Design for the first second and the last
The first second decides the scroll; the last second decides the rewatch. Open mid-motion — a whip pan landing on the subject, an object already falling, a door already opening. Never open on a static establishing shot; that's a skip.
For the ending, either land a clean resolution (satisfying loop-adjacent close) or cut a beat early so the loop back to the start feels seamless. Rewatch rate is the strongest signal short-form algorithms reward, and loop-friendly clips farm it automatically.
Prompting for vertical
Compose for a tall frame: single centered subjects, vertical elements (doorways, alleys, full-body shots), and headroom at the top where platform UI and captions live. Wide landscapes and horizontal action waste the format — reframe the same idea as "looking down an alley" instead of "across a plaza".
High contrast and saturated color survive feed compression better than subtle grading. Prompts with neon, hard flash, or strong silhouettes read clearly even at phone brightness in daylight — test your clip at arm's length, not fullscreen.
Series beat singles
The accounts that compound run repeatable formats: same visual world, same structure, new subject each day. Build a prompt template with one variable slot — "[ANIMAL] as a noir detective in a rainy city" — and you have a 30-day series from one creative decision.
Batch-generate a week at a time: pick the format, run seven variants, schedule them. Consistency of style (same model, same presets, same palette) makes the account instantly recognizable in the feed.