Case study · YouTube Shorts from a long video · taxi driver, Krakow
One 18-minute video. Turned into 10 Shorts, each with its own hook.
Dmytro drives a taxi in Krakow and runs a YouTube channel about life as a Ukrainian in Poland. His video «I'm staying in Poland» runs for 18 minutes: a dozen real stories, but each one is seen only by people who make it to the right minute. He sent us a single link. We found 10 complete stories in the recording and turned each one into a vertical video that holds from the first second and leads to the full video.
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Before and after
At the top is what he had: his long video, you can watch it right here. Below are the 10 Shorts we made from it (in Ukrainian, for his audience). No new filming, all from one recording.
«Я залишаюся в Польщі» (I'm staying in Poland: answers to all your questions)18:40 · YouTube · 14,463 views as of 6 October · in Ukrainian
The video loads from YouTube when you press ▶
- One horizontal video, 18 minutes 40 seconds: he talks to the camera in his car
- A dozen separate stories, each hidden somewhere in the middle of the recording
- A long horizontal video never shows up in the Shorts feed at all
- Dmytro sent one YouTube link, nothing else
After: 10 Shorts from one video
- 10 vertical videos from 23 to 38 seconds, each one a complete story
- A two-line plate in the first second: what the story is about and where the catch is
- His face in a square window filling the frame, a blurred background above and below
- His own photos and graphics from the video shown in full, nothing cropped
- Big subtitles under the window, a change of framing at the end of phrases
- At the end a «Full video on the channel» card and a call to subscribe, a caption with hashtags for each
Not template chopping
Any app can chop a long video into 30-second pieces. We do it differently, and that is why the Shorts don't look alike by accident: they look like the author's channel.
We start by agreeing on the design
Before the first video we agree with the client on how every Short will look: the frame, the font and colour of the subtitles, the plate in the first second, the ending. The client approves it, and from then on every Short follows that style like a brand book.
Dmytro sent us examples of subtitles he liked. We matched the accent colour to his taxi, yellow, he approved it, and all 10 Shorts were made in that style.
We pick meaningful moments, not consecutive pieces
We read the whole video and look for mini-stories: places where the author tells a complete episode with a beginning, a twist and a conclusion. A piece like that makes sense without the rest of the video, and people watch it to the end.
Anything that could be misread without context stays in the long video. Dmytro's 18 minutes gave 10 such stories, and each one became its own Short.
Why these Reels work
Raw footage sells nothing on its own. What sells is a Reel that gives a reason to keep watching from the first second, a story people want to watch to the end, and a clear next step for the viewer. We build every Reel, post and carousel from these three parts, so the content works for requests, not for show.
This is how 18 minutes of talk become 10 separate ways into the channel.
Every story got its own headline in the first second
Ключі в дверях · «Keys left in the door, and nobody walked in»
The long video has one topic for all 18 minutes: «why I'm staying». A viewer in the Shorts feed decides in a second, and a general topic doesn't stop them. So we open every video with a specific situation that is easy to picture: beer in a taxi, keys left in a door, a flight for 10 euros.
The second line of the plate opens a loop that only the end of the story closes: «and what one lady did», «and nobody walked in». A number or a paradox works like a question without a question mark, and the viewer stays to find out the answer.
We cut by stories, not by a timer
- Hook. a plate with the situation and a second line that opens a loop
- Situation. where it happened and who was there, in his words
- Twist. what you don't expect: strangers say good morning, neighbours come with a gift
- Point. his conclusion about Poland in one sentence
- Action. «Full video on the channel» and a call to subscribe
The easy way is to chop a long video into 30-second pieces. But a piece with no beginning and no end doesn't hold: the viewer can't tell what it's about and scrolls on. We read the whole transcript and looked for the places where Dmytro tells a complete story himself. Every video starts with the first sentence of a story and ends with his conclusion.
We left out pieces that could be misread without context. Pauses between words are gone, the framing changes at the end of phrases, and a key word (keys, classroom, shovel) gets a short insert. That is why even someone who knows nothing about Dmytro watches a 30-second video to the end.
Every Short leads to the same long video
Це фрагмент · «This is a clip. Watch the full video “I'm staying in Poland” on the channel»
A Short here isn't separate content, it's a trailer. Someone who listened to a story to the end already knows Dmytro's voice and manner, and the natural next step is to see what else he has to say. 10 videos are 10 different ways in, and all of them lead to one full video and to a subscription.
That's why every video ends with a «Full video on the channel» card and a call to subscribe, and the caption repeats it with topic hashtags: Poland, Ukrainians in Poland, life in Poland. The long video loses nothing, it simply gets new viewers.
What we did
- Agreed on the style.Subtitle font and colour based on his examples, a yellow accent, the plate and the ending. Dmytro approved it, and every video after that follows it.
- Took his video from YouTube in the best quality.The 1080p original, so the vertical frame stays sharp.
- Transcribed all 18 minutes.Every word with its timing. Then proofread the subtitle text by hand.
- Found 10 complete stories.Each has a beginning, a twist and a point. Pieces that were unclear without context stayed in the long video.
- Rebuilt the frame from horizontal to vertical.His face in a square window, a blurred background above and below, subtitles under the window. His own photo inserts shown in full.
- Wrote a hook for every video.A two-line plate in the first second: the situation and the loop.
- Made the ending and the captions.A «Full video on the channel» card, a call to subscribe, a caption with hashtags. Before delivery we checked every video frame by frame.
- Delivered all 10 at once.The videos and captions arrived in the same chat he sent the link from.
What we needed from Dmytro
One link to his video on YouTube. Nothing else.
This works with any long video where someone talks: an interview, a podcast, a live stream, a breakdown, a vlog. You film once, we find the stories in the recording that work on their own and turn them into Shorts with a hook, subtitles and a call to watch the full video.
Got a long video? We'll turn it into Shorts
Reels, posts and carousels made from what you already have: with a hook, a story and a call to action that leads to a request. First 7 days free.
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