Format & Style

Hilliard’s Chapter 3 & Other

Sources
 Broadcast Script
Several basic script formats used in TV
and Radio:
 The single-column format (suitable for Radio)
 The single-column format used for screen plays and for
single camera TV shows
 The two-column TV format with video on the left and
audio on the right (sometimes the opposite ) is used for
multi-camera productions
 Final Production Scripts in Radio are two columns
 The film or screen format with each sequence
consecutively numbered.
 Steps of script preparation
 It begins with a Summary or an Outline (a
short overview of the script written in a
narrative form)

 The Treatment or Scenario (a more

detailed chronological run down of the
prospective giving information on the
setting/ plot characters and sometimes
examples of the dialogues)

 The Script (the development of the outline

representing the different basic formats)
Writing for Broadcast is not
the same as Writing for Print..
 “Write for the ear, Shoot for the eye,
Aim for the heart”!
 Writing for print is writing for the eye.

 Writing for broadcasting is mainly

writing for the ear. It is designed to be
spoken and to be heard.
 Writing for Broadcast is not the
same as Writing for Print..
 In the print, a reader can go back and
reread a sentence. If a sentence isn't
understood in a TV production, however,
the meaning is lost.
 The big thing in broadcasting is that
people only get one chance to hear what
you say
Broadcast: Style
 Broadcast Style
1.Be brief.
 Broadcast writing is constrained with
time. video scripts use short, concise,
direct sentences – remove any
unnecessary words.
 Remember: “In broadcast, one important
decision is not what to include but what
you have to leave out”
Broadcast Style
2.Write in informal and conversational style
3.Tell-a friend-technique:
-Think of Radio & TV communication process as
one-to-one (Imagine the specific audience you
need.
The material should be written as if the presenter
is sitting in the viewer's living room making the
presentation.
4- Personalize to reach the specific audience intended &
to relate the style and content of writing to that audience.
5- Be natural
Broadcast Style
2.Write in informal and conversational style
3.Tell-a friend-technique:
-Think of Radio & TV communication process as
one-to-one (Imagine the specific audience you
need.
The material should be written as if the presenter
is sitting in the viewer's living room making the
presentation.
4- Personalize to reach the specific audience intended &
to relate the style and content of writing to that audience.
5- Be natural
Broadcast Style
Grammar:
 the writer should use proper and effective grammar,
especially in news/ documentaries/ features + non-
dramatic programs
 In drama slang/ incorrect grammar can be used.

 Slang can be appropriate for a given commercial or in

the continuity of a personality
 If the proper grammar creates a stilted sentence or
phrase difficult to read, then short cuts are required
Verbs:
 Use the present tense and active voice

 Be conversational
Broadcast Style
Use Few Numbers:
Numbers when read out loud, can easily
confuse.
UNACCPABLE: The proposed budget for
the 2022-2023 fiscal year calls for 2 million
pounds in property tax relief for the 300-
thousand property owners.
ACCEPTABLE: Next year budget calls for 2
million pounds in property tax relief.
Broadcast Style

 Put the Title before the name.

UNACCEPTABLE: Boutros Ghali, the former

United Nations secretary general, says…..
ACCEPTABLE: Former United Nations
secretary general Boutros-Ghali says..
Broadcast Style
 Attribution should come at the
beginning of sentences
 We don't hang attribution on the end of a
sentence. That's print style, and it violates a
basic rule of broadcast writing: Attribution
precedes statement.
 (e.g., According to President Obama...")
rather than at the end, which is common in
newspaper writing.
 Broadcast Style
 Don’t use quotation marks.
 It is better to paraphrase a quote, or when the exact
words re required, write something like: “what he
termed”, “as he put it”, “in his words” to alert the listener
that it’s a quote.
 Broadcast use dash in place of parentheses( a
colon, or a semicolon.
 We also use dashes or ellipses for pauses.
 For example: At stores like this one, you can buy
anything from food---to clothes---to shoes.
 For emphasis underline the word or sentence and for a
questioning tone use (?)
Broadcast Style
Abbreviations:
Avoid abbreviations except in:
a) Common words that can’t be mispronounced such as
Dr./Mr./Prof.
b) Terms that are usually pronounced in their
abbreviations such as CIA/ NASA….etc.
c) Some common terms that frequently are seen as
abbreviations, but always are pronounced in full should
not be abbreviated e.g. Monday/ February
Punctuation:
They are more functional in broadcast scripts than in any
other type of writing
 Some Common Script’s
Abbreviations

 TRT: Total Running Time (time of the

story)
 In-cue & Out-cue (the beginning and
ending words in VO, or SB)
 ANNCR: announcer
 KEY: electronic overlay of titles, credits or
other video sources over background video
 EXT and INT: exterior and interior settings
 VO (voice over): narration heard at higher volume than music
or background sound
 OSV (off-screen voice): voice from a person not visible to the
audience
 POV (point of view). Dramatic scripts may indicate that a shot
will be seen from the point of view of a particular actor.
 OS (over-the-shoulder shot): The picture shows the back of a
person's head and possibly one shoulder with the main subject
in the distance facing the camera. This is also designated as
O/S and X/S is designated for cross shot.
 SB (sound bite) is the exact words spoken by someone in his
or her own recorded voice.
 Some Common Script’s
Abbreviations
 MIC: microphone (pronounced "mike").
 On mic: the performer speaks right at the mic
(used in a radio script)
 Off mic: the performer is distance away from
the mic (used in a radio script)
 POV (point of view)
 OS (over-the-shoulder shot)
 SFX or F/X (special effects): special effects