A template saves you from re-deciding structure each time, so your thinking goes into the content. Each one below is a beat sheet for a 9:16 video of 20 to 45 seconds. A beat is a unit of meaning, so it works as a slide, a block of text or a spoken line.
Use the timings as defaults and adjust after you have made a few dozen.
1. The correction#
Job: replace a belief your audience holds with a better one. If you learn one template, learn this.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Common belief | 0 to 3 | State it plainly, in their words |
| Contradiction | 3 to 6 | It is wrong or incomplete, in one sentence |
| Why it seemed true | 6 to 13 | The reason people believe it |
| Better model | 13 to 24 | What is actually going on |
| Action | 24 to 30 | One thing to do differently |
Skeleton: “Everyone says [advice]. It answers a different question. [Advice] made sense when [condition], and that stopped being true when [change]. What decides [outcome] is [real factor]. So instead of [old action], do [new action].”
Fails when: you skip beat three. Without it, the video reads as an attack on the viewer.
2. The list with a spine#
Job: deliver several items and still feel like one video. The spine is one idea that every item illustrates.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Spine | 0 to 4 | The idea as a claim, plus the count |
| Item 1 | 4 to 10 | Most surprising first |
| Items 2 and 3 | 10 to 20 | |
| Item 4 | 20 to 26 | Most useful last |
| Spine again | 26 to 30 | Restate in one changed line |
Fails when: there is no spine. Four unrelated tips is a reference document, and people read those, they do not watch them.
3. The teardown#
Job: read a piece of evidence and say what it means. The native fit for green screen videos, and credible because the viewer can check you.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Name the document | 0 to 3 | What is on screen and why it matters |
| Obvious reading | 3 to 8 | What most people take from it |
| The detail | 8 to 18 | The line or number that changes the reading |
| Implication | 18 to 26 | What it means for the viewer |
| The check | 26 to 30 | How they can verify it |
Fails when: the evidence is not legible on screen, or not real. Never fabricate the document.
4. The objection handler#
Job: answer the reason someone did not buy, without a pitch.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Objection, quoted | 0 to 4 | Their exact words |
| Agreement | 4 to 9 | The part that is correct |
| Reframe | 9 to 20 | The real worry, named |
| Resolution | 20 to 28 | How that worry is handled, concretely |
| The limit | 28 to 33 | Who this is still not for |
Fails when: you drop the last beat. The limit makes the rest believable, and it filters out buyers who would leave.
5. The compressed process#
Job: show how something is done, fast enough to feel doable.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| End state | 0 to 3 | Show the result first |
| Starting point | 3 to 6 | What you had before |
| Steps | 6 to 26 | 3 to 5 steps, one verb each |
| The catch | 26 to 32 | The step that is harder than it looks |
| Real time | 32 to 35 | How long it actually takes |
Fails when: the time claim is optimistic. The viewer who tries it and fails was your most interested viewer.
6. The decision#
Job: a small, true story that shows a person behind the account.
| Beat | Seconds | Content |
|---|---|---|
| The choice | 0 to 4 | Two options and the moment you had to pick |
| Stakes | 4 to 10 | What each one cost |
| The pick | 10 to 16 | And why, in one sentence |
| What happened | 16 to 26 | Including what went badly |
| The rule | 26 to 32 | What you do now |
Fails when: nothing went wrong. A decision with no cost is a brag.
Adapting a template to a format#
The beats stay the same. The delivery changes.
- Slideshow: one beat per slide. Make the last slide point back to the first so the loop works.
- Wall of text: two or three beats per frame, held long enough to read. See text-based video formats.
- Green screen: each beat points at a part of the document. Template 3 fits best.
- Voiceover or presenter: speech runs at about 2.5 to 3 words per second, so a 30-second video holds 75 to 90 words.
The last point is where most scripts go wrong. A script that reads well on the page is usually too long when spoken. Write to the word count.
Do not run one template for a month#
If every video is a correction, viewers learn your shape and can predict beat two from beat one.
Keep any one template to about a third of a batch. When you review scripts, label each with its template number before you judge the writing. If the labels match, the batch is not ready.
Using templates with Looptake#
Looptake’s AI video generator writes the hook and script from a one-sentence prompt, then picks a viral format, visuals, voiceover and captions. You can still steer the structure: name the template in your prompt (“a correction video about…”) and edit beats in the scene editor before you render. For a presenter reading the script, see AI avatars and influencers.
For beat one of every template, read how to write video hooks. For briefing a model to fill these templates, read AI script writing for short form.