I recently got to work with JeffScottShaw on a 2-minute video to help his client, RDH Building Science, promote their new online training website called Learn Building Science.

I wrote the script. Jeff and his team took care of filming, editing and all the client relations.

We knocked this video out in the course of a few weeks, with a really quick turnaround for the script in particular. Below you’ll find a quick outline of my process.

But first, the video…

This project came with a few challenges, especially the highly technical nature of the content, the conditions (COVID and tight timeline) made it so we couldn’t get original footage, and the relatively self-promotional theme. We never want to hit the audience over the head with a script that screams, “Look at us! We’re amazing.” And this video ran the risk of becoming that if we weren’t careful. Thankfully the team felt the same concerns and so we were able to walk the fine line and turn out a really nice video.

Here are the steps to my process. In each section, you’ll find some behind-the-scenes notes from this project to give you better context.

I hope you enjoy,

Derek

Define, document, and circulate “success”

This sounds simple, but it rarely is. Before you ever start to write, film, promote or storyboard, take the time to define success with the key stakeholders. What do we want this video to accomplish and how will we know if we’ve done it. Some may have really specific milestones to hit, others may be happy in more general terms, either way - it must be defined.

I failed at this on a previous project, because even though I defined success, documented it in the project brief, and circulated it with all relevant parties - when the time came to actually start filming and preparations were being made to promote - the definition of success changed. And at that point, we couldn’t recover from the steps already taken and the release ended up being a disappointment.

Most executives won’t want to read a project brief or spend time on the basics of defining success, but find a way to make it happen.

Here was the success statement for the RDH video - it was of the more general variety:

Support launch of https://learnbuildingscience.com/ by making it more clear what the offering is when website users land on the site and/or people come across the video on social media. We want to see widespread engagement with video content that outlines the value proposition to our target audience.

Determine (at least the basics about) the audience

I cover the topic of personas in more detail here, so this won’t be a dive deep, but I do want to call out the importance of having at least the basics down for your audience before you start to write your script.

For this project, since it was a highly technical audience and some very specific content we were promoting, I knew I needed to get a grasp of the job titles and topic areas for the training content. So, I asked the client to put together two lists. Here is what I got back:

Potential audience job titles:

• Project Architect

• Designer

• Project Engineers

• Energy Modellers

• Research Scientist

• Owners of small to medium size contractors and sub-contractors

• Training Manager

• University, College Faculty

• Engineering students (Structural, Mechanical, Civil)

• Building Technologists

Video topic categories:

• Airtightness Testing

• Building Science Forensics

• Building Science Fundamentals

• Building Science Live

• Glazing And Structural Glass

• Heritage Buildings

• High-Performance Buildings

• Hygrothermal Modeling

• Mass Timber Design & Construction

• Mass Timber Enclosure Series

• Modular & Prefabricated Construction

• Passive House

• RDH Lab Events

This may look like unnecessary detail, but it starts to give me as the writer a better sense of the world I am going to be speaking into. At times I’ll even ask for a specific LinkedIn profile of a person in the target audience so I can study up on their background, the content they post and the comments they leave.

Gather up key messages from previous company content

Most likely this is not the first piece of content ever created by the company. I find it helpful to dig through past materials, listening to old videos, keynotes, podcasts, reading company memos, the bios on blog posts, individual employee LinkedIn profiles, company social media descriptions, etc. Get a wide range of samples and start to make a list of key messages that stand out. In the case of the RDH video, here was my list:

• The hub for all things building education

• Make buildings better

• Learning on-demand

• Bundled services

• Expertise available for everyone, not just our clients. Open-source. Accessible to everyone. 

• employee-owned consulting firm

• Integrate experience

• Industry leader, someone who has all the answers

• Always learn (one of their core values)

• “There’s so much to know, not any one person can know it all.” Robert, President

• Raise expectations, 

• These are the smartest people in the industry, they’re the ones you want to learn from. Now you can. 

• Today we’re here. Where will you be tomorrow? 

• There’s so much to know, not any one person can know it all, but now you can have access to it all.

Create high-level wireframes in storyboard format

As with most of my writing projects, I try to give the copy to the client in a format close to what the final product will be. If it’s a website, show it in wireframes. If it’s advertising copy, show it in the ad unit. etc.

For this project, I wanted to show how the messaging would play with some visuals and how it would unfold screen by screen, so I used Balsamiq to create a quick storyboard. If you go back and listen to the video while reading along with this board, you’ll see how the messaging lines up.

Circulate with the client, creative director and make any edits

The final step was to circulate the script and suggested visuals with the creative director and the client for any edits. They suggested some great cuts and overall improvements, which made the video significantly better than my first draft. Overall, it was a quick editing turnaround without major changes needed. A great project and I’m really pleased with how the video turned out.

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I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of how I wrote a 2-minute video script!

My name is Derek and I write all kinds of things for businesses of all sizes in many different industries. Do you have a writing or strategy need?

• Send me an email: derek@plain.run

• Read past project teardowns

• Browse work samples