Write a better AI video editing prompt: six fields, one brief

Disclosure: this guide is from the Valmera team. We built the video editing prompt builder described below.

“Make this video better” leaves almost every editorial decision open. Better for whom? Shorter by how much? Is the viewer learning a task, deciding whether to try a product, or watching a story?

A useful editing brief answers those questions before the first preview. It also names the material the editor must protect.

Here is a six-field workflow you can use for your next recording, with a complete example you can copy.

1. Name the recording

An interview and a tutorial need different editorial structures. A tutorial should keep the steps required to reproduce a result. An interview clip needs enough context to make the answer understandable outside the original conversation.

Choose the kind of recording in the builder: tutorial, interview, product demo, webinar, travel story, real estate walkthrough, event highlights, or lesson.

This first choice gives the brief its editorial goal. It is more useful than starting with a list of effects.

2. Name the destination

Choose where the finished video will appear. A vertical social clip needs a composition that protects the speaker, product, or demonstration inside a portrait frame. A landscape tutorial may need the wider screen context.

You can also keep the source format. There is no reason to reframe a recording when the original composition already serves the destination.

3. Give length a purpose

“About 60 seconds” is a target. “Remove the explanation even if it stops making sense” is a different instruction.

The builder keeps that distinction in the brief: aim for the chosen length without cutting off essential information. There is also a “Let the story decide” option for recordings where the complete thought matters more than a fixed duration.

4. Describe the viewer

“First-time customers” and “experienced users troubleshooting an integration” need different amounts of explanation.

Name the audience in ordinary language. You do not need a marketing persona document. One specific sentence is enough to guide which context, terminology, and examples belong in the cut.

5. Protect the important material

This is the most useful field to personalize.

For a product demo, preserve the step that makes the result reproducible. For an interview, preserve the condition attached to the speaker’s claim. For an event, preserve the names and relationships that give a moment its meaning.

Avoid a vague instruction such as “keep the important parts.” Say which parts matter:

Keep the permissions step, the final working screen, and the warning that the integration needs an administrator account.

6. Decide on captions

Choose captions when they help the viewing experience. Ask for names and numbers to be checked, and keep the text clear of important visual details.

If you want a clean version for a different publishing workflow, leave captions off for that version.

A complete example

Suppose you have a screen recording showing how to connect an integration. The destination is YouTube, the audience is first-time customers, and the useful explanation takes about three minutes.

Here is an adapted brief:

Edit this screen recording into a tutorial for first-time customers. Show the working result early, then keep every necessary step in order. Remove repeated attempts and loading waits. Aim for about three minutes without cutting off essential instructions. Use a landscape composition and make the interface readable. Keep the permissions step, the final working screen, and the administrator-account warning. Add readable captions and check product names. Render a preview so I can review the sequence before the final export.

Every sentence gives the editor a decision or a constraint. You can shorten the brief when the recording makes some of those decisions obvious.

Review once, then revise precisely

Copy the brief into Valmera after uploading your footage. Watch the first preview for three things: whether the story makes sense, whether the protected material survived, and whether the output is readable at its intended size.

Then request a specific revision:

Keep the current order. Restore the explanation immediately before the permissions screen, hold the completed result longer, and leave the rest unchanged.

That is easier to evaluate than starting over with “make it more professional.”

Try it with your own footage

The Valmera prompt builder and library are public to use without signing in. The library currently includes 94 examples across 14 editing tasks. Creating a Valmera account and uploading are free; editing requires a subscription.

You can refine a brief in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, or another planning assistant, then bring it to Valmera. A planning conversation and an actual edit are separate steps: review the rendered video before you publish it.

Valmera’s promise: the world’s best AI video editor. Join thousands of users. Come try Valmera.