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Reel them in: How to make every second count in short-form videos
Even you’re probably fed up of videos that take ages to get to the point. Here’s how to grab attention in the first 15 seconds
YouTube’s “Shorts” now rack up 200 billion daily views worldwide, according to CEO Neal Mohan. In India, four out of five users aged 18 to 44 are on the platform. On Insta, where 92% of Indian users prefer Reels to other formats, and 97% watch short-form videos at least once a day, even a pause is a waste of time.
Creators Sameeksha Takke (@SameekshaTakke13) and Shantanu Rangnekar (@Shantanu_Rangnekar99) show you how to make the most of every frame, every sound, every second.
Start with one idea, and protect it. Short-form video, both say, collapses without a single, central premise. “There’s no space to wander,” Rangnekar says. “If I try to say three things, my audience won’t remember any one of them.” Think of the brevity of a billboard – reduce the idea to a single line. His formula is, “Hook → Heart → Payoff. Just three beats. That’s it.” The hook captures the scroller’s attention; the heart grounds it; the payoff delivers what the hook promised.
The first five seconds are gold. “That’s how long it takes for a person to decide to stay or scroll on,” Rangnekar says. “If I don’t earn their attention immediately, the video is already over.” Takke flips the formula of putting a cliffhanger at the end. “I edit the video in a way that the last hook — even if it’s at the 29-second mark — appears at the start too, so viewers know where the clip is going.”
Prepare for drama. The pressure of brevity means you must communicate with your visuals as much as your script. “Even when I use fewer dialogues, my face has to do the storytelling,” Takke says. Remember, someone might want to view the video at 2x speed. Give them something to look at as the words fly by. So Takke leans on what she calls “background punch”— visual elements that quietly support or validate the joke without over-explaining it.
Rangnekar relies on micro-cues: A gesture, a prop, a flash of text to get the point across faster.
Edit like you’re the enemy. Rangnekar has often pruned a one-minute idea down to 15 seconds. “I cut everything that doesn’t add value,” he says. Takke relies on Inshorts, VN, and Premiere Pro, but she says that tools are secondary to rhythm. “I use quick zoom-ins/zoom-outs to compress time and keep the pacing energetic. A cut is tight enough when the video flows without my eyes drifting away for even a second.” Takke also brings in audio to help. “You should know exactly where to drop the music, where to stop it, and which punchline needed audio to elevate the joke.”
End with emotion. Most short videos stumble because the intro dragged on. So those who re-edit rely on a shortcut: they bring the payoff forward or highlight the strongest moment within the first second to grab attention. This means there’s less over explaining, and leaves room for expressions and visuals to carry the message later on.
For Rangnekar, the last frame must linger. “I always end with a moment that makes people smile, think, or feel something. Because if the emotion lands, the message lands.” Short form, despite its constraints, is not about speed—it’s about clarity. Or as he puts it, “15 seconds is both too little and more than enough.” And in the right hands, it is exactly enough.
From HT Brunch, December 27, 2025
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