How to make a hit video, according to 195 of the best films ever made
The simple version of my film emotion research for people who make videos: where the joke goes, how long to hold the tension, why the ending is the only part everyone agrees on, and a minute-by-minute plan for a ten-minute video.
I charted where the feeling goes in 195 films from the IMDb Top 250. The long version has all the charts and the method. This is the short version for anyone who makes videos.
Movies are not YouTube videos. Nobody clicks away from The Godfather at eight seconds. But a video and a film are doing the same job, which is holding attention and paying it off with a feeling, and the films that did that job best for a hundred years left a pattern in their dialogue. Here is the pattern, and a way to use it.
Seven rules
1. Put your best joke in the first quarter
Across these films, humor peaks about 25% of the way in and drops for the rest of the runtime. Almost none of them save a joke for the end. If you have one great bit, it goes early. The end is for something else.
Humor peaks early and never comes back
Average humor score across all 195 films, from the start of the film to the end.
Table view
| runtime | humor |
|---|---|
| 5% | 0.16 |
| 14% | 0.37 |
| 25% | 0.44 |
| 35% | 0.21 |
| 45% | 0.22 |
| 55% | 0.07 |
| 65% | -0.07 |
| 75% | -0.21 |
| 85% | -0.42 |
| 95% | -0.75 |
| 100% | -0.77 |
2. Tension only goes up
The average tension curve rises for 88% of the film and then drops hard. That drop is the ending. There is no dip in the middle where the film relaxes and comes back. Every time you resolve something before the end, you are spending tension you cannot get back. Raise the stakes, do not answer the question, keep going.
Tension rises for nearly the whole film, then collapses
Average tension and arousal. The cliff at the end is the payoff.
Table view
| runtime | tension | arousal |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | -0.52 | -0.53 |
| 14% | -0.26 | -0.19 |
| 25% | -0.19 | -0.16 |
| 35% | -0.08 | -0.10 |
| 45% | -0.02 | -0.05 |
| 55% | 0.10 | 0.07 |
| 65% | 0.25 | 0.19 |
| 75% | 0.39 | 0.36 |
| 85% | 0.47 | 0.35 |
| 95% | 0.05 | 0.21 |
| 100% | -0.64 | -0.33 |
3. The last 10% is where you make them feel something
Warmth, grief and meaning all rise through the film and peak at the end. Warmth hits its peak in the last tenth of the film for a third of them. The middle is where films differ from each other. The ending is where they agree. Whatever the emotional point of your video is, it lives in the last minute, not the first.
4. Ending on a downer is fine
Fewer than half of these films end happier than they start. 93 of 195 end up. 102 end down. A quiet or sad ending is not a mistake. It is the majority.
5. Open darker than feels comfortable
Films that open with heavier dialogue rank higher on the list. The effect is small, but it is the only valence number that moves with rank at all. Start with the problem, and make it a real one.
6. Stakes beat jokes if you want to be remembered
The two things that go with a higher rank are tension and moral weight, meaning something is actually at stake and somebody could be wronged. Humor goes slightly the other way. Funny videos get watched. Videos with stakes get ranked.
What goes with a higher rank
Correlation between a film's average level on each axis and its place on the list. Positive means more of this, higher on the list. These are small numbers inside an elite group; read them as direction, not as a formula.
Table view
| rho vs. rank | |
|---|---|
| tension | +0.22 * |
| moral weight | +0.17 * |
| arousal | +0.09 |
| conflict | +0.07 |
| grief | +0.05 |
| warmth | +0.05 |
| humor | -0.10 |
| valence | -0.12 |
7. Do not copy a template
I went looking for the handful of story shapes that every screenwriting book promises. They are not in the data. The films sit on a continuum. The rules above are tendencies that most great films share, not a shape you trace. Use them as defaults and break them on purpose.
A ten-minute video, minute by minute
Here is what the average curve looks like when you translate it into a plan. Adjust the numbers to your length. The proportions are what matter.
- 0:00 to 0:30. The problem. State it darker than you want to. No joke yet.
- 0:30 to 2:30. Your best bit. The funniest or most surprising thing you have goes here, while attention is highest.
- 2:30 to 8:30. Raise the stakes. Every 60 to 90 seconds, something gets worse, bigger, or more personal. Do not answer the main question. Do not relax.
- 8:30 to 9:00. The peak. The most intense moment. This is where tension maxes out in the films.
- 9:00 to 10:00. Drop it. Resolve the question, then land the feeling. Warm, sad, or moving, your choice, but this is the only minute that gets it.
That is the whole thing. Joke early, tension up, feeling at the end.
One caveat
Retention curves belong to YouTube, not to cinema, and a film has a captive audience that a video does not. Everything above is about where the feeling goes once someone is watching. Getting them to watch is a different problem. Test it on your own numbers and tell me what breaks.
- Dr. J