Teaser for a New YouTube Video

A 30-second teaser that sells your new YouTube video without spoiling it.

Pipeline: Basic edit (cut): cuts, captions, looks, speed, split screens, stock, voices and music.
Format: 9:16 and 16:9
Upload: Your finished YouTube video.

The prompt

Type your own words into the fields: the [BLANKS] fill in as you go. Copy it and send it to Claude or ChatGPT with Cut Express connected.

Prompt

I uploaded my new YouTube video, "[VIDEO TITLE]". Make a [LENGTH IN SECONDS]-second teaser for it. Inspect it with a transcript and moments first.

- Open on the most surprising line or image in the video, then 4 to 6 fast cuts of the best moments, never the ending: [WHAT NOT TO SPOIL].
- A text at the top for the first 2 seconds: "[HOOK LINE]", white with a black stroke.
- Captions from the speech, pop preset, highlight [CAPTION COLOR].
- End card for 2 seconds: "Full video on my channel" over a dark frame of the video.
- [MUSIC] under the voices, ducked when anyone speaks.
Render it in 9:16 first. Then render the same timeline again as 16:9 for the community tab, as the next version.

The blanks

[VIDEO TITLE]: The title of the long video, as it is on YouTube.
[LENGTH IN SECONDS]: How long the finished video runs, as a number of seconds. Reels and Shorts hold best between 15 and 60.
[WHAT NOT TO SPOIL]: The result, the reveal or the answer the teaser must keep hidden.
[HOOK LINE]: The first words on screen, the reason to keep watching, in under ten words.
[CAPTION COLOR]: The color of the highlighted word in the captions, as a name or a hex code like #FFD23F.
[MUSIC]: A track you uploaded (say its file name), or a mood and genre for the stock music search, like "upbeat lo-fi" or "cinematic, builds slowly".

Tips

Name what not to spoil. Otherwise the strongest moment is often the ending.
The 16:9 version is a new version of the same video, so every note you gave the first one carries over.

New to prompting video? How to write a good prompt for Cut Express covers the story, the hook, captions, sound, pace and how to iterate with versions.

Paste it in Claude. Get the MP4.

Start your 7-day free trial Or get the Mac app

7 days free, then $19/mo. Cancel before day 7 and you pay nothing.

Basic edit9:16

Shorts From One Long Video

Several vertical Shorts cut from one long video, each with captions.

Upload: One long video with speech (a podcast, a talk, a stream, a course lesson).

I uploaded [LONG VIDEO], about [TOPIC]. Inspect it with moments and a transcript, then find the [NUMBER OF CLIPS] strongest moments that make sense on their own, each about [LENGTH IN SECONDS] seconds.

Before you render, list them for me: the in and out times, the first line said and why it works as a hook. Wait for my pick.

For each one I pick:
- Start on the hook line, no warm-up. Cut the silences and the false starts on the speech.
- 9:16, cover crop kept on the speaker's face. A slow punch-in on the key sentence.
- Captions from the speech: bold preset, 3 words per line, the key word in [CAPTION COLOR], bottom third.
- Clean the voice (denoise and enhance). No music unless I ask.
Render each as its own video titled "[SERIES NAME] 1", "2", and so on.

Fill in Tips

Basic edit9:16 and 16:9

One Edit in 9:16 and 16:9

The same edit as a vertical Reel and a horizontal YouTube cut.

Upload: The clips for the edit, shot horizontally or vertically.

Make a [LENGTH IN SECONDS]-second edit about [TOPIC] from the clips I uploaded, for [PLATFORM]. Look at the contact sheets before you cut.

Start in 9:16: cover crop with the subject kept in frame on every scene (set the focus), hook first, cuts on the action, [LOOK] look, captions from the speech in [CAPTION COLOR].

Show me the timeline before you render. When v1 is done, render the same timeline again as 16:9 for YouTube: re-check each scene's focus, use fit blur where a vertical clip would crop too much, and move the captions so they never sit on a face.

Fill in Tips

Basic edit9:16

Talking Head With Jump Cuts

A tight talking-head video with the silences cut, punch-ins and captions.

Upload: One or more takes of you talking to the camera.

I recorded a talking-head video about [TOPIC]. Inspect it with a transcript and use the speech cuts.

- Keep only the best take of each sentence and cut every silence and "um". The finished video is about [LENGTH IN SECONDS] seconds.
- Start on "[HOOK LINE]" even if I said it later.
- A punch-in zoom (about 1.2x) every 2 or 3 cuts, on the words that matter, so it never looks like one static shot.
- Captions: bold preset, upper case, 2 to 3 words per line, highlight [CAPTION COLOR], just under the middle of the frame.
- Clean my voice: denoise 40 and enhance. [LOOK] look, a little sharpening.
Show me the timeline (each kept line with its time) before you render.

Fill in Tips