Short Form Video Editing

Short-form Video Editing

Create a production-ready edit package from approved assets. This skill specifies the edit, subtitles, copy, and release checks; it does not publish content, handle account credentials, or invent rights for a source asset.

Scope and boundaries

Use this skill after the user has supplied or approved the source footage, charts, images, poster artwork, brand copy, and destination platform.

• Use ui-asset-sourcing before selecting visual assets whose source or licence is unclear.
• Use minimal-editorial-poster when a static opening card, thumbnail, or campaign poster is needed.
• Use minimal-editorial-exports when the same visual system also needs a print or static export.
• Do not use unlicensed music, third-party clips, trademarks, screenshots, or market data without recording their source and usage rights.
• Do not upload, publish, execute trades, or expose brokerage, API, or personal data.

Required intake

Collect the minimum information before producing the final package:

1. Objective, audience, platform, language, and call to action.
2. Approved assets with an owner, source URL or record, and usage rights.
3. Target format: vertical social, horizontal feed, or square feed.
4. Desired duration, style references, brand tokens, and narration or music direction.
5. If financial content is present: as-of time, data sources, required disclosure, and named human approver for release.

If any required asset rights or financial source is missing, label the corresponding edit beat as pending instead of treating it as ready.

Workflow

1. Define the platform cut

Choose one primary cut before editing:

• TikTok, Xiaohongshu, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts: 1080 x 1920, 9:16.
• X and LinkedIn: 16:9 or 1:1, selected from the publishing objective.

See references/platform-specs.md for safe-area and subtitle guidance. Produce a separate manifest for each materially different crop, language, or platform claim.

2. Build a concise story

Use a three-beat outline unless the user asks for a different treatment:

1. Hook: establish the question, event, or visual change within two seconds.
2. Evidence: show the key proof, chart, product action, or source-backed explanation.
3. Close: state the qualified conclusion and a single call to action.

Keep decorative scene transitions to two or fewer. Favour cuts, restrained emphasis, and readable charts over motion that competes with the data.

3. Produce the edit plan

Create edit-plan.json using assets/edit-plan.schema.json. For every beat record:

• Start and end time, purpose, visual asset, crop or motion instruction, and on-screen copy.
• Caption line or narration text.
• Source attribution placement when it is required.
• A pending flag for any missing approval, source, or asset licence.

Use references/motion-tokens.md for durations and motion restraint.

4. Produce captions and publishing copy

Deliver both SRT and VTT captions. Keep captions to two lines, preserve sentence meaning, and leave platform UI safe areas clear. Include:

• Primary post copy.
• One concise alternative hook.
• Alt text or an accessible visual description.
• Hashtags only when they serve discovery rather than pad the caption.

5. Apply financial-content guardrails

For market, investing, trading, macro, or crypto content:

• Include the data source and as-of time for every time-sensitive claim.
• Use the disclosure: “仅作信息展示，不构成投资建议。” or “Illustrative only. Not investment advice.” unless legal review supplies approved localized wording.
• Avoid guaranteed returns, urgency, personalised buy or sell recommendations, and unqualified performance claims.
• Never show account IDs, API keys, credentials, balances, order controls, or private portfolio data without explicit approved redaction.
• Require a named human approval before a finance video is marked release or published.

See references/financial-content-rules.md for the release checklist.

Deliverable package

Return a folder containing:

• edit-plan.json
• captions.srt and captions.vtt
• publish-copy.md
• delivery-manifest.json
• source-notes.md
• approved media exports, or explicit placeholders for exports that still need rendering

Validate delivery-manifest.json before handoff:

python3 scripts/video_delivery_gate.py --manifest delivery-manifest.json

The validator enforces output format, captions, assets provenance, financial disclosures, and release approval. A draft may carry pending approval; release and published items may not.

Quality bar

The final package must feel intentional at muted autoplay:

• The first frame is recognizable without audio.
• The visual hierarchy prioritizes the claim, supporting data, then brand.
• Captions remain readable above platform controls.
• Music and transitions support, rather than obscure, source-backed information.
• Every factual financial statement can be traced back to a recorded source.