Every month brings a format promising reach. Most aren’t worth rebuilding a workflow for. These few changed how I shoot and deliver.
Shoot with the crop in mind
Almost every project now needs a vertical cut. Framing a little looser and keeping the subject off dead centre means one shoot serves the landscape film and the reels without reframing every clip in post.
Captions are not optional
Most viewers watch on mute in a public place. Burned-in captions, readable at arm’s length, raise completion more reliably than any hook trick.
- Deliver a 9:16 cut with every project by default.
- Caption everything, in the language the audience speaks.
- Keep a still from every shoot for the thumbnail.
Longer is back — if it earns it
Short form built the audience; long form keeps it. Documentary-length work performs when the story justifies the runtime. The mistake is stretching a three-minute idea to fifteen.
Post less, finish more, and give each film a reason to exist.