A skill that makes Claude write a brand film or a manifesto the way a senior writer and director does, one stage at a time, with you choosing at each fork. It turns your notes into a brief with a truth bank, where every fact is marked confirmed, to check or not usable. It writes three ideas on three different structures and compares them side by side. Then it builds a beat sheet with timecodes, writes a two-column script with every voiceover line counted and timed, briefs the music by tempo and hit points, and rewrites the film as 30, 15 and 6 second cutdowns for each placement.
Inside are five reference files. One holds the ad lengths, shapes and safe zones for YouTube, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, the crop maths for vertical versions, and the US rules on testimonials, AI-made people, origin claims and green claims, each with its source and the date it was checked. The others hold eleven film structures and how each scales down to six seconds, read speeds and word budgets for every length, music and voice direction with licence routes, and a fictional brand's film taken through every stage. Claude never invents a testimonial, a quote or a claim. It leaves a marked gap and asks you.
Claude cannot hear a voiceover or shoot footage. It times the script by word count and asks you to read it aloud against a stopwatch, and it writes shot descriptions for your crew, your editor or your own AI video tool. It needs code execution switched on to count exactly and to make the script as a document, the beat sheet as a spreadsheet and the caption files. Share what you have before it starts: your brand guidelines, your about page, past films, interview transcripts and a list of the footage you already own. The legal notes are flags for your lawyer, not advice.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Brand film script
Checking your access.
In the download · 7 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows: the brief and truth bank, three ideas, the beat sheet, the timed two-column script, sound, cutdowns and the table read.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/platforms-and-rules.mdAd lengths, shapes and safe zones for YouTube, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, vertical crop maths, WCAG captions and contrast, US rules on testimonials, AI-made people, origin and green claims, and Veo shot lengths, each with its source, checked 18 October 2026.
- references/structures.mdEleven structures for brand films and manifestos, how each scales from 2 minutes to 6 seconds, the idea card, the five tests, the manifesto line edit and a worked 30 second manifesto for a fictional brand.
- references/timing.mdRead speeds, word budgets for every length, end card holds and pauses, a word-counting script, how long supers stay on screen, and how to build SRT caption files.
- references/sound-and-music.mdMusic roles, tempo and bar tables, the music brief, sound design, licence routes including AI music, voice casting and direction, and loudness targets by destination.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/brand-film-script.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /brand-film-script. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the brand film script skill. I need a [LENGTH] brand film for [BRAND], which [WHAT THE BRAND DOES]. It plays first on [WHERE IT PLAYS], for [WHO WATCHES] in [MARKET]. It will be made with [CREW, OWN FOOTAGE, STOCK OR AI VIDEO]. My brand guidelines and notes are attached. Start with the brief and the truth bank.Attach your brand guidelines, your about page and any past films or interview transcripts. Switch on code execution so Claude can count the voiceover exactly and hand you the script as a document.
Side by side
30 seconds, 60 seconds or 2 minutes
| 30 seconds | 60 seconds | 2 minutes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceover words at a calm read | 33 to 43 for a story film, up to 51 for a manifesto | 66 to 86 for a story film, up to 103 for a manifesto | 132 to 172 for a story film, up to 206 for a manifesto |
| Beats | 4 to 6 | 6 to 9 | 10 to 14 |
| Shots, roughly | 10 to 15 | 18 to 28 | 30 to 45 |
| What it can carry | One idea and one turn | One idea, a turn and one piece of proof | A story with a turn, a voice, a pause and a belief |
| Where it plays first | Pre-roll, connected TV, the master for paid social | The site's home page, YouTube, a launch | The about page, an event opener, hiring, fundraising |
| End card | 2 to 3 seconds | 3 to 4 seconds | 4 to 6 seconds |
| Cutdowns it feeds | 15 and 6 seconds | 30, 15 and 6 seconds | 60, 30, 15 and 6 seconds |
| Music | One build and a button | A build, a drop-out at the turn, a button | Two movements, or a silence in the middle |
Word counts assume 2.2 words a second, about 132 a minute, the skill's default for a calm brand read. They are working rules, not a standard: time the real read and adjust.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- VeoPay per use
Text or image to video, with sound, at a length and coherence nothing had two years ago.
Bad at Cost per second is high enough to change how you storyboard. Long shots still drift, and hands and logos wander. Through the Gemini API on 25 September 2026 it refused a last frame on every tier, though the docs describe one.
Why it matters
Ask a plain chat for a brand film and the script usually runs long. A 60 second script can take 90 seconds to read aloud. Lines repeat what the picture already shows, a customer quote appears that nobody said, and the social cuts are the long film trimmed. This skill makes Claude set a word budget from the read speed before it writes, describe shots a camera can film, trace every fact to a source, and rewrite each cutdown for its own placement.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing