HookovaShort-form video guides
Everything written here, by topic: the long guides, the product documentation and the articles from the blog, each topic ending at the feature it leads to. New pieces are on the blog as they land; this page is the map.
Hooks and the first three seconds
What a hook is made of, the techniques by name, and worked examples broken down shot by shot.
- GuideThe Complete Guide to Video Hooks
- Guide25 TikTok Hook Examples That Actually Sell (UGC Edition)
- ArticleCuriosity Gap Hooks: 12 Examples From Top Creators
- ArticleHook Ideas That Actually Work: 8 Ideas Stolen From Real Videos (Broken Down Second by Second)
- ArticleThe Real Reason Most Skit Ideas Don't Land: The Opening Beat
- ArticleFraming Device: How to Skip the Setup and Start in the Middle
Paste a TikTok, Short or Reel and get its opening seconds as a storyboard — framing, camera and the hook technique on every shot.
Analyze a hook →Retention and structure
Where viewers leave, how long a video should run, and the cuts that keep them.
- ArticleYour Drop-Off Happens in Three Places — Find Yours in Five Minutes
- ArticleShorts Length: What to Aim For, and What Decides It
- ArticleEditing Checklist: 10 Checks Your Software Won’t Do
- ArticleComedic Timing for Short Video: The Cut Is the Pause
- ArticleReaction Shot: The Frame That Tells the Viewer How to Feel
- ArticleDirect Address: Where to Look When You Talk to Camera
The storyboard shows every cut with its timestamp, which is where a drop-off is found.
See a video shot by shot →Captions, transcripts and scripts
What goes on screen when the sound is off, and getting the words out of a video you admire.
A timestamped transcript of any short video, free, to study a script or caption your own.
Transcribe a video →Sound and music
What a track does for a short, and a library of stings and impacts to cut with.
- ArticleReels Music: What a Track Actually Does, and When to Skip It
- GuideFree Video Sound Effects, and the MCP server that downloads them
About a thousand short free sound effects — search on the page, or let an agent fetch them.
Browse sound effects →Camera, lighting and the look
Framing and grading moves you can do on a phone, and when each one reads as a mistake.
- ArticleCrash Zoom on a Phone: Three Keyframes, and When to Use It
- ArticleDutch Angle: When a Tilted Frame Works, and When It Reads as a Mistake
- ArticleFisheye Lens Look in Two Minutes, Using the Camera Already in Your Hand
- ArticleSoft Lighting in 60 Seconds, Using Things Already in Your Room
- ArticleLow Contrast: What It Means and Which Look to Grade Toward
- ArticleVivid Imagery in Two Minutes, Before You Touch a LUT
- ArticleVisual Metaphor: One Image That Says the Thing You Can’t
- ArticleTikTok Filters: Which to Turn On, Which to Leave Off
Every storyboard row names the shot size and the camera move, so a look you like can be copied exactly.
Read the framing off a video →Ideas and workflow
Keeping a swipe file, getting unstuck, and finding a frame for a day where nothing happened.
- ArticleContent Inspiration as a System: Collect Less, Review Every Three Days
- ArticleCreative Block for Creators: Twenty Ideas a Day, None Kept
- ArticleVlog Ideas That Hold: 15 Frames for Days Where Nothing Happens
Save any video from your phone, the browser or an agent, and Hookova files it with a synopsis and tags.
Start a swipe file →Tools, comparisons and money
Honest reads on the software around short-form video, and why views do not turn into sales.
- ArticlevidIQ Review: I Used It for a Month. Here’s Who It’s For
- ArticlevidIQ Alternative: When the Data Isn’t What You’re Missing
- ArticleI Left CapCut in an Afternoon — Here's the Editor I Landed On
- ArticleMonetize Instagram: Why Views Aren't Turning Into Sales
iOS, macOS, the Chrome extension and the MCP server — the same library from every one of them.
Get the Hookova apps →Set up Hookova
The product documentation: installing each surface and connecting an agent.