writing-video-scripts

Files (2)

• SKILL.md
• eval_cases.json · evals/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Video Script

Write the whole monologue first, to the video's total length, then cut it into one segment per clip.

## Workflow

### Step 1: Collect what the video has already fixed

These are decided before the script is written, and the writing has to fit inside them:

- **a brief of what the words should communicate** — the script is written from this, cut to fit the duration where it won't all fit
- how long the video runs in total
- how many clips it is, and how many seconds each one runs
- which beats of the story land in which clip — what happens on screen, not what gets said
- whether the words are spoken on camera or carried as a voiceover
- which claims may be made, if any

Where any of these is missing, ask for it rather than assuming it.

### Step 2: Work out the budget

Speech runs at a fixed pace, so the word count isn't a style choice.

- **Aim for 2-3 words per second of clip.** That is the target — a 15-second clip wants about 30 to 40 words.
- **Never go past three words per second.** That is the ceiling, and it is the number Step 6 tests
  against. A 15-second clip fails at 46 words.

The gap between the two is deliberate: it is room for the pauses, the breath and the beats where the
picture carries the moment. A segment written to the ceiling leaves none of that.

Add the per-clip budgets up against the total length before drafting anything. Where a segment runs
long, cut words. Never speed up the delivery, and never stretch the clip to fit the writing.

### Step 3: Write the hook

The first three seconds decide whether the rest gets watched, so write this line before any other.
- **It fits in three seconds** — six to ten words at speaking pace. The viewer has already decided by then, so a line that needs longer has arrived too late.

**Pick one pattern and commit to it.** These are the ones that recur across short-form:

- **Problem** — name a symptom the viewer is living with right now.
- **Contrarian** — contradict something the category takes as given.
- **Curiosity** — point at a specific thing they don't know and signal it's about to be answered.
- **Result first** — show the outcome with no explanation attached to it yet.
- **Social proof** — someone else's experience or number, often relayed rather than claimed. Only
  where real proof was supplied; otherwise this pattern is closed.
- **Scenario drop-in** — start mid-situation, already recognisable, with no setup.
- **Pattern interrupt** — an ordinary scene with one thing visibly wrong, played straight.
- **Listicle** — state a defined scope up front, so the viewer knows what they are committing to.

### Step 4: Write the monologue

**The hook from Step 3 is the first line.** Everything after it carries that same thought forward and finally closes the gap it opened.

**It has to sound spoken, not read.** If a viewer can tell the words are being read, the whole premise goes.

- Write the way people actually talk — contractions, sentence fragments, a thought that restarts, the occasional aside. Full, balanced sentences are the clearest sign of a script.
- **Specific beats general, every time.** A detail a viewer could check carries more than a general one. 
- **Make a point once.** Once a point has been made it is spent.

**Write only what can be said aloud.** Commas and full stops are what a reader turns into breath, so
punctuate with those. No dashes or em dashes; they are not spoken reliably. No brackets, no stage
directions, no speaker labels, no emoji.

### Step 5: Split it into segments

One segment per clip, each covering the beats Step 1 gave that clip. The finished video should sound
like one take cut into pieces, not several recordings played in order.

1. **Cut where the ear already hears a break** — the end of a sentence, a comma, the join between two
   clauses. A cut mid-phrase leaves one clip trailing off on a fragment and the next opening on one,
   and the join stops reading as continuous. Mid-sentence is fine; mid-thought is the point.
   Mid-phrase is not.
2. **Prefer fewer, longer segments.** Where two neighbouring sentences both fit inside one clip's
   budget, keep them together. Every seam is a chance to sound stitched, so make as few as the
   durations allow.
3. **Don't change the words at the seam.** Joined back in order, the segments have to reproduce the
   monologue exactly — nothing reworded, reordered, added or dropped to make a split land. If a split
   only works by rewriting, the monologue is wrong rather than the split: go back to Step 4.
4. **Only the first segment introduces anything.** Every later one picks up mid-thought — no
   greeting, no saying what the product is again.

### Step 6: Check every segment against its clip

Take each segment beside the clip it belongs to and test it. A segment that fails either test
gets rewritten, not shortened at the edges — then tested again.

- **Does it fit the seconds?** Count the words against that clip's budget from Step 2. Over budget is
  a rewrite: the delivery is never sped up and the clip is never stretched to fit the writing.
- **Does it match what is on screen?** The words have to belong to the beats that clip actually
  shows. A segment describing something the viewer isn't looking at reads as a voiceover pasted over
  the wrong footage, even when every line is good on its own.

Cutting frees budget. Spend it on a beat that earns it, or let the clip run quieter.

### Step 7: Hand the segments back

One segment per clip, in order, each tied to its clip.

Music is never added unless the user asks for it. Where they do, say so when handing back — that
request has to carry through into the clip prompts.

From SupercmoHQ/superCMO-skills, Apache-2.0.

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