Unlike radio or print where the words are the main conveyors of the story, with television the pictures should dictate what you write. A common mistake is to describe what the pictures are already showing. Instead, the best television scripts enrich the pictures and use them to tell the story in a natural way. Here are a few basic tips to follow when writing to pictures:
- Look at the pictures before writing
- Opening shot and closing shot are crucial
- Pictures inspire the lines. Be selective with your words. Don't describe what you see
- Use language that would be “understood by a truck driver but not insult the intelligence of a professor” (Ed Murrow)
- Take time to compose your opening line
- Your sentences should convey: 1. Narrative, 2. Atmosphere, 3. Context
- Make each line hold hands with the next
- Listen to the sound. Let pictures breathe. 10% should be a natural sound. Close your eyes and listen.
- Talk to the editor and the cameraman. Try out the lines in the team
- Talk to yourself. Rise and fall, rhythm
- Finish. Go back and polish - “there is no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing” (Mark Twain)
.png)
