Module 9 - Bullet scripting

Where do you start when you have to script a video?

Start by bullet pointing, using information you have already gathered rather than a blank page. One of the most challenging things for many people, because they are not from a creative background like myself, is where do I start scripting? How do I start scripting a video? What do I need to say? How do I say it? How do I get creative?

I am going to break this down into some chunks. There is a template you can download here. You take some of the information we have previously done off the other sheets, put the bullet points into the script, and just move them around a little bit. What that starts to do is give you a little bit of content and a little bit of a structure.

It is a little bit paint by numbers in terms of what it does, but it does start to get you thinking about how you could start to do things.

What goes into the script template first?

The three lists you already made: why they would buy, why they would not buy, and the pain points.

Here we have the video script worksheet. The first thing you have to do, in the first six seconds, like any great ad really, is get somebody's attention. Let us not worry about that at this point. What I want to talk about is the bullet pointing of a script.

If we go back to the walking boots example we did in one of the previous videos, we have the sheet you can download, with why they would not buy, why they would buy, and what the pain points are. I have taken that information and cut and pasted it into the script. So this is why someone would buy the product. Then I am going to put in why they do not buy the product, going back to the other sheet, collecting that information and pasting it into the script as well.

You can paste the table in, or you can just copy the words over. It does not have to be as a table, but you get the idea. Then we go back and look at the pain points, take all of that and put it in the script too, in another section for the moment. There are a few little typos in there, me typing too fast as usual.

What is the basic shape of the script?

A hook, a quick bit of education, and then a first call to action.

I have talked about hooks before, and I am actually going to do something slightly different on hooks in a later video. Then we get into a quick bit of education, and then your first call to action, which is something like, if you are interested in a pair of walking boots, come here. I am going to do another little bit on calls to action too.

In terms of bullet pointing scripts, it allows you to bring in some of the key bits of information as to why people would buy and would not buy. So we have got three sections here.

How do you turn the bullet points into lines?

Turn them into questions the viewer will say yes to, and start on a sort of negative to positive.

Education is not really the right word for the middle bit. We call them golden nuggets. It is sort of like: right, you need a new pair of walking boots, so you need to buy a new pair, and ours are sturdy and waterproof. So let us take out some of these points. What I always do then is move the ones I am not using right down to the bottom, just as captured notes, so we are simplifying what we say.

Why would somebody buy the product? What we could say is: do you need a new pair of walking boots? Do you need them to be sturdy? Do you need the best and the latest waterproof tech on your boots? You can see what we are starting to do here. We probably do not need comfy at this point, so let us put comfy back down at the bottom, because all these other things we can still talk about later on in the video, in another section.

The viewer is likely to go, yes I do. Then, of course you want them to be ultra comfy and all terrain. So you can see how we are starting to build a little bit of a structure, and you can start to picture how we might film those as well.

How do you use the objections and pain points later in the script?

You use them to counteract the negatives, then interject with calls to action.

Then you get into a call to action, which we will come back to later, and you then might want to educate again. So here we can talk about many boots not being fit for purpose and being cheap imitations. Surely it is better to have a pair that will stand the test of time and wear well for many years to come.

Through those bullet points we are starting to counteract some of those other things. I do not want to get into writing it yet. We take these other bits out and put them further down, into another section, where it is better to pay a bit more, can you risk having a cheap pair.

What you are doing is starting to layer a lot of the story as to why you want a pair, reminding them of why it is worth paying well, and interjecting with calls to action. That is a very simple way of taking the bullet points into the script.

How far can you take this before you start writing properly?

Far enough to see the whole shape of the video, both a shorter version and a longer one.

You could write a few other things in, saying there is lots of choice in the marketplace but ours is a really good brand, some of the cheaper brands do not work as well, ours have got these benefits and these benefits. So you can start to see how you can structure quite a nice little script in terms of what you need to get in and what you need to get out. It could be that there is a shorter version of this or a longer version.

I am just encouraging you to take some of the key information from the other sheets you have done and drop them in as bullet points, so it starts to give you a structure of what you can talk about.

I hope that has been useful and has given you a good idea of how to put bullets into a script. In some of the other videos we will talk about ideas, calls to action, and actually starting to write the scripts.