06
The Pipeline
Seven stages. No stage gets skipped. Each has an owner, a deliverable, and a gate.
Figure 2 — 7-Stage Video Pipeline (All stages mandatory, no skips)
Stage 1: Ideation
Every Monday, Naveen logs 3–5 topic ideas. Each entry must contain all five elements.
Gate:
Stage 2: Scripting
Duration target: 45–90 seconds for Reels/Shorts. Up to 3 minutes for LinkedIn. Owner: Naveen (with Claude AI assist). Time Budget: 20 minutes per script, maximum.
Stage 3: Shoot
Lens Clean:
4K 30fps Minimum:
Vertical Framing:
Stable Mount:
Audio Check:
Lighting:
Multiple Takes:
B-Roll Buffer:
Owner: Naveen. Camera: iPhone 17 Pro Max (primary). Deliverable: Raw footage uploaded to WEEKLY_INTAKE.
Stage 4: Edit
Assembly
Pull the strongest take from the Clip Bank. Lay talking head on timeline per the script.
Trim
Cut all dead air, filler words, false starts, repeated points. Be aggressive.
B-Roll
Search the Clip Bank by folder and filename. Layer B-roll at natural transitions and wherever visual interest drops.
Color Grade
Apply the master LUT. Adjust exposure and white balance per clip. Every clip in one video must match.
Captions
Burned-in, brand font, verbatim. Lower third placement with screen-edge margin.
Music & SFX
Background music from approved library at 15–20% of voice level. Transition SFX only where they serve pacing.
Brand Elements
Lower third on first appearance, logo watermark, outro CTA. No intro animation on Reels/Shorts.
Platform Versions
Separate exports per platform with correct specs.
Owner: Editor (Devansh). Tools: Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Deliverable: V1 rough cut in the REVIEW folder. Time Budget: 4–6 hours per video.
Stage 5: Internal Review
Naveen reviews within 24 hours. Feedback is timestamped, specific, and actionable. Not "make it better." State what's wrong, exactly where, and what the fix is.
The 24-Hour Rule:
Reviewer: Naveen. Presenter: Devansh. Max Revision Rounds: 2. Upload Format: REVIEW_[TOPIC]_V1_[DATE].mp4
Stage 6 & 7: Export & Publish
Export naming: FINAL_[PLATFORM]_[TOPIC]_[DATE].mp4
Publish:
Archive:
Performance Log:
DAY
ACTION
OWNER
DELIVERABLE
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
DAY
ACTION
OWNER
DELIVERABLE
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
DAY
ACTION
OWNER
DELIVERABLE
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
04
Footage Ingestion
Two phases. Phase 1 is one-time. Phase 2 runs every week. Both are mandatory.
Phase 1: Backlog Sprint
There are 2–3 TB of footage scattered across Google Drive, Google Photos, and offline disks. This gets sorted before the weekly pipeline runs.
1
Dump
Create VORTEX_CLIP_BANK/_UNSORTED. Copy everything from all sources into it. Do not delete originals until sorting is complete.
2
First Pass — Bulk Sort
Watch each clip at 2x. Assign to a Level 1 category. Move to the correct folder. Rename per the convention. Unusable clips go to _UNSORTED/_REJECTED.
3
Second Pass — Subcategory
Within each Level 1 folder, sort into Level 2 buckets. Every clip must have a home.
4
Sync
Sync the entire Clip Bank to the offline backup disk. Verify no file is missing.
Phase 2: Ongoing Weekly
DAY
ACTION
OWNER
DELIVERABLE
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Clip Extraction Rules
Format:
Export in the rawest usable format. iPhone 17 Pro Max footage stays in ProRes or HEVC at native 4K. Compression happens only at final export.
One Idea Per Clip:
If Naveen covers three topics in one take, split into three clips.
Handles:
2-second handles at head and tail of every clip.
Audio Sync:
If external audio was used, sync before filing. Unsynced footage never enters the Clip Bank.
07
Quality Gates
Lock every element in this table before the first video ships publicly. Once locked, nothing changes without Naveen's written sign-off.
GATE
CRITERIA
WHO CHECKS
IF IT FAILS
Hook First
Reshoot it.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
03
The Clip Bank
The Clip Bank is the single source of truth for all raw and labeled footage. It lives on Google Drive (primary) and an offline hard disk (synced every Friday). Both must stay in sync. Out-of-sync is a blocker.
Root Folder:
Folder Structure
Figure 1 — Clip Bank Structure: 5 Categories + Standardized Naming
Level 1 & Level 2 Categories
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
WHAT GOES HERE
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Non-Negotiable:
3
Videos Per Week
7
Pipeline Stages
0
Skippable Steps
24h
Review SLA
There is enough raw footage to fill a hard drive and almost none of it has shipped. That ends now. This SOP is the system that fixes it — a Clip Bank that works and a pipeline that actually ships.
This is not a suggestion. This is how Vortex does video.
01
Purpose
The Seven Non-Negotiables
Before anything ships, it passes one test: does it match the vibe? Correct grade. Tight cuts. Purpose-driven B-roll. No dead air.
02
The North Star
RULE
STANDARD
IF IT FAILS
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
Warm, slightly desaturated. Film-adjacent, not influencer-adjacent. Natural skin tones. No heavy filters.
Hook First
Reshoot it.
First 1.5 sec: bold statement, visual pattern interrupt, or open loop. No friction = failed hook.
Owner
Version
Date
Status
Active
March 2026
v1.1
Naveen Kumar
Standard Operating Procedure
Founder Social Video
The system that turns raw footage into shipped content. Clip Bank. Pipeline. Quality gates. This is how Vortex does video.
Contents
01
Purpose
02
The North Star
03
The Clip Bank
04
Footage Ingestion
05
Brand Kit
06
The Pipeline
07
Quality Gates
08
Weekly Schedule
09
Rules of Engagement
10
Tools & Access
Vortex Labs
Founder Social Video — v1.1 — March 2026
05
Brand Kit
Lock every element in this table before the first video ships publicly. Once locked, nothing changes without Naveen's written sign-off.
Editor's First Milestone:
ELEMENT
STATUS
ACTION REQUIRED
Hook First
Reshoot it.
TO BE DEFINED
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
PARTIALLY EXISTS
Hook First
Reshoot it.
EXISTS
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
TO BE DEFINED
Hook First
Reshoot it.
TO BE DEFINED
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
PARTIALLY EXISTS
Hook First
Reshoot it.
EXISTS
Clean Grade
Re-grade.
TO BE DEFINED