TALKING REALLY FAST AND OTHER TRICKS TO FIT ALL THE RELEVANT INFORMATION INTO A TWO MINUTE VIDEO
We've already talked about playing to the short attention spans inherent to the internet video world, but it can be tricky to actually fit everything you want into a short video.
Even professional screenwriters often say that it's very hard to get what they want into a movie, and those guys have an hour and a half to work with. There are, however, some invaluable tricks of the trade to slimming everything down.
WHAT REALLY IS RELEVANT?
First of all, what information do you need to get across? If you're hoping to get it all out in a single viral video, then you should be able to write it all down on a single index card. From there, it's just a matter of figuring out how to say it convincingly.
This applies to comedy videos, too. The perfect joke has just enough words, and not one extra. It is a process of transmitting information. For example...
Q: What has four legs and a pair of wings?
A: A dog. I lied about the wings.
The information you need to get across here is that, firstly, there's an animal with four legs and wings, and secondly, that it's a dog, and you were lying about the wings. The joke is told quickly because all you really need to do is get that information across. It doesn't matter if the dog is black, if he has a spot around one eye, it doesn't matter what breed he is. All that matters is that it's a dog.
The same goes not only for jokes, but storytelling, as well. For example, if two characters are talking at a party, there's no reason for them to chat about the host, or even mention the host by name, unless the host is also an important character in the story.
Basically, just write down what's relevant, and build the script around that, without one scene extra.
TRIMMING THE SCRIPT
To trim things down with writing, you really just want to use as few words as possible to say what you need to say. Obviously, you don't want to completely sacrifice eloquence and wind up with an advertisement video that just says "This product good! You buy!" (then again, that could be a hot viral video idea right there), but if you can say something in one sentence, then don't use a full paragraph to say it.
Cut out any repetitive dialog. If you have any repetitive dialog, go ahead and cut it out. When people keep saying the same thing over and over again in different ways, you want to go ahead and delete that. Er, we mean to say that you should really try not to repeat yourself.
TRIMMING THE VIDEO
Robert Rodriguez, director of Sin City and Spy Kids is well known for the fast pace of his movies. He always seems to be able to trim what should be a three hour film into an hour and a half. The way he does it is kind of a cheap trick, but it makes perfect sense: He just keeps shaving every shot down. You'd be surprised how much time you can cut off a video by scratch off a second here, two seconds there and half a second over here. Say the average shot length for your five minute video is five seconds long. If you can shave one second off of each shot, you can trim it down to four minutes.
Then you can just go ahead and cut out any useless shots, any shots that don't really help get your point across. Cut any of the jokes that aren't funny, any shots that just plain seem weird and out of place. You really do have to be merciless here. Making a great video is more about cutting stuff out than it is about putting stuff in.
SHOW, DON'T TELL
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Anything you can show, show it, don't just talk about it.
If you want a great example, look up some Billy Mays videos and look at how he pitches products. When advertising Mend-It, a product that works like a sort of super-super-glue, he doesn't just talk about how strong it is, he goes up in an airplane and patches a skydiver's parachute with it. It's a great visual aid and it saves him a lot of time. He doesn't have to sit there explaining that it could, theoretically, safely patch a parachute. Instead, he proves it.
You might not be able to go rent an airplane and get a skydiver to trust you with his life like that, but the point remains, it's quicker and more effective to show rather than to tell.