Evidence shows that if you want people to watch your film it has to be short – the shorter the better. The reality is many corporate films are now watched at the desk (while checking emails) or on mobile devices, so your film needs to grab people immediately.

A good technique when writing scripts is the ‘Inverse Pyramid’ in which you hit your audience with the one thing they need to remember first, then important details and lastly the background info. It is often used by journalists and can clearly be seen in newspaper headlines.

The problem is that many reports, presentations and videos start with the background and take ages to get to the point.

So when you are looking at the structure and content of your next communication here are our suggestions:

1. Write down the one thing that you want people to remember and get this up front in a ‘headline’ style.
2. Be ruthless about stripping out content. At every stage ask yourself ‘is this essential?’
3. Direct people to follow up sources of information so you don’t have to cover everything in the film. Your film can be like a 60 second advert that directs people to find out more from other company sources – like follow-up emails, websites or face-to-face meetings.
4. Avoid including lots of background – that’s old news. Talk about what is new.
5. If you are filming business leaders use an auto-cue so you can control what they say. If you ask someone to talk for 30 seconds without one they will often talk for way more than you need them to.
6. A script for a 60 voice-over will typically be about 120 words long. It is really hard to get your message across in so few words – but if you succeed your film will be great!

We have lots of experience of helping clients to hone their message. If you would like to talk to us about how we can help you, drop us a line!

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