At Rooftop, we understand how words can move hearts, change minds and get results.
We know how to handle difficult or sensitive topics with care. Whether we’re managing a global health campaign, advocating for journalists’ safety, or raising awareness about child marriage, we make sure that our approach not only meets our clients’ expectations but deals with the issue in a way that is engaging, impactful and ensures the dignity and safety of everyone involved. We care about the stories we tell.
They are the stories I used to dream of telling.
As a young girl, I used to respond to the world in words, writing poetry or stories when I was moved by big events… such as Halley’s Comet making its once-every-76-years appearance or the Challenger space shuttle bursting in flames. I wrote about the loss of three school friends in a tragic accident. And many other things.
I saw how words could move people.
I grew up and made a career out of writing, reporting on daily news, a mix of tragic, uplifting and drab, trying to be as impartial and accurate as possible.
But what I yearned for was to tell the stories the world really needed to hear.
I got that opportunity at Rooftop.
Being a scriptwriter at Rooftop is so much more than putting words on paper
We care as much as our clients about telling the right story in the best way possible.
Our clients – most from the UN and other intergovernmental agencies – are striving to make the world a better place in the areas that really do matter most: education, health, water and sanitation, food and many others. They’re responding to emergencies, working to combat climate change and end ongoing conflicts – and they’re striving to support resilient communities and sustainable practices.
Apart from advocating for change in boardrooms and conferences, and working alongside communities in the field, they’re also using tools that can best reach the ears and eyes of the world – and a lot of that involves content for social media.
Writing a video script (or any other piece of content) for any of our clients starts with conversations, questions and critical research.
We need to understand the problem our client is trying to fix, the key messages they’re hoping to get across, the audiences they’re trying to reach, and the impact they’re hoping to achieve. What do they want their audiences to think, feel and do?
And once we know all that, we can start figuring out the best way to tell their story, the right concept and style. And this will vary from project to project.
It might take the form of a stop motion video – where a little girl (made out of clay) uses the tools in her backpack to fight the challenges in her country to fulfill her hopes for an education.
It could be a letter to encourage refugees around the world, voiced by a refugee herself.
It could be an animation, telling the story of a child soldier.
When the message is quite technical, such as improving girls’ access to menstrual health and hygiene, it could be a mix of interview footage, facts and stats.
It could even be an AI bot, working to help people improve their health by cutting down on their alcohol consumption.
The tone we choose – whether it’s emotive, poetic, hard-hitting, quirky or technical – has to match the client’s messages and goals.
It guides the words we choose, and the visuals, music, and graphics that follow.
Straight-forward facts can easily be told through on-screen text, whereas the struggle of communities battling challenges is best told through a narrative, following the story of an individual or family, sometimes real-life; or if we use fictitious scenarios, always based on research and facts. We want our videos to be as authentic as possible.
No story is the same – and no script is either.
At Rooftop, I am just one of many writers. We all have different ideas, different ways with words, different strengths.
But whether our scripts are one-minute social media videos or long-format films, they all have one thing in common.
They are powered by the purpose behind them. And, ultimately, they’re all written with the hopes of making a difference in the world – and getting the measurable results our clients set out to achieve.
It’s not just our clients who want to make the world a better place.
