How To Edit Video Scripts

When we’re building a video, a good script takes 5% of the time that the rest of the work does. The problem is, that 5% can ruin the other 95% if it’s done wrong.   So I’m going to teach you exactly how to edit your script.

We’ve talked a little about writing video scripts.  You’ve even got a guide to how many words.

But the real magic comes from editing your script.

That’s where our work moves from “good” to “amazing.”   When you read this article, you’ll know exactly how to do it so you can have the best shot at great video.

How to Edit Video Scripts

There are 4 steps, and when you get good, you can do this pretty fast.

  1. Content edit
  2. Flow Edit
  3. Emotional Edit
  4. Technical Edit

First, in what we do, we have to remember that video is a medium for moving the emotion of one person to another.  That’s the point.  A business video is meant to completely convey that emotion to others.

Content Edit

This is about “what’s in, what’s out and exactly why.”

What you’re going for: Optimum information Density.

You have to make sure that you give people enough “content” for them to want to keep coming back, but not so much where they (a) get confused and remember nothing or (b) feel satisfied and complacent and don’t feel like taking action.

You also want to make sure that with “what’s in and what’s out” you’re making good choices.

Flow Edit

This is about when we deliver each part of our message.

What you’re going for: a natural flow from beginning to end. 

Fire your bullets early.  Unless you’re a megabrand like Ted or Appleleading with your logo is generally a poor choice (exceptions apply, I’m not nearly as hard core about this as I used to be).

We generally start with an organizational  structure that follows Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. I first learned this from the great Terry Sjodin when we did the book trailer for Small Message, Big Impact.

Get attention, set up a problem, deliver a solution. All with empathy.  That’s the flow.

Emotional Edit

This is about empathy and removing errors.

What you’re going for: Authenticity and credibility.

By far, the place were you’ll spend the most time.  If you think of this as “filtering for emotional errors” it goes a lot faster.

Avoid:

  • Cliché
  • Puffery
  • Appeal to legacy (we’re the oldest brand in the world)

There are many other emotional errors, but the low hanging fruit is puffery.  When we are enthusiastic about a product, sometimes we just say “Gosh, this is REALLY GREAT, GO BUY IT IT WILL HELP!”.  That doesn’t prove what we’re looking for to our buyers.

Generally, our position is that good software and enterprise marketing should make the case that this is inevitable, and someone finally did it correctly.  We want to demonstrate what video can do.

Technical Edit

This is about professionalism.

What you’re going for: no major mistakes.  It’s the “last step.”

The technical edit is the easy part.

  1. Be sure the tense is congruent throughout.  Present or past is fine, but make sure you stay with it.
  2. Use Active Voice On purpose  (He ate the food at dinner is better than At dinner, the food was eaten).
  3. Make sure the word count is in line with the script.

Spending a little bit of time helps you edit your script better.