Video Script Formatter
Prose in, numbered beats with running timecodes out.
- 100% success
Tool input
Overview
About this tool
Splits a script where it already breaks — or on a fixed rhythm — prices each beat in seconds at your delivery pace, and gives every one an in and out timecode. Names the opening beats Hook, Setup and Payoff, and hands back a chapter list with YouTube’s three rules already checked.
Instructions
How to use it
Paste the script as prose. Blank lines are treated as beat breaks; with none, it splits on sentences instead. Stage directions in [brackets] are kept and never timed, because nobody says them.
The total was never the problem
A script timer tells you the whole thing runs 4:12. What it cannot tell you is that the setup takes ninety seconds and the payoff gets forty. The beat table makes that visible in one column, which is the entire reason to split a script before you record it.
The chapter list is checked, not just printed
YouTube needs the first chapter at 0:00, at least three of them, and none shorter than ten seconds. The list below the table is your beats in that format, with a warning when it would be rejected.
Questions
Frequently asked
How do I format a video script?
Break it into beats — one idea each — and give every beat a timecode, so you can see where the runtime is going before you spend it. This does both from prose you have already written.
What words-per-minute should I use?
A Shorts voiceover runs near 180, a talking head around 150, a podcast about 135 and documentary narration nearer 115. Pick the one that matches how you actually talk, not how you wish you did.
Can I use the beats as YouTube chapters?
Often. YouTube requires the first at 0:00, at least three chapters, and none under ten seconds — the tool checks all three and tells you which one your beats break.
Are the timecodes accurate?
They are the floor. They count words at your chosen pace and know nothing about pauses, B-roll holds or the take you did three times.
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