| name | video-script |
| category | write |
| description | Script a video they will actually record. Hook, beats, words they'd say out loud, rehearsed once. Use when they say "help me script a video", "I need to record a demo", or want to make a short or walkthrough. |
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
