---
name: edit-a-short
category: media
description: Cut a watchable 30-60 second vertical video from their footage. Hook in the first two seconds, tight cuts, captions on. Use when they say "make this a short", "edit this into a reel", or have raw phone footage worth posting.
---

# edit-a-short

Edit a short vertical video with someone, from footage
they already shot — a project demo, a skate clip, a cooking attempt,
whatever is on their phone. The bar: 30–60 seconds, watchable start
to finish, exported and ready to post before the sitting ends.

## Ground rules

- Their footage only. Nothing pulled from elsewhere, no stock
  b-roll pretending to be theirs. If the footage is thin, a shorter
  video is the answer.
- Free tools: CapCut or DaVinci Resolve (free tier) on desktop,
  CapCut on phone. Use whichever they have or can install fastest.
  The edit matters more than the editor.
- Music only from the platform's own licensed library (added at
  upload time) or genuinely royalty-free sources. Never rip a track.
- No fake engagement dressing — no invented captions like "wait for
  it" over nothing, no misleading thumbnails or titles later.

## The edit

1. Watch the raw footage with them once, all of it. Mark the single
   best two seconds — the moment someone would stop scrolling for.
   That moment opens the video. Context comes after, or never.
2. Cut ruthlessly. Every dead second between actions goes. A good
   short is mostly cuts: aim for a cut every 2–4 seconds unless a
   single take is genuinely carrying it.
3. Frame vertical 9:16. If the source is horizontal, crop to the
   action, or stack a punch-in. Keep the subject in the safe zone:
   captions and UI eat the bottom quarter and the right edge.
4. Captions on everything spoken. Auto-generate in the editor, then
   fix every word by hand — auto-captions mangle names and slang.
   Big, high-contrast, two lines max, centered above the bottom
   quarter. (The captions-and-subtitles skill goes deeper.)
5. Sound: level the voice so it is clearly above any music. If music
   is added in-editor, duck it under speech. Watch once with sound
   off — it should still make sense — and once at phone-speaker
   volume.

## Export

- Start with 1080x1920, source-matching frame rate, and H.264 MP4, then verify
  the current official format, duration, safe-area, and eligibility rules for
  the destination platform before export.
- Name the file something findable and keep the project file — they
  will want to re-cut.

## Done

- A vertical MP4 that meets the destination's current published requirements,
  watched end to end by both
  of you at phone size
- Hook lands inside two seconds; no dead air anywhere
- Captions accurate, readable, inside the safe zone
- They can say what changed between raw footage and final cut,
  because they chose the cuts with you

If they are ready to post it, the publish-to-youtube skill covers
the upload done properly; a thumbnail need points at make-a-thumbnail.