Miniature painting for a YouTube channel
Two years of every piece of video for one of the world's biggest miniature-painting channels. Six hours of brushwork has to become thirteen minutes people watch to the end.
Slapchop: the full YouTube episode
The brief
The channel's entire video output: long-form episodes for YouTube, vertical cut-downs for social, and videos for new releases such as the big new starter set. On the long-form films we're co-writer and editor; on everything else, author of the whole thing.
What was at stake
A channel with more than a quarter of a million subscribers lives on episodes being watched to the end. The audience are painters themselves: they can tell when a shade is off, when a step gets skipped, and when a video is padding. A badly cut episode costs trust as well as views.
The constraint
Painting a figure is slow, quiet and small: the exact opposite of what holds attention in a feed. Nothing happens fast, which means the shoot doesn't set the pace. The edit does. And the same footage has to serve two formats with opposite rules: long form rewards process, vertical punishes it.
How it was shot and cut
Long form is cut as the story of one model; vertical is cut as a single moment. They aren't two versions of the same thing. They're two different videos from the same table.
A long episode builds like a story
Problem, then technique, then reveal. The viewer stays to see how it turns out. A list in the description alone wouldn't have kept them there.
Vertical is built around one shot
We look for the moment that reads at thumbnail size: color, contrast, a hand in motion, and build the thirty seconds around it. Trimming the long episode doesn't work: what's left is a fast summary with no reason to watch.
Color graded for accuracy over flattery
The audience are painters with that paint in a pot at home. A grade that adds saturation shows them a shade they will not be able to mix after buying it, which is worse than a flat image.
More from this project
Frames from the film
Click any frame to open it full screen.
The client has two years of uninterrupted content in two formats without having to run a production. One episode has over 514 thousand views, a number anyone can open and check.
CreditsLong-form: co-writer and editor · Vertical: concept, camera and edit · Client channel: Zumikito Miniatures