Storytelling and short video

Member lesson

The two-column script

Lesson 6 of 11 in Storytelling and short video.

Checked against the makers' documentation on 9 October 2026.

Lesson

The two-column script is a table. The left column says what the viewer sees, one row for each shot, and the right column says what they hear at that moment. Read across a row and you know exactly what is on screen and in the ear in the same second. Read down one column and you can check the pictures alone, or the sound alone, for sense. A narrow margin on the far left carries the running time.

alphabetone sound,one markabugidaconsonantcarries avowelabjadvowelsmostly leftoutlogographyone mark, onewordthe system decides how many shapes a reader has to learnand how many a type designer has to drawLatin needs a few hundred · Chinese needs tens of thousands
Alphabet, abugida, abjad and logography, by how much of a syllable one mark carries.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    In a two-column script, what goes in each column?

    • Left, what the viewer hears. Right, what they see
    • Left, what the viewer sees. Right, what they hear
    • Left, the shot list. Right, the budget
    • Left, the English. Right, the translation
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which common fault in short brand films does the two-column table catch?

    • A film that runs under fifteen seconds
    • A shot with too much space above the head
    • A voice and a picture saying the same thing
    • A super set in the wrong typeface
  3. Question 3, locked

    How should a row in the picture column be written?

    • As a camera would see it, with the shot size and the action
    • As a feeling, such as a moment of calm
    • As the line the voiceover will say
    • As a list of hashtags for the post

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