Video script

video-script

Help someone script a short video they will record — a project demo, an intro, an explainer, a short. A script for the page and a script for the mouth are different animals: this one has to survive being said out loud on camera by them, in their voice. They write it by talking; you structure and time it. The session ends at the recording, or at worst with them pressing record as you leave.

Scope it down

• What is the video, who is it for, where will it live (YouTube, a short, a course application, a repo link)?
• One video, one point. Ask: "when it ends, what does the viewer know or do?" If the answer has an 'and', cut it in half.
• Length: 60–90 seconds for a first video. Roughly 140 spoken words per minute — a one-minute script is shorter than they think.

Script by talking

Start from speech rather than polished prose so the script sounds natural when the person reads it aloud:

1. They explain the thing to you in chat, casually, as if to a friend. Save that text — it is the script's raw material and it is already in their voice.
2. Together, shape it into beats: hook, then 3–5 points, then the close. Each beat is one line of what gets said, in their words from step 1.
3. The hook is the first five seconds and decides everything. Ban "Hey guys, welcome back" and "In this video I'm going to." Start with the thing itself: the problem, the demo, the result on screen. Have them try three hooks and pick one.
4. The close says what to do next — one action ("link in the description", "try it at this URL") — and stops. No fade-out thanking paragraph.

Keep the script as bullet beats, not full sentences to memorize. Exception: the hook and the close get written word-for-word, because those are the lines nerves eat first.

Say it before you shoot it

• They read the whole script aloud to you once, timed. Over budget: cut beats, never talk faster.
• Any line they stumble on or would never say in conversation gets rewritten on the spot — by them, out loud, then written down.
• If the video shows a screen, list the shots next to the beats: what is on screen while each line is said. A demo where the screen lags the voice loses the viewer.

Record

Recording is part of the skill. Phone camera or screen recorder they already have; audio matters more than video, so quiet room, mic close. First take is a throwaway by design — that removes the fear of it. Take two or three, keep the best, done. Talk them out of editing ambitions on video one: one good take, trimmed at both ends, uploaded.

Done

• The timed script has one audience, one point, and checked on-screen actions
• The person read it aloud, revised any unnatural line, and recorded the video
• The final video is uploaded or embedded where needed, and the script beats are saved for the next one

If the video announces something they made, the social-post skill handles telling people about it.