My reply answers many of the questions people might have who are interested in video scriptwriting as a career.

1. COMMERCIAL OBJECTIVITY

   You are never lulled into I am creating art. From the start, your mindset is product-oriented -- just like Hollywood.

2. FLEXIBILITY

   One day it's financial practices for opticians, the next day childbirth -- you really learn to stretch (bad pun).

3. SEE THE WORLD

   You are thrust into an amazing mix of cultures, locations, and environments. Brick factories, surgical suites, land fills, high-tech plants, psych wards, paper mills, and on and on. This is the stuff from which screenplays are made.

4. THEATRICAL ELEMENTS

   Increasingly, I develop characters and dialogue for many of the corporate projects I work on. Even corporate stuff needs to be entertaining, so there's lots of opportunities to use humor. Training vignettes need real-life dialogue. Plus, unlike spec screenplay writing, you get to see the results on the screen.

   For an example of a theatrical industrial read the script, Protective Apparel Nightmare

5. PLAY WITH GENRES

   Many corporate videos rip off established TV genres. News magazines, MTV, mysteries, talk-shows, commercials, Mission Impossible. You get to have fun with this stuff.

6. OUTPUT

   You get over the blank page syndrome in a hurry. Grind it out or go broke.

7. MONEY

   The money is not great, but with enough clients, it can be livable. In Atlanta, a basic 8-10 minute script pays between $1000 and $1800. Three a month and you have a middle class wage plus time to write screenplays.

8. VISUALIZATION

   In screenplays, directorial elements are a no-no. If you know what you're doing, many corporate video producers expect you to specify shots, cut-aways, B-roll scenes, graphics, music, sound fx, etc. Good practice to learn the craft.

9. CONTACTS

   There's often cross-over between crew people who work in features and corporate. Many corporate producers aspire to make no-budget features.

10. A WORKING WRITER

    Big screen, small screen. You're actually writing for the screen, getting paid, and seeing finished product. Plus a resume full of Fortune 500 writing credits is better than no resume if you're seeking an agent.

1. HEAVY EXPOSITION

   The aim in corporate video is to make everything as clear and direct as possible. Screenplays impart information with subtlety - or even obscure or mislead. This was a terrible burden to undo when I started screenwriting.

2. RIGHT BRAIN/LEFT BRAIN

   The analytical/critical functions of corporate writing can burn out your poetic madness if overdone.

3. SALES & MARKETING INSTINCTS

   You need a real sense of selling and the marketplace for most corporate projects.

4. INFO-OVERLOAD

   You might be given a 12-inch stack of highly technical documents to absorb in 24 hours. You need to quickly know more about Acme Industries, their products, culture, and markets than the people who have spent 20 years there.

   The sections, Working from A Distance and Outlines give real-life examples.

5. BREAKING IN

   Freelance video writing is an obscure business. Many corporate producers write their own scripts, or even worse, their corporate clients write them. You need a resume and show-reel to be credible. But if you get a job with a production company and can write, in short course you'll be writing proposals, script copy, etc. etc.

6. FREELANCE INSECURITY

   Like any freelance world, it's feast or famine.

7. DUAL COLUMNS

   The dual column format of corporate A/V is a different kettle of fish than screenplays. The mechanics are much more cumbersome to format and to read.

   There is a discussion here on the dual-column format plus a good example of a theatrical-style video script using two columns.

8. NO HOW-TO'S

   There is an unending wealth of resources for learning how to write screenplays for the limited number of films that are actually produced. The opposite holds true for corporate video writing. Tons of stuff is produced, yet it's mostly a figure-it-out for yourself craft.

9. ALL WRITTEN OUT

   After you've put in eight hours writing about dental prosthetics, do you want to write a tender love scene?

10. HEART

    There is a school of thought that says success only comes to those who follow their heart. If your deepest yearning is to be a writer for the movies and not corporate videos, you may be condemned to follow your artistic dream.

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