Getting better at evaluating TV ad scripts

So a round of script presentation has just gotten over, and the agency team is looking around the room, trying to gauge reactions. The client starts speaking: one element in one script doesn't seem right. He rejects that script. And the downward spiral begins.

Somehow after multiple rounds, a script is approved, and everyone leaves the conference room happy. But when the final ad film is presented, the mood is not as exuberant. Because "the film didn't come out as expected".

So what can be done about it?
Most marketers haven't been through a film-development process, so they don't know what to expect at the intermediate stages. Here is what can help them:

1. Train yourself to visualise an ad from a scriptPick up your favourite movie and look up its script online (one source: The Internet Movie Script Database). For me, it was with 'The Matrix'. But even if it's not a sci-fi film, there will be a lot 'not said' in the script that gets added in the film.

Another option is to read a book that later got made into a movie. Notice how storytelling differs as words and as scenes. The Harry Potter book series, and 'Song of Fire and Ice' series (made into Game of Thrones) can serve as recent references. This will familiarise you with how the script that you are listening to, may look like as the final product.

2. Watch a lot of ads and show-reelsAd film directors, just like movie directors, have their unique way of storytelling. Thus, watching show-reels will get you a sense of how the director would treat the script.

3. Read comic booksSince most popular comic book characters have been around for decades, we can compare how storytelling changes from comics, to animation, to movies, and to TV series. The idea is to see variety rather than linear thinking. At the very least, it broadens our imagination for visualising the scripts.


And, still, the final result could be different!That can still happen, because non-creative people like you and I, go for the familiar, while the creative guys will go for new, different, and unique. But, the output won't come as a shock, rather an improvised version of what you already expected.

Anyway, our objective is to get the right direction, not direct the ad sitting in our armchairs.