Script Writing Services for Video, Ads and Documentaries, Written by a Publisher

This page covers the scripts that sit behind video and recorded sound for businesses, organizations and authors:

• Explainer and brand films
• Promo and launch videos
• Ad scripts, short and long
• Short documentaries and interview-led films
• Training, onboarding and corporate video
• YouTube and social video
• Book trailers
• Voiceover narration for any of the above

Some script work is a different job with a different format and a different price, and you'll get better help from the page built for it.

• A feature film, TV pilot or short film: feature screenplay writing covers outline, treatment and draft in industry format, from $6,500 for a feature.
• Stand-up, sketch or sitcom: comedy script writing is its own craft, with its own timing.
• Podcast episodes and series: podcast scriptwriting handles episodes, hosts and show structure.
• A speech or keynote delivered live to a room: speech writing is written for a speaker and an audience, not a camera.
• Lyrics and songs: songwriting is a different discipline from narration.
• A finished book read aloud: audiobook production covers narrator casting and studio work.

An explainer carries one idea. The opening says plainly what the viewer is about to learn, and every sentence after that earns its seconds. The most common mistake is a script written like a web page, long on adjectives and short on pauses. Narration needs far fewer words per minute than most clients expect, because the pictures need room and a narrator needs to breathe. If the script feels thin on paper, it's often about right on screen.

A 15, 30 or 60 second spot has room for one claim and one call to action. The writing job is deciding which claim and cutting everything that competes with it. Claims in an ad need support behind them, and legal or platform review of that wording is yours to arrange, which we cover in the section on what depends on you.

A documentary script is built from what exists: interviews, archive material, footage and the facts behind them. The structure comes from the material, and narration is written to add what the picture can't, not to repeat it. Stories about real people and real issues deserve plain, accurate language, so we keep the claims modest and the quotes exact. If an interviewee said "we nearly closed in 2019", the script says that, not "faced total collapse". The people in the film will watch it, and so will their families, and they'll notice every inflated line. Clearing rights to quoted material, archive footage and music is your responsibility, and we'll flag where it looks necessary.

Training scripts depend on sequence. One task per module, steps in the order a person actually does them, and plain words for tools and terms that a new hire may not know yet. A good one reads like a patient colleague talking, not a policy manual. It also leaves room on screen for the thing being demonstrated, which means the narration can't talk over the moment a viewer is trying to watch a button being clicked. Writing for that means knowing what the picture will show, so tell us early if you already have screen recordings or a shoot plan.

The first few seconds decide whether anyone stays, so the opening gets the most attention in the draft. We write the hook, the body and the ending that sends people to the next step. Short social cuts of a longer film usually need their own scripts rather than a trimmed copy, because a line that works at minute three of a documentary often needs context when it opens a thirty second clip. We don't promise views, because nobody can honestly promise those.

The test every script should pass is simple: read every line aloud, at speaking pace, before it leaves the building. Sentences that looked fine on the page run out of breath halfway through. A string of three place names that nobody can say twice in a row turns up. A "which" clause piles a second thought onto the first, and a voice can't carry it the way an eye can. Numbers are worse: "1,250" has three ways to be spoken, and a narrator shouldn't have to choose on the day. Fixing these at the draft stage is cheap, and fixing them in the recording booth isn't.

Here's a small illustration, invented for this page and not from any client. A first draft might say: "Our platform, which was designed for teams that have outgrown spreadsheets, helps you manage 1,250 active projects across 14 offices." Out loud that sentence has a clause hanging in the middle, a number that could be said three ways and a second number competing with it. The version for the ear splits it: "Outgrown your spreadsheets? Our platform was built for exactly that. It keeps every project in one place, whether you run twelve or twelve hundred." Same message, three breaths, nothing a narrator has to decide on the day.

Runtime comes before the first draft. A 30 second ad and a ten minute documentary are different shapes, and the number of words a minute can hold depends on the voice, the pictures and how much silence the piece needs. A fast, bright read fits more in. A grave or quiet one fits less. A screenplay is the one format with a rule of thumb, roughly a page per minute of screen time, and even that is widely contested. For narration, we set the length with you, write to it, and mark up the delivery version so the person recording knows where the breaths and the emphasis fall.

A style sheet records the decisions a script makes about names, numbers and terms, so "Dr." doesn't become "Doctor" in scene four. An editor reads against your source documents for the things that go wrong in long projects: a name spelled two ways, a figure that changed between versions, a claim the source doesn't support. Then comes a proofread of the final file, so the on-screen text matches the narration word for word. The same attention is available separately through proofreading.

• Runtime. More minutes mean more script and more passes.
• Research and source material. An explainer drawn from a one page brief is a lighter job than a documentary built from hours of interviews.
• Voices. One narrator is simpler than a conversation between four speakers.
• Format. Single column narration is quicker to produce than a two column script with on-screen text and picture notes.
• Revisions. More rounds of notes means more work.
• Dramatization. A scripted scene with characters is a different job from narration over footage.

For a feature film, our pricing page says: "Screenplay from $6,500 for a feature. Outline, treatment and draft in industry format." The details are on the screenplay page.

We read what you have, then send one number in writing. It doesn't move unless the brief does, and we don't bill by the hour. That's easier on a budget than an open-ended hourly arrangement, because you can approve a figure before any writing starts, and a producer can fold it into a wider production budget. If you'd like to compare us with other publishing services first, see every published price.

A script in an agreed format, timed to a length, with a version marked up for delivery, edited and proofread. That's the whole product. It's a written document that a producer, a voice and a director can pick up and use.

A script is the blueprint. A producer builds the house. The following parts of a video project sit outside the writing, and they decide a good deal about how the finished piece turns out.

• A clear brief and a named audience. "Everybody" is not an audience.
• Your approvals, on time. A script held in review for six weeks usually comes back with new people and new opinions.
• Legal and compliance review. If the script makes a claim about a product, a result or a person, someone qualified on your side needs to check it.
• Rights to music, footage and quoted material. These are yours to clear. If you want to protect your own script as a written work, read what the Copyright Office says about registering a script with the U.S. Copyright Office, whose registration pages list scripts among the kinds of work it registers. For a specific situation, a lawyer should advise you.
• Casting the voices. Choosing who speaks the lines is a separate decision.
• Filming, animation and editing. That's the producer's job.
• Whether the video gets seen. Distribution and audience are outside any script.

We don't promise views, leads, sales, a screenplay sale, an option or a production. And if what you need is a producer rather than a writer, we'll tell you so. We'd rather turn down a job than do it badly.