Writing for Visual Media

I chose this book as a textbook for a Media Writing class I taught last fall. What a valuable resource! Along with having a chapter about each of the genres of scripts I wanted to cover in class, the book also had chapters on foundational skills, such as writing for sight. As I told the students multiple times during the semester, this book was definitely worth the price. I suggested they keep it as a reference work rather than trying to get a few bucks by re-selling it.

book came in good condition

I didn't enjoy the class or book... Might be more due to the class than the book, however I didn't enjoy reading even though Visual Media is my trade and profession.

Delivered as described and on time. Thank you.

Text book for school-- fair price, fast arrival

Although the information is good the writing is redundant.

It's Okay

Writing for Visual Media is just that. It’s a comprehensive textbook. It begins by defining problems and solving communications problems using visual media. From there is tackles movies, TV shows, video games, documentaries, mobile media, and corporate communications to name a few.I write scripts for corporate communications, social media, and occasionally television commercials. While there are a plethora of books on screenwriting and some on playwriting, I have never really found a book that explains how to write effective corporate messages visually. Typically my task is to take memos or bullet points and turn those into a cohesive script aimed at a narrow audience. This book dedicates Chapter 6 to that task and I will use this review to explain that approach. This will give you an idea of how the whole book is formatted and give you specifics in a subgenre (corporate video) that is probably what you will do if you get a job in the video production field.As with most textbooks the history of the medium is a good portion of the lead-in to each chapter. For instance, the student might be surprised to learn that far more corporate video is created each year than broadcast video. When I began making corporate video in the 1990s we delivered the material on VHS tapes. In 2001 we bought our first DVD burner. By 2009 we were distributing files for playback via stream, or media player. The book talks about all of these formats to give you a background.A lot of what the book talks about we have been doing in an instinctual way. For instance it explains the importance of Formative Evaluation and Summative Evaluation when devising the message for a training video. We have never used those terms but we do those tasks. It also explains executive video messages and corporate meetings that need video support and how and why those assets are constructed.In my experience the most overlooked part of corporate video is entertainment value. Thankfully the text makes a good justification for it. Your message can be clear and still not be effective if the audience daydreams when you get into the minutia. I think it does a really good job of explaining Visual Metaphor. Turning words into pictures that relate to the audience will determine whether or not your message will work in a visual medium. I like the example of the video used where they took the visuals of an orchestra to explain the difficulties in construction contractors working in sync.From there the book goes into treatments and script formatting. The author feels that corporate video messages are more effective under 15 minutes and better yet 8-10 minutes. I have found this length even problematic unless the piece has enough entertainment or dramatic value to sustain it. In my opinion, attention drop off begins before 4 minutes if you don’t have a structure. If your messaging is much long than 5 minutes then you need a strong hook or you should consider segmenting your video into smaller pieces to be played over a length of time. This is particular effective when your video is an aid to a larger meeting talking about the message. When we were doing a weekly employee television show we ran 12-15 minutes, half of which were anchors talking about short news stories broken up by packages that took you to locations. By mixing up the format we were able to keep the audience’s attention of a longer span, but people still tended to watch the show in bits and pieces rather than straight through.In my opinion the textbook does a decent job of explaining how someone would put together scripts for corporate video. If there is one criticism it’s that the material is constructed in a way that feels too academic in language and style. You come away with an overview of the subject but you are a little bogged down in details about approach and are not given enough practicality to keep it stimulating. I found myself drifting a few times when the message was telling rather than showing. It’s the same issue that corporate video messages have, the balance between getting through the information without alienating the audience.This book also talks about writing for movies or television in much the same academic way. You’ll find more entertainment value in Sid Field for Save the Cast, but you won’t get the corporate video piece in the same book like you do here. If you were teaching a writing for visual media class this would be a textbook you should consider using at least in part.

Much of the book is devoted to forms other than the full length feature. I'm keeping the book because the information it does have on this subject is clear and concise - and helpful if you know little about screenwriting. I wouldn't have ordered it had I realized how (uselessly - for me,) comprehensive it is.