Short-form video glossary.

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Terms

Short-form video

Vertical videos, usually under three minutes and most often under one, made for feeds such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok and LinkedIn. They are watched on phones, often without sound, so captions, a strong opening and fast pacing matter more than in long-form video.

Hook

The opening line, image or moment of a short video, designed to make a viewer keep watching. A hook makes a small promise, such as a question, a surprising number or the result shown first, and it has to land in the first few seconds before the viewer scrolls on.

Podcast clipping

Turning moments from a long podcast episode into short vertical videos for social feeds. Each clip is chosen to make sense without context, cut so its first seconds carry the hook, captioned, reframed to 9:16 and finished in the show's own style.

Video repurposing

Reusing long-form recordings, such as webinars, talks, interviews, podcasts and lives, as many shorter pieces for other platforms. It turns footage a team already has into a steady supply of posts without new filming.

White-label video editing

A service in which a production partner edits videos for an agency's clients and delivers them without any partner branding, so the agency presents the work as its own. The partner never contacts the end client, and each client's style and footage stay confidential.

Style System

ReelNinja's name for a brand's documented editing style: captions, pacing, hooks, framing, colour, sound, graphics and end cards, captured once from videos the brand has already published. Every new video starts from these rules, so output stays consistent at any volume.

Reference video

An existing video, usually one that already performed well, chosen as the model for a new one. It sets the rhythm, length, pacing and caption treatment the new edit should follow, which removes most of the guesswork from briefing an editor or an AI system.

Burned-in captions

Captions rendered into the video image itself rather than added as a separate subtitle file. They show on every platform and device, including when sound is off, and they can be styled to match a brand's fonts, colours and emphasis.

9:16, 1:1 and 4:5

The three common short-form aspect ratios. 9:16 is full-screen vertical, used for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. 1:1 is square and 4:5 is a taller portrait, both common in feeds. A single edit is usually delivered in more than one of them.

AI avatar video

A video presented by a lifelike digital version of a real person, generated from a script instead of filmed. Avatars let people who cannot film often publish consistently. ReelNinja only makes avatars of people who have agreed to it.

Editing Brain

ReelNinja's in-house AI editing system. It applies editing know-how learned from how top editors work to new footage, in a client's Style System and following an approved reference. A person chooses the moments and checks every video it produces.

Engram

ReelNinja's in-house clip search tool. It finds the right moment across hours of footage in seconds, so editors spend their time choosing and shaping the best moments rather than scrubbing through timelines.

Batch editing (rolling queue)

Editing videos in groups instead of one request at a time. At ReelNinja clients send footage any day into a rolling queue; what arrives is grouped into batches and edited side by side, and the edits usually arrive in about two to three working days as a Frame.io link for notes. Turnaround shortens as each batch teaches the client's Style System more. Any single video can still be delivered faster as priority turnaround.

Keep-rate guarantee

ReelNinja's quality promise on every batch: if fewer than 6 of 10 videos are ones the client would post, the batch is re-cut free, and refunded if the re-cut also falls short.

Priority turnaround

Faster delivery for a single video, priced on top of the package rate. At ReelNinja: 72 hours for $15 more, 24 to 48 hours for $30 more, and same day for $60 more.