Every Friday at 4 PM, we review the week's video content. Not the work we made. The work we watched. Reels. YouTube. Ads. Anything that caught attention.
We don't analyze craft. We analyze retention. What made us watch? What made us leave? What made us share?
This ritual has taught me more about video than film school ever did. Because film school teaches you structure, composition, lighting. Important skills. But they don't teach you the most important skill: making people give a shit.
And giving a shit is a second-by-second decision. Every frame is an opportunity to lose them. Every cut is a test of whether they're still interested.
The Videos that win our Friday review share patterns: immediate intrigue, fast pacing, emotional peaks every few seconds, payoff that makes sharing feel smart.
Traditional advertising has almost none of this. Traditional advertising builds slowly. Establishes mood. Creates anticipation. Saves the reveal for the end.
Social does the opposite. Shows the reveal first. Then explains why it matters. Because if they don't know why they should care in three seconds, they're gone before the explanation arrives.
This isn't a quality judgment. Long-form video has its place. But its place isn't social feeds. And trying to make long-form work in short-form environments is why most brand video gets scroll-murdered.
The algorithm isn't magic. It's just math wrapped around human behaviour. And human behaviour says: give me a reason to stay, right now, or I'm gone.