What a video format is
A video's format is the shape of the video rather than its subject: the hook and the job it is doing, the beats and their order, the turn where the video becomes something else, and the close. Two videos about completely different products can run the same format, which is why a format travels between brands when a topic does not.
What is a video format?
A video's format is the shape it runs on: the hook and the job it is doing, the beats and the order they come in, the turn where the video becomes something else, and the close. It is the pattern underneath the video rather than the video's subject — the same format can carry a haul, a recipe, or a product demo, because the shape and the subject are two different things.
Is this about file formats like MP4 or MOV?
No. A video file format — MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM — describes how the file is encoded and stored, and it has nothing to do with what this page means by format. Here, a format is the video's structure: the hook, the beats and their order, the turn and the close. The two words are unrelated, and everything below is about the second one.
What is the difference between a format and a topic?
A video's topic is what it is about — a product, a place, a story. A video's format is how it is put together to get there: which beat comes first, where the turn lands, how the close hands off. Two videos can share a topic and use completely different formats, and two videos can share a format while being about nothing alike. Copying a topic gets you a video about somebody else's subject; copying a format gets you the structure that made the original work.
Why does a format work for a different brand when a topic does not?
A format is not attached to any one product, so putting a new brand's subject through it does not require the format itself to change — only the specific facts and the hook's angle change; the shape holds. A topic, by contrast, is specific: a video about one company's product is a video about that product, and simply swapping a different company's name into the same script does not make it a video about the new company. That is the practical reason a format transfers between brands where a topic does not.
What are the parts of a format?
Every format breaks down into the same four parts.
- the hook — the opening seconds, and the job they are doing.
- the beats — the steps the video moves through, in the order they come in.
- the turn — the point where the video becomes something else.
- the close — how it ends.
Each part is broken down further on the parts of a short-form video script.
How do you find the format in a video you like?
Watch it once for the subject, then watch it again and write down only the structure: where the hook starts and ends, each beat in one line, where the turn happens, and how it closes. Strip out the specific product, the specific words and the specific footage, and what is left is the format — a sequence you could run with a different subject. The step-by-step version of this is in how to turn a video into a script for a brand.
Is copying a format the same as copying the video?
This is a creative distinction, not a legal opinion, and it should not be read as one. lynxr's own terms of service put it plainly: the scripts it writes are new text about a new subject, not copies of the source video's words, and using a video's format does not carry ownership of that video with it — the creator of the source video keeps every right they had. Copying a format is closer to writing a new song in an existing genre than to sampling a recording: what carries over is a pattern, not the original material.
How lynxr does this
You send lynxr a public link to a video; it watches the video, transcribes what is said, and works out the format before writing anything — the hook, the beats and their order, the turn and the close — then rewrites that same format as a script for the company you are making content for. See how to turn a video into a script for a brand for the method step by step, the parts of a short-form video script for what each part is doing, and the short-form video glossary for the terms on their own. See questions and answers for what it costs and how access works.
- How to script a storytime video for a brand — one format broken down into its beat map, with an example script.