Every channel wants video now
One shoot, planned for reels, stories, and ads.
Felipe · Motion designer
· 4 min read
Reels, stories, feed ads, the website, pre-roll: every channel wants video, and each one wants it in a different shape and length. Booking a separate shoot for each is slow and expensive. The better approach is one shoot, planned from the start for every place the footage will run.
Write the edit list first
Before anyone writes a shot list, list the deliverables: a short ad, a longer reel, a set of stories, a horizontal cut for the website. Each one has a length, a shape and a first second that has to hook. Vertical 9:16 for reels and stories, 4:5 or 1:1 for the feed, 16:9 for the web.
Note who will see each cut and where. Someone tapping through stories and someone watching on your website are in very different moods.
The shot list comes from that list, not the other way around.
Frame for every crop
Shoot with the tightest crop in mind. Keep the subject near the center with room above and below, so the same take can become a vertical story and a horizontal web cut. If the camera allows it, shoot at a higher resolution than you'll deliver, which gives the edit room to reframe.
Watch for text and logos in the background of a shot. In a vertical crop they can end up cut in half.
Shoot the hooks on purpose
Every cut needs a strong opening, and they don't all have to be the same one. Plan a few first-second moments: the product in use, a face talking to camera, a quick before and after. Capture them on purpose instead of hoping the edit finds one.
Roll a few seconds before and after each moment, so the editor can start a cut on exactly the right frame.
Plan for sound off
Many people watch with the sound off, so the story has to work without it. Leave room for captions and on-screen text, and keep that text inside the safe area where the app's buttons won't cover it. Record clean audio anyway, for the cuts that will be watched with sound.
Keep the look consistent
Every cut should still look like one brand. Agree on the light, the colors and the type for on-screen text before the shoot, and keep them the same across formats. Someone who sees the story and then the feed ad should recognize them as the same campaign.
One shoot, many cuts
With the plan in place, one shoot can feed every channel on the list. The edit turns the same footage into the ad, the reel, the stories and the web cut, each with its own hook and its own length.
Keep the raw footage organized by scene and format, so new cuts can come out of the same shoot later.
Plan every video and motion project in that order: the formats first, then the shoot, then the cuts.