YouTube Shorts ideas: 27 short video ideas under 60 seconds, with edit prompts

"This is the step everyone gets wrong."

Find the part of my long tutorial where I explain the hardest step and cut it to 45 seconds. Reframe to 9:16 and keep my hands centered. Add captions in the middle third, 2 to 3 words at a time, white with a black outline. In the last 3 seconds, add "full tutorial on my channel" as text above the captions.

"Take 14."

Find the clip where I mess up and laugh, and cut a 15 second short around it. Reframe to 9:16 with my face in the upper half. Add a record scratch sound on the mistake and a half-second freeze frame. Put "take 14" as small text in the top left.

"Three weeks of work in fifteen seconds."

Make a 15 second 9:16 short from my long build video. Show the empty starting shot for 2 seconds, then ten one-second clips from the build in order, cut to the beat, then the finished result for 3 seconds. Add "3 weeks" as large text in the center on the final shot.

"I think most beginners buy the wrong camera."

Find the 30 to 40 seconds where the guest gives the most direct opinion and cut it out. Reframe to 9:16 with the speaker's face in the top half and large captions in the lower half, with the key word in each line highlighted in yellow. Remove every pause. Add a moving audio waveform along the bottom edge.

"Tape the edges before you paint. Watch."

Make a 20 second 9:16 short. Open on the finished result for 1 second, then show the tip in three quick steps with a large step number in the top third. Speed up any clip longer than 4 seconds. Keep the tip as one line of text at the top for the whole video.

"If your lines look shaky, this is why."

Make a 25 second 9:16 short as a stacked split screen. The wrong way plays in the top half with "wrong" in a red box, and the right way plays in the bottom half with "right" in a green box. Start both clips at the same moment so the difference shows side by side. Caption my voiceover in the thin band between the halves.

"Most of the paint in this tube isn't pigment."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short with my voiceover over close-up b-roll. Add a simple labeled diagram that pops in at the center of the frame when I name the fact. Keep the music quiet, cut it completely on the reveal line, then bring it back.

"You'd never guess what this is."

Make a 12 second 9:16 short. Start on the macro shot, then do a smooth digital zoom out over 4 seconds to the full frame. Land the final wide shot on the downbeat of the track. Keep the screen clear of text until the last 2 seconds, then add the name of the piece in small letters at the bottom.

Make a 20 second 9:16 short that loops. Start on the blank surface, play the timelapse, and end with a quick wipe back to the blank surface so the last frame matches the first. Cut the music so its end flows into its start. No text or captions.

"the sound of peeling tape."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short with no music. Raise the volume of the tape and the pouring sounds and remove the room noise between them. Cut so every clip starts on a sound. Add one line of small text at the bottom for the first 2 seconds, then leave the frame clean.

"Start to finish."

Speed up three hours of footage into a 30 second 9:16 short. Ramp the speed so the start and end play slower and the middle plays fastest. Drop to real speed for 2 seconds at the moment the piece comes together. Sync the cuts to the beat of the track.

"Cleaning up after a long night."

Make a 25 second 9:16 short. Hold the messy desk for 2 seconds, then speed the cleanup to 10x with a soft, steady track. End on the clean desk with a slow push in. Add "before" and "after" labels in the top corners.

"Day 12 of painting every day until I get into a gallery."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short for today. Show "Day 12" as large text in the top third for the whole video. Open on today's result, then show today's clips at 4x. End with a 1 second flash of the day 1 result for comparison.

"Everything I painted this week."

Make a 35 second 9:16 short with one clip per thing I made this week, in the order I made them. Cut each clip to 2 beats of the track. Show the day of the week in the top left as each clip plays. End on all of them in a grid for 2 seconds.

"Beginner tip number 7."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short with "7 / 20" in a small badge in the top right. Put my face in the top half and the demonstration clip in the bottom half, with captions in the band between them. Use the same intro sound and the same font as the earlier parts of the series.

"Part 2. This is where it got weird."

Split my 3 minute story into four 9:16 shorts of about 45 seconds each. End each part on the sentence right before the next turn, and add "part 2 on my channel" at the top for the last 2 seconds. Start each new part with a one-line recap on screen for 3 seconds. Captions in the lower third.

"You asked how I keep my brushes clean."

Make a 40 second 9:16 short. Show the comment as a card in the top third for the first 3 seconds, then cut to me answering. Cut every pause and add captions in the center, 2 words at a time. Show the demonstration clip full screen whenever I say "like this".

"This headline leaves out the most important part."

Make a 45 second 9:16 short with the screenshot of the headline as my background, green screen style, with me in the bottom half. Zoom in on the part of the headline I'm talking about. Add captions in the top third over the screenshot, and cut every breath.

"Same subject, three years apart."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short with the old piece in the top half and the new one in the bottom half, each labeled with its year. Zoom both halves in on the same detail while I describe it. Cut to the new piece full screen for the last 3 seconds.

"Does this actually work?"

Make a 35 second 9:16 short. Open on the hack's promise as text in the top third, then show my attempt at 2x. Freeze the frame on the result for 1 second, then add a large stamp in the center that says "works" or "nope", based on what I say.

"Guess how many hours this took."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short. Put "guess how many hours" at the top for the first 3 seconds, then show the process clips cut to the beat. Add a ticking clock sound under the last 5 seconds and reveal the answer as large text in the center of the final frame.

"Top or bottom. You can only keep one."

Make a 15 second 9:16 short with the two options stacked, one on top and one on the bottom, labeled "A" and "B". Hold for 8 seconds with a ticking sound, then flash my pick with a check mark. Put "comment A or B" at the very top.

"Three signs you're ready to go full time."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short. Keep me on the left third of the frame and add each line of text on the right side at the moment I point at it, popping in with a small bounce. Stack the lines so all of them stay on screen. Cut every pause, and end on the full list for 2 seconds.

"My first commission was for my dentist."

Make a 45 second 9:16 short from my story. Cut every pause and filler word. Keep the camera tight on my face and punch in 20 percent on the twist line. Add captions in the center, and make the twist line larger and yellow.

"I've been waiting six weeks for this."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short. Start at the moment the item comes out of the box and cut all the tape and cardboard. Show three close-ups of the details I point at, each for 2 seconds with a label. End on the item in use.

"I typed one sentence and it did this."

Make a 30 second 9:16 short from my screen recording. Crop to the part of the screen where the action happens and zoom in on the cursor when I click. Show the result full screen for the last 5 seconds. Add captions for my voiceover at the bottom, 3 words at a time.

"Number one surprised me."

Make a 40 second 9:16 short with three sections. Flash a big "3", "2", and "1" in the center for half a second before each section, with a drum hit. Put the item name in the top third during each section. Hold number one 3 seconds longer than the others.