Video Essay Script Template

[COLD OPEN - 0:00 to 0:45 | about 136 words]
Open on the strangest concrete detail in your subject. No introduction, no name, no context.
"[SPECIFIC MOMENT, NUMBER, or SCENE that the whole essay is about]"
Let the first 20 seconds sit on one image with narration over it.

[THESIS - 0:45 to 2:00 | about 226 words]
"Everyone says [THE COMMON READING]. I think that is wrong, and here is why."
State the claim in one sentence the viewer can disagree with.
"To show you, I am going to look at [THREE ANGLE ONE], [ANGLE TWO], and [ANGLE THREE]."

[EVIDENCE ONE - 2:00 to 5:00 | about 543 words]
"[THE FIRST PIECE OF EVIDENCE]"
Walk through it in order, quoting or showing the source on screen.
"So what does this tell us? [INTERPRETATION]"
"This matters because [WHY IT SUPPORTS THE THESIS]."

[EVIDENCE TWO - 5:00 to 8:00 | about 543 words]
"[THE SECOND PIECE OF EVIDENCE, which should complicate the first]"
Show the tension out loud: "Notice that this cuts against what we just saw."
"Both can be true at once, and that is the interesting part."

[EVIDENCE THREE - 8:00 to 11:00 | about 543 words]
"[THE THIRD PIECE, ideally a case nobody applies your thesis to yet]"

[COUNTERARGUMENT - 11:00 to 13:30 | about 453 words]
"The strongest case against me is [BEST OPPOSING ARGUMENT], and it is a good one."
Here is where it fails: "[SPECIFIC LIMIT, NOT A STRAW MAN]."

[SYNTHESIS AND OUTRO - 13:30 to 15:00 | about 272 words]
Bring the three pieces together into one paragraph.
"Which leaves the question I started with: [RESTATE THE OPENING MOMENT]."
"There is a version of this argument I did not get to, and that is [NEXT ESSAY]."