From the course: Corporate Video Essentials: Preproduction

Creating a shooting script

From the course: Corporate Video Essentials: Preproduction

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Creating a shooting script

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- Well you know there's a lot of debate in our industry in the non-fiction world whether or not we should go out with a shooting script. It might seem too prescribed. It might seem like you're not really letting anything happen by chance or by serendipity. Everything is going to be so formulaic. And I totally understand that. I definitely can see a disadvantage in feeling like you write a shooting script and then have to do absolutely everything exactly like the shooting script. So that's not what I'm recommending, but I am recommending putting pen to paper, putting type to typewriter, whatever method you like to do and have something on paper so you have some sense of the flow of the story. And here's why. By putting it on paper, by figuring out maybe what sound bites are going to cover what topics or what B-roll shots you're going to need, almost inevitably, you're going to suddenly realize, uh oh, I'm missing something. There's a transition here. How am I going to cover that transition? Or what if we don't get a sound bite from this person? Is there an alternate person? Could I ask both people the same question just to be sure I'm covered on that topic? It basically allows you to see around corners on your shoot. And that's what you've got to do because probably, because we're in non-fiction world, you can't bring all the actors back to the set for a re-shoot. This is going to happen one time and one time only. So you really got to nail it the first time. - So we've got this. - So, there we go. - We got that. - Hmm hmm. - We got that, and then, I just got my page. We got some product shots. - There we go. - So the only thing we might want to do is the food grade. - Hmm hmm. - Just. I'm going to talk to him about how to distinguish that, like in the footage. - Gotcha. - To me, it looks all the same, but it's in a slightly different room, so, also, can you just put, get a shot of the personal protective equipment 'cause that's the whole, this is all about safety, so let's get a little shot of that. - So the shooting script just gives you that roadmap, that blueprint. Doesn't mean you can't adapt, but it does mean it gives you a little bit of comfort to know you've covered all your bases.

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