Chapter 23 — Exercises

Short-form is a doing craft, and the feedback loop is brutally fast — you can shoot, cut, post, and read the retention curve of a vertical video in an afternoon. Do these with the phone in your hand; it is the native instrument here. Take the starred and Production-Checkpoint-linked items seriously, because they build the vertical teaser your portfolio now needs.

Exercises are graded by effort and depth:

• ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
• ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many as you can.
• ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; where the biggest gains are.

Model solutions and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Attempt each one before you read its answer.

A. Seeing the format (Eye & Ear Training)

These need no camera — only your attention and a feed. They train the eye §23.2 and §23.6 depend on.

1. ⭐ The scroll clock. Open any short-form feed and, for the next fifteen videos, notice the exact second you decide to keep watching or scroll. Write down, for three of them, the specific thing in the first two seconds that stopped you (or the specific dead moment that lost you). (Answer provided.)

2. ⭐ Sound off, then on. Find a short-form video you like. Watch it once muted, then once with sound. Write one sentence on what the sound added — and one on whether the video was fully understandable without it. (Answer provided.)

3. ⭐⭐ Dissect three hooks. For three videos that stopped your scroll, name each hook's three channels: the visual hook, the verbal hook (if any), and the on-screen text hook. Then name the open loop each one created. (Answer provided.)

4. ⭐⭐ The safe-zone audit. Open five vertical videos and watch where the creator put their captions and their face relative to the platform's username, buttons, and progress bar. Note one video that placed text badly (colliding with the UI) and one that placed it well. (Answer provided.)

5. ⭐⭐ Start your "analyze a short" Frame Log habit. Add the standing prompt from §23.6 to your Frame Log: for one short a day this week, dissect its first two seconds and guess where its retention curve dips. Bring your week of notes.

6. ⭐⭐⭐ Guess the curve. Pick one short-form video and sketch its retention curve from memory — where would it cliff, sag, or bump? Then articulate what you'd change to fix the worst part. You can't see the real curve, but predicting it is the skill. (Answer discusses how to reason.)

B. Reading Described Shots (Read the Sequence)

7. ⭐⭐ Name the fields. Re-read FIGURE 23.3 (the constructed two-second hook). In your own words, say what THE CUT field is teaching about where hooks come from. (Answer provided.)

8. ⭐⭐ Diagnose the mismatch. A creator's vertical hook is a slow, locked-off wide shot of themselves sitting down, with the first spoken line being "Hey everyone, so today I wanted to talk about…" Name every reason this hook will fail on a feed, and rewrite the opening two seconds. (Answer provided.)

9. ⭐⭐⭐ Write your own hook Described Shot. Watch a short-form video whose opening genuinely stopped you and write a full seven-field Described Shot of its first two seconds, using the §2.1 fields. Pay special attention to THE EFFECT (which channels fired) and THE LESSON. (Model answer provided.)

10. ⭐⭐ Read the case study. After reading Case Study 1, write the single sentence that best captures why the analyzed creator's hook works — the transferable principle, not the specific gimmick.

C. Framing and safe zones (Shoot This)

11. ⭐ Turn on the grid. Enable your phone camera's grid and level guide (Gear Note, §23.1). Shoot a 10-second vertical of any subject with the eyes on the upper-third line and the subject centered. Confirm the horizon/verticals are actually straight.

12. ⭐⭐ The safe-zone test. Shoot a vertical talking-head of yourself (or a friend) framed so the face sits inside the action-safe center column (FIGURE 23.1). Upload it (or preview it with a safe-zone overlay) and confirm the platform's UI does not cover the face or any text. Reshoot if it does. (Answer discusses what to check.)

13. ⭐⭐ Five Ways: one subject, five vertical frames. Pick one subject (a person talking, an object, a small action). Shoot it five ways in 9:16: (a) centered wide-for-vertical, (b) tight close-up, (c) low angle, (d) subject on the vertical upper third with headroom, (e) subject too low (face in the bottom UI zone, on purpose). Watch all five with the platform UI imagined over them. Which survives best, and why is (e) a trap? (Answer discusses the trade-offs.)

14. ⭐⭐⭐ Compose for both crops. Shoot ONE horizontal (16:9) clip of a subject deliberately framed so it will also crop cleanly to 9:16 — centered, a little loose, essential action in a central column. Then produce both a 16:9 and a 9:16 version from that single clip. Prove to yourself that "compose for the crop" works. (Guidance provided.)

D. The hook and the cut (Shoot This & Cut This)

15. ⭐⭐ Shoot three hooks (the On Set assignment). If you haven't done the §23.2 🎬 On Set box, do it now: one 20–30 second idea, three different openings (bold claim, result-first, in medias res), each landing its promise in under two seconds with legible on-screen text. Muted-test all three on one person; keep the winner. (Model self-critique provided.)

16. ⭐⭐ Cut This: move the hook to the front. Take any clip where the interesting moment happens in the middle (a reveal, a punchline, a result). Re-cut it so that moment is the first two seconds, then flows into the setup. Compare the reordered version to the original. Which would you keep watching? (Answer discusses the principle.)

17. ⭐⭐ Open a loop. Write five different one-line on-screen text hooks for the same simple video (e.g., "how I light a talking-head with one lamp"). Each must open a curiosity gap the viewer has to stay to close. Rank them; explain your top pick. (Model answer provided.)

18. ⭐⭐⭐ Kill the throat-clearing. Take a video you (or a friend) already posted that opens with any setup — a greeting, a logo, "so today…". Re-cut it to start on the payoff. Time both openings. How many seconds of exit-ramp did the original hand the viewer? (Answer provided.)

19. ⭐⭐⭐ Build a loop. Cut a 10–15 second vertical whose last frame flows seamlessly back into its first, so it plays on repeat with no visible seam. Watch it loop five times. Where does the seam show, and how would you hide it? (Guidance provided.)

E. Captions, pace, sound-off (Cut This & Accessibility)

20. ⭐ Caption a clip. Add burned-in captions to a 15-second vertical: large, high-contrast, with a stroke or plate, placed in the center-safe band. Watch it muted end-to-end and confirm you can follow it. (Answer provided.)

21. ⭐⭐ Fix the auto-captions. Turn on your platform's or editor's automatic captions for a clip with a name or some jargon in it. Find and fix every error. Note how many there were — this is why you never trust them raw. (Answer discusses what to look for.)

22. ⭐⭐ Cut the dead air. Take a 30-second talking clip and remove every breath, "um," and pre-point pause — cut on the sentence, not the breath. Compare run times and energy. Then find one pause worth keeping (a beat that lands something) and defend it. (Answer provided.)

23. ⭐⭐⭐ The muted-comprehension test. Make a 20-second vertical and show it to someone muted, then ask them to tell you what it was about. If they can't, your captions or visuals failed the sound-off test. Revise until a muted stranger gets it. (Guidance provided.)

F. Specs and repurposing (Settings Drill & Cut This)

24. ⭐ Read the spec box. Without looking, list the six things the §23.4 Settings Box specifies for a vertical upload (aspect ratio, resolution, frame rate, length, loudness, codec/captions). For each, say in a phrase why it matters — and why any number you memorize will change. (Answer provided.)

25. ⭐⭐ Settings Drill: three destinations. For each, write the aspect ratio and the key delivery instinct: (a) a full-screen TikTok/Reel/Short; (b) an Instagram main-feed post you want to command screen without being cropped in the grid; (c) a horizontal YouTube video you'll also cut vertical. (Model answers provided.)

26. ⭐⭐ Repurpose by crop-and-reframe. Take a horizontal clip with a subject that moves across frame. Produce a 9:16 version by keyframing the crop to follow the subject (pan-and-scan). Note where an auto-reframe tool would likely fail. (Answer provided.)

27. ⭐⭐ Repurpose by stacking. Take a horizontal clip where cropping would lose essential information (a wide demo, a two-shot, on-screen text). Produce a 9:16 version using the stacked/letterbox layout, with captions filling the freed space. Explain why stacking beat cropping here. (Answer provided.)

28. ⭐⭐⭐ The reframe audit. Run an auto-reframe tool on a clip with at least one hard cut and one moment of fast motion. Then fix its mistakes by hand. List every place the tool guessed wrong — this is why the reframe is a real edit, not a checkbox. (Guidance provided.)

G. Retention and diagnosis (Fix the Shot)

29. ⭐⭐ Diagnose from the curve. For each described retention curve, name the problem and the fix: (a) drops from 100% to 30% in the first two seconds, then flat; (b) holds high until the 12-second mark, then falls off a cliff; (c) declines gently to 60% and bumps back up at the end. (Answer provided.)

30. ⭐⭐ Fix the metric habit. A friend is thrilled their video got lots of likes but sad it "didn't blow up." Using §23.6, explain which metric they should look at instead and what it would tell them. (Answer provided.)

31. ⭐⭐⭐ Post and read. Post one vertical video (a private or throwaway account is fine) and, after it has views, read its actual retention curve. Where does it fall? Write the one change you'd make to the next video based on the shape. Real data on your own work beats any exercise here. (Guidance provided.)

H. Interleaved (mixing prior chapters)

32. ⭐⭐ Light meets vertical (Ch. 11, 13). Plan a vertical talking-head hook lit with a single window (Chapter 13). Where does the subject sit relative to the window so the face is well-lit and stays in the vertical safe zone? Sketch the top-down setup. (Answer provided.)

33. ⭐⭐ Sound still counts (Ch. 14, 15). Your vertical will be watched mostly muted — so why still record clean audio and room tone? Give two concrete reasons from this chapter and Part III. (Answer provided.)

34. ⭐⭐⭐ Story is still the boss (Ch. 1, 17). Take your Project 1 talking-head's core message and compress it into a single-loop 15-second vertical that keeps the story intact. What did you cut, and how did you protect the one idea? (Model answer provided.)

35. ⭐⭐⭐ Coverage pays off vertically (Ch. 7, 20). Explain, using a shot you actually have, how having covered a scene with multiple shot sizes (Chapter 7) and B-roll (Chapter 20) makes a clean vertical re-cut possible where a single unbroken take would not. (Answer provided.)

I. Synthesis

36. ⭐⭐⭐ Teach it back. In about 200 words, explain to a beginner why "vertical video is not just horizontal video cropped." Use the frame, the hook, and captions, with one concrete example. (Model answer provided.)

37. ⭐⭐⭐ The Production Checkpoint teaser. Complete the chapter's Production Checkpoint: a 15–30 second vertical teaser from Project 1 or 2 — reframed to 9:16 (subject safe-zone throughout), hooking in two seconds, captioned for muted viewing, exported to the typical vertical spec. Watch it back on your phone, muted, and answer honestly: would it stop your own thumb? Write one sentence on the weakest part and how you'd fix it. (Model critique provided.)

J. Recreate It (reproduce a technique with your own subject)

38. ⭐⭐ Recreate the cold open. Reproduce the retention-first cold-open analyzed in Case Study 1 with your own topic: no intro, first frame on the stakes/promise, on-screen text stating it, and the interesting part already in motion. Time it — is the promise fully made by the two-second mark? (Model answer provided.)

39. ⭐⭐⭐ Recreate a repurpose you admire. Find a creator who posts both a horizontal video and its vertical cut-down. Study how they reframed it, then reproduce their method (crop-and-reframe, stacked, or blur-fill) on a horizontal clip of your own. Name why they chose that method for that footage.

40. ⭐⭐ Recreate a caption style. Pick a creator whose burned-in captions you find especially readable and reproduce their style on your own clip — size, contrast, stroke/plate, placement, words-on-screen-at-once. Then run the muted-comprehension test. What specifically made the original so legible? (Answer provided.)

When you have done these — especially the shooting and cutting ones — you can carry any story across the wall between horizontal and vertical, and build an opening that survives the scroll. That portability is a paid skill. Next, Chapter 24 takes you live, where there is no re-ordering the hook and no fixing it later — only preparation.