--- name: local_business_promo_video description: Plan, shoot, and cut short promo videos for local businesses with a phone: menu and offer drops, item spotlights, event clips, and hiring spots, with shot lists, offer scripts, a weekly batch routine, and tested ffmpeg exports for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Triggers on local business promo video, menu drop, offer video, hiring spot, event clip, restaurant or shop social video, or a weekly shooting routine for a small business. --- # Local Business Promo Video ## Purpose Turn one real offer, item, event, or open job into a short vertical video a local business can post the same day. The method is tool neutral: shoot on any modern phone, cut in any editor or with ffmpeg alone, and export one master that works on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, plus a 4:5 feed version when needed. Four formats cover most local needs. Pick one per video and do not mix them. - Offer Drop, 15 to 30 seconds: one price, bundle, or limited run with a clear end date. - Item Spotlight, 20 to 40 seconds: one menu item, product, or service shown up close, start to finish. - Event Clip, 30 to 60 seconds: one event, class, market day, or live night, shot before, during, and after. - Hiring Spot, 30 to 45 seconds: one open role, spoken by the person the hire will work with. ## Workflow 1. Lock the facts before you shoot. Write down the exact offer or claim, the price, the start and end dates, any limits such as one per person or while stock lasts, the address or ordering route, and the single call to action. Check each line against a written source the business controls, such as a current menu, a till price, or a dated post. If a fact has no source, cut it from the script. Expired or guessed prices are the fastest way to lose trust and get comments the business has to clean up. 2. Pick the format and write the script from the templates in `references/shot-lists-and-scripts.md`. Keep spoken copy short. At a normal speaking pace, 15 seconds holds about 35 words, 30 seconds about 75 words, and 45 seconds about 110 words. Open with the item or the offer in the first 2 seconds, in words and on screen. Save the business name for the end card unless the name is the hook. End with one call to action only: come in today, order at the counter, book at the link, apply in store. Two actions split the response. 3. Run the weekly batch routine instead of shooting one video at a time. Block 90 minutes once a week at the quietest trading hour. Shoot in this order: one Offer Drop, two Item Spotlights, then b-roll that serves the next two weeks: hands making or packing the item, the front of the shop in good light, staff serving a real customer who agreed to be filmed, close shots of signage, prices, and finished items. A batch gives four to six usable clips and a b-roll bank, so a sick day or a busy week does not stop posting. Log each clip in a simple shot log: date, format, item, spoken line done or b-roll, usable yes or no. 4. Set the phone up the same way every time. Record vertical, 1080 by 1920 if the phone offers it, or 4K vertical and downscale in the export. Use 30 fps for normal promos. Lock focus and exposure with a long press on the subject. Clean the lens. Put the phone on a tripod or brace it against a fixed surface at eye level for speaking shots and at counter height for food or product shots. Turn off notifications and turn on do not disturb. 5. Light and sound before decoration. Face the person or the item toward the main window or the brightest even light, with the phone between the light and the subject. Never shoot a speaker with a bright window behind them. Move closer instead of using digital zoom. Record speech within about one metre of the phone, or use a cheap wired or wireless mic clipped at chest level. In a noisy kitchen or street, move the speaking shot to a quiet corner and lay it over b-roll in the edit. Record 5 seconds of room tone before you start. 6. Shoot the shot list, not the whole day. Follow the per format lists in `references/shot-lists-and-scripts.md`. The pattern is the same each time: a wide shot that places the business, a close shot that proves the item is real, a hands shot that shows it being made, served, or used, a speaking shot that states the offer plainly, and an end shot with the call to action. Shoot each shot twice. Check the second take on the spot for focus, light on the item, and whether prices or dates in frame are current. 7. Get permission in frame. Ask staff and customers before they appear and respect a no without debate. Do not film children up close, payment screens, card details, number plates, or other customers who have not agreed. If a business films at a market or a shared venue, check the venue rule for commercial filming first. 8. Edit for a muted first watch. Most feeds autoplay without sound, so the video must make sense silent. Put the offer in large on screen text in the first 2 seconds, keep all key text inside the safe band described in Operating Rules, and add captions. Deliver captions two ways: burned in captions for the feed file and a corrected .srt sidecar for platforms that take a caption file. Proof the captions by hand, especially names, prices, and dates. Auto captions get those wrong often. 9. Export with the tested recipes or the helper script. Use `scripts/promo_export.py` to build the 9:16 master, an optional 4:5 version, loudness normalization, and caption burn in from an .srt or .ass file. Manual recipes and the full spec table are in `references/platform-specs.md`. Normalize finished speech and music mixes to minus 14 LUFS integrated, true peak minus 1 dBTP, using two pass loudnorm when the mix matters. Run loudness last, after the final mix. 10. Run the QA pass in the Output Contract, then write the post copy. Post copy repeats the offer exactly as filmed, adds the end date and the location in plain text, and states any paid or gifted connection plainly when one exists. See Operating Rules for disclosure. Post the master to each platform natively rather than cross posting a file that carries another platform watermark. ## Output Contract Deliver all of the following, every time: - Script as shot, with the format name, the runtime, and the single call to action at the top. - Final 9:16 master: MP4, 1080 by 1920, H.264 video, AAC audio at 48 kHz, yuv420p, faststart on, duration inside the format range above. - Optional 4:5 version at 1080 by 1350 for a feed placement, same audio and captions. - Corrected caption file (.srt) matching the final cut word for word, plus the burned in version when the destination is a feed. - Verification evidence: ffprobe output for the master showing dimensions, codecs, and duration, one extracted frame at a captioned moment showing captions and on screen text inside the safe band, and a loudness reading for the final file. - Post copy for each target platform, with the offer, the end date, and the location, plus a note of what was checked against the source facts in step 1. - Shot log entry for any b-roll banked for later weeks. ## Operating Rules - Shoot and export one vertical master first. TikTok, Reels, and Shorts all take 1080 by 1920, H.264, AAC, 30 fps. Make platform variants only when a placement needs one, such as a 4:5 feed crop. - Keep key text and faces out of platform UI. On a 1080 by 1920 frame, keep critical text below the top 14 percent and above the bottom 35 percent, and at least 6 percent in from each side. Check the frame in the real app preview before posting. - Keep Shorts that use third party music at 60 seconds or under. A Short over one minute with an active Content ID claim is blocked worldwide. Use original audio, library audio cleared for commercial use, or keep the cut short. - Never state a price, discount, date, or stock level you have not checked that week. Film the shelf or menu price where you can, so the proof is in the frame. - Disclose material connections plainly. If a creator was paid, gifted product, or is staff or family, say so in the video itself and at the start of the caption with a plain word such as Ad or Sponsored. A platform paid partnership tag on its own is not enough under the FTC Endorsement Guides. A business posting its own offer on its own account does not need an ad label for that fact alone, but it does need every claim in the video to be true and current. - Use music you have the right to use commercially. A personal account trending sound is often not cleared for business use. When in doubt, use the platform commercial library or original audio. - Respect caption accuracy over caption style. One or two lines at a time, high contrast text on a solid or semi opaque background, natural phrase breaks. Proof names and numbers by hand. - Do not add a watermark from one platform to a file posted on another. Export a clean master and post natively. - If the light, the sound, or the item itself is not ready, say so and reshoot rather than fixing a bad take with heavy filters. A plain, clear reshoot beats a polished video of the wrong price or a stale item. - Keep the routine small enough to survive a busy week. One good batch a week, posted two to three times, beats a daily plan the business drops after ten days. ## Available connectors - Use `muse.connector_search` to find other connectors and `muse.skill_search` to find related skills. - If nothing here fits, look on the web for a maintained API or MCP server and set it up with [Custom Connectors and MCPs](/opt/muse/skills/custom-connector-setup/SKILL.md), or build a custom connector.