Skills / Edit a short
Edit a short
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.
Use this skill. Nothing to install.
Don't have an agent? · Raw file: skills/edit-a-short.md
Watch the first two minutes
This is how a session goes, starting from footage you think is boring. Click through it.
Scripted example of a real session.
But my footage is boring
Raw footage always looks boring, because it contains all the waiting. The skill works with your footage only: nothing pulled from elsewhere, no stock clips pretending to be yours, no "wait for it" caption over nothing. It finds the two seconds that actually work, opens with them, and cuts the rest hard. If the footage really is thin, the honest answer is a shorter video, and these projects exist to give you something worth filming.
What you end up with
A 30–60 second vertical MP4 on your phone, plus the decisions that made it. Here is the edit decision list from the robot-arm session above.
- The hook is footage you already had. The best two seconds open the video and the setup comes later or never. That single reordering is most of the craft.
- Failures stay in. The skill never fakes drama, but real failed attempts are honest tension and they earn the ending.
- One export works everywhere. This exact spec uploads to TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Under 60 seconds keeps Shorts eligibility.
Anatomy of the first two seconds
The skill builds the opening to this standard:
- A No intro, no logo, no "hey guys". The thing is mid-action when the video starts.
- B "Took all afternoon to get this" is true and makes you want the payoff. Invented stakes are banned.
- C Captions and platform UI eat the bottom quarter and the right edge, so the action lives above and left of them.
- D The grab finishes at the end of the video. The opening only promises it.
Questions people actually ask
Is this free?
The skill is free. The editors it uses are too: CapCut on phone or desktop, or DaVinci Resolve's free tier. The edit matters more than the editor.
Can it add stock clips or footage from other videos?
No. The skill cuts your footage only. Stock b-roll pretending to be yours is exactly the kind of faking it refuses. If your footage is thin, it makes a shorter video.
What about music?
Music comes from the platform's own licensed library, added at upload time, or from genuinely royalty-free sources. The skill will not rip a track, because that gets videos muted or taken down.
My video is horizontal. Is it ruined?
No. The skill crops to the action for a 9:16 frame, or stacks a punch-in when one crop cannot hold the subject. Most phone footage survives this better than people expect.
Do captions really matter on a 40-second video?
Yes. Most short-form video plays with sound off, so anything spoken gets captioned, auto-generated then fixed word by word. The captions-and-subtitles skill goes deeper if you want it.
Where to go from here
Posting the short? Finish the package:
Want to make more than one? Build the habit properly:
Ideas to use it on
- Before and after, thirty seconds — A thirty-second cut of a transformation you did with your hands: the room you reorganized, the bike you restored, the garden bed you dug.
- Your best trick, sixty seconds — A sixty-second video of the one skill people ask you to show them: the kickflip, the omelette flip, the speedcube solve, the free-throw streak.
- Grandma cooks, you film — One dish, cooked start to finish by your grandmother (or whoever holds the family recipe), filmed by you and cut into a short: her hands doing the work, her voice over it telling you how and why.
- A shift at my job, on film — A day-in-the-life short of your part-time job: opening, the rush, the lull, closing.
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets
--- 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.