When you plan to Create a Vid do you write it in a Script?

[TobinHood]

When I get an idea for a possible video I sometimes write it down, but my list of possible videos has grown endless and my list of actual videos should be larger with the help of my ideas list. As far as scripting it, when I find myself getting 2-3 seconds of work done in a couple hours I don't really see any time for me to put toward scripting even if it would help. I find it's better to just listen to the song and work instead.

[TekkaRepliroid Zero]

Having 3 out of my 4 vids lyricless, my vids have been scripted timesheet style. Of course there is always some deviation from the script as I get ideas while putting it together.
One can run into a challenge... in considering it being actually "completed".

[paladine]

I used a timeline script for my more complex ideas. If the video is going to be relatively simple then I just sit at my computer and chug away.

One thing that's cool about writing things down is that i don't always have to be at my computer to "edit". I can be anywhere and open up my notebook and think about different possibilities for the video. If one particular part didn't work on my computer i find it relaxing to think about it some place else on paper and think of other possibilies.

[ErMaC]

Some videos I script and others I don't. Often times I'll just let an idea be very freeform and take shape as I go along, other times I had a definate vision for every part of the video, other times it'll be somewhere in between.

Examples:

Soul of an Angel: Wasn't really storyboarded, was graphed. I counted # of measures and basically drew several different tracks on paper, each labelled like "fast layer" "melody layer" "refrain stills" "background" etc. Then I marked where they would start and stop. The actual imagery was not planned out, but the way they mixed together was.

Dual Opening: This needed no script because it was a shot-for-shot parody. Thus my "script" was the original Eva opening and I just found scenes to match.

The Anime Polka: No scripting here, did it all spur of the moment freeform. Came up with ideas of which series to use where first, and let it flow from there.

Cowboy Blues: This one wasn't scripted at all, because my original concept for it was so barebones that the video almost didn't happen. Once I finally got an expanded concept that would work, I listened to the whole song again and scripted it out in my brain, i.e. I listed to the song so many times that I knew exactly which scene would go where and went from that, so in a way it was scripted but not on paper.

Before I left for Japan I actually started scripting videos more. One of my AWA pro entries was heavily scripted for the whole first section, minorly for the latter two thirds although most of it was planned out.
My AWA Masters video was heavily scripted in my head ahead of time. I listened to the song on loop for like 3 days, while rewatching the series and ripping it.
However my other AWA pro entry was a "speed" video that I talked about in my journal a while back, so there was no scripting there really, and my new AWAExpo entry is a parody so there was no scripting there.

On older vids, The End of Me was scripted on paper, Life is But a Dream was scripted entirely in my head but the whole video was down shot-for-shot in my mind, since the planning stages on that one were in the neighborhood of months in length.
All my other vids not listed here involved no paper scripting. Some of them involved minor mental planning, but many just evolved as I worked because the scenes and editing just flowed from the concept and the video "made itself."

Currently since I'm in Japan and cannot edit, I've been listening to the songs I plan on doing AMVs to when I return a lot and am planning things out in my mind. I brought along the DVDs of a couple series I plan on using, so I may eventually start storyboarding them on paper here in Japan so I can get a jump start once I get back to my editing equipment, but what might happen is - like Life is But a Dream - I'll just know the whole combination so well that it won't be necessary.

[VegettoEX]

Like people have been saying, just keeping the song on repeat is probably one of the best "scripting"-type activities you can do. Rewatching the series is another great thing, if you can find the time!

In terms of actual pen-and-paper stuff, I've found it most useful to do WHILE working on videos. While scanning footage, listening to lyrics, etc. DURING the video making process, I'll come up with ideas that I think will work at some other portion of the video I'm not quite on yet. Put down some notes (ep. #s, times, lyrics to associate with, etc).

This helps later down the road when I'm doing the "OK, I need this *type* of scene, where they're in this *type* of position." By keeping some notes lying around, you've got something to refer to, when you KNOW you're going to forgot that ONE scene that's only three frames long in that episode that has nothing else you'd use :D

During the editing of our AWA submission, Meri and I had a good five or six full pages of notes lying around the dining room table during editing. Yes, FULL pages, back and front. It was a HUGE help, and I'm not sure if we'd have been able to do what we did without writing things down.

[KLin]

Well, I've noticed that scripting the song with the video can really help you save time if you really know how you want particular portions of the song to synch with a particular scene. I also employ the luck factor by first cutting and compiling the scenes that are going to be used in no particular order and just slosh them all together on the timeline and play the video with that mishmash. Quite often certain parts will match really well or almost really well and then you can add that into the script and fine-tune it when your script is done. While I'm creating the script I'm also listening to the song to be used constantly. When I put my mind to making a video I focus on that and only that... no outside distractions whatsoever, I've neglected sleep and eating while doing that because of concentration.