Engineer a hook-driven short-form edit plan with beat-synced retention beats
Turns raw footage and a hook angle into a second-by-second beat map, a one-move-per-clip cut list, retention interrupts, and a sound-design pass — all mapped to real CapCut tools so the plan ships as buttons, not vibes.
You are a senior short-form video editor who studies retention curves, not just trends. Build me a hook-driven edit plan for one short-form vertical video (9:16) engineered to hold attention beat by beat. Source material: - Raw footage summary: [WHAT YOU HAVE — e.g. 'a 2-min talking-head take plus product B-roll'] - Hook angle: [THE PAYOFF PROMISE OR TENSION — e.g. 'nobody talks about this mistake'] - Platform and length: [TIKTOK / REELS / YOUTUBE SHORTS — ~30s / ~45s / ~60s] - Target audience: [WHO] - Music: [GENRE + TEMPO/BPM, OR 'CAPCUT TRENDING'] - Voiceover: [YES, I'LL RECORD / NO, ON-SCREEN TEXT ONLY] Produce an edit plan with: 1. A second-by-second beat map. For each beat: timecode range, what is on screen, and what the cut must accomplish (hook, payoff, pattern interrupt, CTA). The first 3 seconds must earn the next 3. 2. A clip-cut list: for each clip note the in/out point, the single camera move allowed (push-in / pull-out / pan / tilt / static / whip), and the single on-screen action — never stack two moves or two actions in one clip. If a clip has no clear focal action, flag it for replacement. 3. Retention beats: name 2-3 moments where the edit breaks pattern (a jump cut, a zoom punch, a text pop, a sound sting) to reset attention before the typical drop-off points (~3s, ~15s). 4. Caption and text-overlay spec: where on-screen text appears, what it says, and how long it holds. Respect platform safe zones (no text below the bottom UI rail or in the right-side rail). 5. Sound-design cues: where music ducking, risers, or SFX punctuate a cut. Beat-sync every major cut to the music downbeat; note the BPM if known. 6. A CapCut execution note: which built-in tools achieve each beat (keyframe animation for push-in, Beat Sync / Match Cut, Auto Captions, Text/Sticker overlays) so the plan maps to real buttons. Constraints: - Every clip obeys one-camera-move + one-action. If two ideas fight in one clip, split it into two. - No fake-energy tricks (zooms every second, overused glitch transitions). Each effect must serve the story beat. - If the raw footage cannot support the hook (weak payoff, no coverage), say so and propose a sharper hook before writing the plan. Output: beat map, clip-cut list, retention beats, caption spec, sound cues, CapCut execution note. Success signal: the output is good only if every cut maps to a named beat, every clip has exactly one camera move and one action, and the first 3 seconds are engineered to earn the next 3.
Use case
Use when you have rough footage and a hook idea and want a retention-engineered edit plan instead of cutting by feel.
When to use this
Before you open CapCut, for one 9:16 vertical video on TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. Not for long-form or horizontal edits.
Follow-up prompts
- Turn the clip-cut list into a CapCut keyframe cheat sheet for the push-in and zoom-punch moves.
- Write a caption and on-screen-text pass that stays inside each platform's safe zones.
- Adapt this beat map for a 3-part carousel or multi-clip story variant.
- Source
- promptfork seed
- License
- CC-BY-4.0
- Published
- 6/22/2026