Module 2: Pre-Production — Plan Before You Film
Most bad videos are decided before the camera ever rolls. This module covers the Plan stage of the Publish Loop: capturing ideas systematically, writing the hook before anything else, and running a pre-shoot checklist so filming days never start from a blank page.
The idea bank
Ideas are perishable. The one that hits you in the shower is gone by breakfast unless you capture it in under ten seconds. Your idea bank is a single running note on your phone — one note, not five apps — where every video idea goes the moment it appears. No judging at capture time; judging happens later, at the weekly pick.
Give the bank four lanes so it stays browsable: Teach (show something useful), Entertain (make them laugh or gasp), Prove (results, before-and-afters, testimonials), and Invite (ask a question, start a debate). When an idea arrives, drop it in a lane with one line. "Teach: how I pack orders in 90 seconds." "Entertain: customer reactions to the new flavor." The lanes matter because a healthy account needs all four — all-teach accounts feel like lectures, all-entertain accounts never sell anything.
Once a week, open the bank and pick your filming slate: the strongest two or three ideas, one per lane if possible. Star the winners, archive the duds without guilt. After a month you'll notice patterns — certain lanes outperform — and that pattern is your content strategy writing itself. The bank turns "what should I post?" from a daily crisis into a weekly ten-minute decision.
The four lanes
Your idea bank, organized
From the lesson: a healthy account needs all four lanes.
The idea bank: four lanes
Teach
Show something useful.
Entertain
Make them laugh or gasp.
Prove
Results, before-and-afters, testimonials.
Invite
Ask a question, start a debate.
Build brief
What are your four idea-bank lanes going to be? Name them and write one example video idea for each, tailored to your business or niche.
Saved
Write the hook first
Hook-first scripting means the first line of your video gets written before anything else — before the outline, before the filming location, before you've even decided what you're wearing. The hook is the opening one to three seconds, and it carries a brutal job: give a scrolling stranger a reason not to scroll. Everything after it is detail; the hook is the decision point.
A working hook does three things in under three seconds: it names who the video is for, it promises a payoff, and it opens a gap the viewer needs closed. "If your sourdough keeps coming out gummy, you're probably making this one mistake" names the audience (sourdough bakers), promises the fix, and opens the gap (which mistake?). Compare that to "Hey guys, today I want to talk about sourdough" — no audience filter, no promise, no gap. One keeps viewers; the other donates them to the next video in the feed.
Build a personal hook bank alongside your idea bank: every time a hook stops your own scroll, write it down and note the pattern — was it a warning, a bold claim, a question, a curiosity gap? Then draft three hooks per video before filming and pick the strongest. Filming to a chosen hook beats filming three versions and hoping; it focuses your energy, your b-roll, and your edit around a single promise you intend to keep.
Build brief
Draft three different hooks for the next video you want to make. Then pick the strongest one and explain in one sentence why it would stop your own scroll.
Saved
The 10-minute pre-shoot checklist
Filming days die in the first ten minutes. You sit down to film, realize the room is echoey, the light is wrong, and the phone is at 12%. Twenty minutes of faffing later, your energy is gone and the takes show it. The pre-shoot checklist exists so filming starts with momentum, not troubleshooting.
Run it in the same order every time: location locked and quiet, light in front of you (a window beats any lamp you own), phone charged past 50% with storage free, lens wiped clean — a smudged lens is the most common reason phone footage looks soft — and props within arm's reach. Then one test clip: ten seconds, played back with sound, checking framing, audio, and background before one real take.
The magic is in the repetition. The first time, the checklist takes ten minutes. By week four it takes three, because your filming corner stays set up and the steps are muscle memory. Don't skip it on "quick" videos — quick videos are exactly where unfixable audio and blurry footage come from.
Build brief
Where will you film, and what's your personal pre-shoot checklist? List your location, your light source, and the 5 checks you'll run before every session.
Saved
Copy-paste template
HOOK BANK — 5 patterns to steal: 1. Warning: "Stop doing [X] if you want [result]." 2. Bold claim: "I [surprising result] in [timeframe] — here's how." 3. Question: "Why does nobody talk about [thing]?" 4. Curiosity gap: "The [adjective] reason [outcome] happened…" 5. Negative: "Don't buy [thing] until you see this."
Pre-shoot checklist
☐ Hook written ☐ Beats outlined ☐ B-roll list ☐ Location ready ☐ Phone charged, storage free
Jordan grabs his phone and films 20 random clips, hoping one of them works. Alex spends 15 minutes writing three hooks, picks the strongest, and films one video built around it. Whose video is more likely to hold viewers past the first three seconds, and why?