Step 1: Save formats, not ideas
Don't start from a blank page. When a reel stops your scroll, save it, whether it's from an agent or from anyone else. What you're saving is the format: the opening shot, the hook line, the beats, and the length. The story inside it can be yours. A screenshot of the first frame helps too: it shows where the camera was and how tight the shot is.
You do
- Picking the formats that fit you and your market
Hand off
- Breaking each reel down: the hook, the beats, and how long each shot lasts
Step 2: Turn the format into a shot list
Before you film, write the format down shot by shot: where the camera is, what moves, how long it lasts, and the one line of text. Every camera spot should be one a real person could hold: your own phone, a friend filming across the table, a phone on the dash mount. When nobody could be standing where the camera is, viewers feel it, even if they can't say why.
You do
- Deciding what your version says
Hand off
- The shot list, with the camera spot and the length of each shot
- A few hook lines to choose from
Step 3: Hook them in one second, keep them by three
Viewers decide almost at once. Open in motion: mid-step, mid-sentence, the action already started. Never open on someone standing still, waiting to begin. Put the hook on screen in the first second. By second three, give them a reason to stay: the twist, the question, the ending they want to see. Then stop before it drags.
You do
- Choosing the hook
Hand off
- Trimming any slow start
- Checking the first three seconds of every take
Step 4: Film it yourself, and keep it real
Shoot two or three takes of each shot on your own phone. Keep the acting calm: a small reaction reads as real, and a big face reads as staged. Film homes as they are. A listing photo or tour has to show the property as it is, so leave AI out of the home itself and use it on the edit.
You do
- Being on camera
- Filming the home as it is
Hand off
- Picking the best take of each shot
Step 5: Cut it to the format, with one line of text
Cut your takes in the reference's order and to its timing. Use one line of text, the hook, and keep it low on the screen, at your chest rather than over your head. Don't put on screen what you already say out loud. Skip the narrator and the sales pitch at the end: the format does the work. Add the sound in Instagram or TikTok when you post.
You do
- Approving the final cut
Hand off
- The cut, the timing, and the text line
- Captions, when you want them
Step 6: Watch it like a stranger before you post
Watch it once as someone who doesn't know you. Who is filming? Does the light come from somewhere? Does anything change between shots that shouldn't? Does something happen in the first second? If a part looks fake, cut it or reshoot it. One honest take beats a polished one that looks staged.
You do
- The last look before you post
- Posting, and answering the comments
Hand off
- Flagging what changes between shots: a prop, a sign, the light
Where Reddy fits
On the Reddy Content page, drop in your takes and say what you want. Reddy cuts and joins them in the order you name, or picks the best moments itself, and puts a one-line hook on screen where you ask. It adds captions when you want them, and it can play your voice from one take under the whole clip. For a listing, it makes a reel from the listing's own photos and your clips, and ends it with your name and brokerage, plus your phone when it's in your profile.
It never generates or changes a photo, and it doesn't post for you. The format, the hook, and the time on camera stay with you.