Making "AlBot" Pt. 1 - Script (Patreon)

We all know short-form videos (TikTok, Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts) tend to encourage "low-effort" impromptu content. The vertical frame and severe duration limit make it almost impossible to create elaborate, nice-looking stuff. I mean, you'd have to be CRAZY to spend time working on a cinematic narrative sketch, custom-made for the shorts feed, where most people will just scroll by it...

Eh, let's try anyway!

I think it's a good testing ground for some virtual production techniques I want to practice for future proper videos.

But since the end product will be small, I thought it might be interesting to take you through the creation process as it happens. In the next few posts I'll document the steps of creating a fun Captain D comedy short as I work on it.

It begins with...

Concept & Script

TikTok allows videos up to 3 mins, while IG Stories are just 15 seconds! YT Shorts are in the middle, at 1 min, so I'll go with that. To avoid involving other people for this first experiment, it can be a scene between CD and Intern Alan. A silly take on something vaguely topical like... AI.

Maybe CD wants to replace Alan with an AI, or just a robot. The robot looks obviously dangerous to Alan but CD, as its designer, refuses to see this and is eager to turn it on.

To roughly aim for a minute of material, I brainstormed and wrote the scene out in classic screenplay format, where one page is supposed to represent about a minute of screen time. It ended up slightly over a page, but I think a fast comedic pace will make it fit.

The script is attached as a PDF. Try to picture how it plays out visually! I'll present how I see it in the next post, with a storyboard/animatic...