Robert Ausura Writing

     "I want it to look like a music video," a client told me recently at a planning meeting. She knew exactly what she meant, but I didn’t.

     "Which music video?" I asked.

     "You know," she said, "like on MTV."

     She had the right idea: give the writer a model of what you want. But she wasn't being pecific enough. I asked her if she could give me the titles of a couple of music videos that she particularly liked. She hesitated, then agreed. Two days later, she telephoned. She had spent a few hours watching MTV with her two teenaged sons. Not only did she have a list of four music videos that she thought were "perfect," she had taped two of them for me. Now she was an informed consumer, and a helpful client.

     I never resent a suggestion to make a video I'm scripting "look like Access Hollywood" or "zany like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Specific models help me understand what the client likes and wants, and in fact I encourage my clients to build "clip files" of media examples.

     Clip files are common among folks in the print industry. Some periodical writers and designers I know have filled file cabinets with articles, sidebars, photos, graphics, cover designs—anything that catches their eye and inspires them. The same practice can help in other media as well. I have one clip file of humorous and inspirational anecdotes about writing, another bulging with dialogue I’ve heard and camera angles and effects I’ve seen in motion pictures, commercials and videos, another with "best of" lists clipped from trade publications and popular magazines.

     I'm not proposing plagiarism here. I'm suggesting that a collection of images, phrases, sound bites, graphics and other media knickknacks can be a useful resource when 1) you are looking for a way to communicate what you want to a writer, art director or video producer or 2) you are looking for an idea that might trigger your own imagination.

     To get started, just label a file folder "Clips" and slip it into a file drawer. Then, when you come across something you like, remember that folder is there. Oh, yes, and bring it to your next planning meeting.