Learning How to Script a Training Video for Production

Producing a training video is something about 90% of business owners have considered at this point. Some will produce their own, while others will turn to pre-produced content that they can use in place of their own personally produced training videos. If you’re the type of business owner that’s interested in producing your own video, learning how to script a training video is something that you’re going to have to do right away as it’s one of the first major steps in the production process. 

Realistically, your team is only going to truly reap the rewards of a training video that is at least somewhat decently produced. Which means, you need to freshen up your script writing skills if you’re going to be successful with your production

Fortunately, writing a script isn’t necessarily very hard, although writing a great script that your employees are going to engage with and love just might be. Let’s just say, it takes practice!

Script Writing Basics: Prewriting

First and foremost, learning how to script a training video for production requires that you understand the basics of script writing. Many script writers like to perform a process that they refer to as “prewriting” in order to prepare to write the actual script. Think of the prewriting as the planning that is going to take place ahead of the script writing itself. 

You’re going to perform the following steps as part of your prewriting:

• Identify your target audience. Remember, if you try to appeal to everybody you’ll appeal to nobody!
• Identify the training goal that you wish to achieve with your video.
• Identify 3-5 objectives that will be covered in your video to help your audience meet the training goal.
• Identify your main character. 

If you thought that producing a training video would not require a “main character” you’re wrong! The purpose of coming up with a primary character is to encourage you to think about your training video script in story form. If you have a main character, then there must be a story behind who that character is, what they are doing in the story, and why!

Script Writing Basics:  Writing

After the planning items have been taken care of you should have a good idea of what you intend to write about ready. Learning how to script a training video is really about planning first and writing the story second. Your script is going to be in a sort of table format such that you have two columns: audio & visual. This way, you can begin to write out your script such that you can easily see what is going to be happening “visually” on the screen as well as what will be said as part of the narration or voiceover.

Begin by writing out your entire script. You should write first, and then later trim it up so that it meets your timing goals. Keep in mind that most training videos are about 3-5 minutes long and that you should be narrating in a conversational tone. A conversational tone in English is generally around 120-150 words per minute. So your training video script for a 5 minute video should be about 600-750 words. 

Additional Tips on How to Script a Training Video 

In addition to following the conversational tone and writing your script in table format, consider following these additional important tips to ensure the best outcome of your script:

• Speak to your audience directly. Using a conversational tone, speak using the words “you” and be personable with your audience. 
• Write as you would talk. This isn’t the time to write what looks best, it’s time to write what sounds best.
• Read your script out loud several times over. Read it to yourself. Read it to your friends. Read it to coworkers. Does it sound natural?

A well-written video script will make all the difference in how your training video turns out, so it’s important to take your time while writing and to revise, revise, revise until you get it just right. 

You’re looking for the following:

• A clean script that uses a conversational tone.
• About 120-150 words per minute.
• A key character that your audience can resonate with.
• A story that your audience can relate to.

You also want to be sure that you’ve got dialogue and visuals that together deliver the detailed information required to achieve the learning goals and objectives that you set in pre-writing. Think about your script in a way as if whoever is reading it for the first time has no idea what you’re trying to accomplish besides the goal that you set in the title. If they read the script, will they have everything they need to succeed? 

If you can say, “YES” to the above question, then you’re on the right track and probably ready to begin production of your script, but if not, it’s back to the drawing board (or the typewriter, if you will).

As you can see, learning how to script a training video for production is a process that requires some careful thought and planning, but with some practice you too can write a great script. Need help getting it just right? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call!