---
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:

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.