| name | Viral-style reel |
| description | Turn raw footage into a punchy vertical (9:16) short — hook, jump cuts, zoom punches, trending captions, beat-aware rhythm. Use for "make this a viral reel / short". |
Viral-style reel
FIRST, follow the house rule in the build-in-kaestral skill: build everything ON the Kaestral timeline via tools (the user watches it happen), never render a standalone file, and finish with Kaestral's own Export. Every step below is a tool call — apply it, don't just describe it.
Your job: take what's on the timeline and turn it into a short-form vertical video that earns attention in the first 3 seconds and keeps it. Work in passes, visibly. Call get_timeline and get_media first so you know what you're working with.
0. Understand the footage FIRST (perception)
Don't edit blind. Before cutting, actually look and listen:
- Watch it:
see_video on the hero clip(s) (mode:"scene" to see distinct moments, or "interval" for an overview). You get real frames — read the subject, the framing, the action, and pick the strongest visual moment for the hook.
- Read it:
get_transcript on the spoken clip → word-level timestamps of everything said. Now you know the actual hook line, the payoff, and where the filler is — so cuts and captions land on real content, not guesses.
Use this understanding throughout: hook = the best moment you SAW or the best line you READ; captions = the real words; b-roll = illustrate what's actually said.
1. Set the frame (9:16)
set_project_settings with aspectRatio: "9:16" and quality: "1080p". This is the single most important framing move for reels.- If a clip is landscape and now letterboxed, reframe it:
apply_layout with full + fill so it covers the vertical frame (center-crop), or use set_clip_properties to scale/position the subject into frame. Keep faces/subjects in the upper-middle third.
2. Land the hook (first 3 seconds)
The opening 3s decides retention. Do at least one of:
- Cold open on the strongest moment. Find the most visually or verbally striking beat and move it to frame 0 with
move_clips (or split_clips + ripple_delete_ranges to cut the slow lead-in). Never open on dead air or "hey guys."
- Hook text.
add_texts a short, punchy line (3–6 words, e.g. "watch this till the end") at the top third, style it bold with a background box (see the caption-styles skill), animation popIn or wordPop. Keep it on screen ~1.5–2s.
- Punch-in on the hook. A subtle scale from 1.0→1.08 over the first ~10 frames (
set_keyframes on scale) adds energy.
3. Tighten the pace (jump cuts on pauses)
Short-form lives on tight cuts — remove every pause, filler, and dead beat.
- Auto jump-cut-on-pause: call
analyze_audio on the talking clip — it returns silenceRanges (dead-air, in project frames). Feed those ranges to ripple_delete_ranges to delete the pauses and close the gaps in sync. This is the highest-ROI edit for talking-head footage.
- Aim for a new visual event every ~1.5–3s: a cut, a zoom, a caption change, or a b-roll cutaway. If a clip runs longer than ~3s with no change, add one.
- Word-level cuts: with a transcript from step 0, cut specific filler words ("um", "uh", false starts, tangents) with
remove_words (by transcript index) — it ripple-deletes the exact word ranges and closes the gaps, the word-accurate version of pause cutting.
4. Add energy (zoom punches + retime + motion)
- Zoom punch on emphasis:
set_keyframes on scale from 1.0 to ~1.12 over 3–5 frames with interpolationOut: "smooth" (eases like a pro, not mechanical), then ease back. Punch in on reveals, punchlines, and the hook.
- Speed / retime:
set_clip_properties with speed — <1 for slow-mo on a peak moment (e.g. 0.5), >1 to blast through a slow stretch (e.g. 1.5–2). Both render in the export (video + pitch-corrected audio). Speed-ramp by splitting the clip and setting different speeds per segment.
- Ken Burns on stills/b-roll: keyframe
scale and position (smooth) for a slow drift so nothing sits static.
- Beat rhythm: if there's music, run the
beat-sync-cutting skill so cuts and punches land on the beat (uses analyze_audio).
5. Captions (retention driver)
Most short-form is watched muted — captions are non-negotiable.
- Follow the
caption-styles skill. Use add_texts with a bold style + background box, animation wordReveal or highlightPop, placed in the lower-middle (safe above the UI). Keep 2–5 words per screen.
- If the user gives the spoken text (or a transcript), lay captions in sync. If not, add key call-out phrases at the moments that matter.
6. Transitions + polish
- Between hard cuts of the SAME scene, keep it a straight cut (that's the short-form default — don't over-transition).
- Between SECTIONS, a quick cross-dissolve or a
generate_motion "Transition" stinger works. Auto-insert dissolves at cuts via the timeline's transitions action if the whole thing should feel smoother.
- Grade for punch:
apply_color a touch of contrast + saturation + a warm or cool push to unify the look (see creative-director). Extract the footage palette first with extract_palette so captions/graphics match.
7. Outro / loop
- End on a clear payoff or a loop-back to the hook. A short outro card (
generate_title) with a CTA ("follow for part 2") works. Keep it under ~1.5s.
8. Export from Kaestral
- Render the finished reel with
export_project(mode:"video") — this renders the CURRENT TIMELINE you just built, through Kaestral. Do NOT render a separate file with ffmpeg. If the user would rather export themselves, tell them to press Export in the app.
Checklist before you finish
Tell the user which of these you applied and which need input from them (e.g. the spoken transcript for word-accurate caption timing).
