Most of my work writing for video has been for explainer videos and ads. Frequently, these are used at conferences and trade shows as booth art—looping visual content with the purpose of attracting an audience to the booth, where technical experts then take over the conversation.
When writing for video, I work closely with the audio/visual team involved in the project to ensure that the words—whether visible on screen or heard from a voice actor—align with the visual message being created. I want to ensure that both components play an important role in the message and that the final product is more than the sum of its parts.
Videos like this longer ad for grid modernization services are more public. The goal of this video is to explain that the company offers consulting services from the design/conception phase of a project to completion and beyond.
I wrote the script read by the voice actor and worked closely with the video team to align words with intended animations.
Grid modernization involves many new technologies that utility technicians and engineers are not always trained in. Consultation services like this can be huge time and money savers for customers, with contracts lasting for years up to project completion and years afterward for continued support. A video like this is meant to grab the attention of even the least technical decision-maker and drive them to a contact form.
Alternatively, a short video ad may also drive non-technical and technical decision-makers to contact forms and other content.
This brief ad for the Rayburn Customer Story highlights the primary benefits the customer gained by partnering with SEL—most notably, the ability to construct many new substations at a previously impossible pace.
And, this brief ad for the SEL-787Z High-Impedance Differential Relay combines text on screen, a device render, and a YouTube video description to convey the most important differentiators between this and other high-impedance relays (form factor, communications, and the touch screen).
