Two long conversations about how short-form video actually gets made. Both were recorded in 2024, while I was deep in the Warikoo work, and both spend real time on craft rather than strategy. I would rather point you at the parts that hold up than pretend every hour of it is essential.
Divyansh Sharma · 22 August 2024 · 1 hour 1 minute · Hindi and English
Mostly about how the short-form work actually gets built, from raw footage through to something people finish watching.
The most useful stretch starts around thirty minutes in, where I go through how feedback reaches me. Comments first, then the retention curve, then the shares to views ratio on Instagram. I also describe the audience persona I keep in my head, one specific person who either passes a video on or does not, and how I use them to judge whether a cut is landing before any numbers exist.
Earlier, near five minutes, there is the part I get asked about most: I make the first pass of cuts off the waveform without watching the footage. Two takes of the same line draw the same shape, so the repeat is visible before it is audible. That is the part I own on a video, and it is more mechanical than people tend to expect.
At thirty six minutes I talk about giving yourself feedback before anyone else does, and catching the moment you reach for the same template out of habit rather than judgement.
Two things I want to be straight about. The data analysis on that team was someone else's job, which the host raises in the recording and I do not dispute. The numbers on Warikoo's finance channel, 1,313 Shorts at 85.1% average retention, are the team's, not mine. And the view count in the episode title was current in August 2024. It is long out of date now, so please do not read it as a number I claim today.
Tea with Aadhitea · 25 October 2024 · 30 minutes · English
Aimed mostly at people trying to get into the industry, so a good deal of it covers beginner rates and software that has little to do with how I work or what I charge now.
The part I would still send someone is the answer on creativity: study other people's work without being critical of it, and understand why they made the choices they made. I describe creativity there as mixing and matching what you have already noticed, which is a less flattering account than most people want to hear.
The same episode is on Spotify.
Both of these are from 2024 and both are framed around craft, because that is what I was asked about. What I do now sits earlier in the process, closer to what gets made and why, and to building something that keeps running without me in the room.
If you want that version, the about page has the background and the notes are where I write about the work now. The FAQ answers what people actually ask before hiring me. If you are weighing up who else does this in India, I keep an honest list of them. If you are writing about short-form video in India and want someone to talk to, I am at adityavora16@gmail.com.