribute around Boulder. He hopes that with greater awareness, we can solve colony collapse.

Speaker 1: The call to action in this story is for you to be aware of the neotenicanoid pesticides and how they might be the leading cause of colony collapse. And there you have it, a formatted story. Before you start writing, I have some tips that I want to share to help you get in your groove. The first is to write unfiltered. You have your format that we introduced in the first part of this story. Then you have your format for how to get people's attention and hold it. And then what you want to do is just write unfiltered. You want to do something that gets you really excited and in a good mood before you write. So that can be going to exercise, taking a refreshing shower, doing some coffee. Just something that gets you like really pumped up and ready to write. Write unfiltered, edit later. Another important thing is just don't get stuck in any one part of your script. And you're like, you know what, if nothing's coming to me, I just skip it and go to the parts that are coming to me and write for that. And then once you get some things down in your mind, you can go back and revisit it. And then suddenly it's like totally clear how you're going to hook somebody or how you're going to make it about them. And then another thing is there is a distinct difference between how you write for reading and then how you write for listening. And what I mean by that is if you're writing for just regular reading, you can use all sorts of fanciful words. You can go as long as you want. You can be as descriptive as you want. But then if you're writing for video, you want to write in a more conversational style. It's easier to listen to. If you talk like how you read, sometimes you're just going to seem more verbose and just kind of stuffy and not natural. So my advice for this is after writing your script, read it out loud. You will immediately know if you need to rewrite it. The old school rule for broadcast writing is that typically for the news, write like you're speaking to eighth graders. Keep it simple. It'll be easier to listen to. It doesn't need to be fancy. You don't have to prove a point. You just need to get your point across. And then, like I said in the beginning, writing for video is not that hard. You just have to get into the main idea that it's an audio track and a visual track and you're off to a great start.