Free editing tool

Content Volume Planner
how far your footage actually goes

Most content calendars fail because they were planned from ambition rather than from footage supply. Enter how much raw material you capture each month and the cadence you want to sustain, and see whether the arithmetic works before you commit to it publicly.

Last updated August 26, 2026 · Reviewed by the Media Strategy Lab edit team

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Benchmark data from our 1.2B+ view dataset

Aggregated from short-form campaigns produced by Media Strategy Lab in 2025-2026.

38%

median hook retention

22%

3-sec drop-off

31s

avg. watch time

problem-statement or pattern-interrupt

best hook type

2.1 cuts per 10s

cut density

Format and pacing profile

dominant format

Talking head + supporting B-roll

shot length

2-4 seconds

B-roll ratio

40:60 B-roll to face

pacing note

Lead with the hook, cut on breaths, use text reinforcement at 3-5s intervals.

Clean dialogue with a music bed ducking -20 LUFS under voice.

Technical specifications

Publishable shorts per hour of footage	~6
Podcast clips per 60-min episode	8–14
Webinar clips per 60-min session	8–14
Long-form pieces per capture day	2–4
Minimum sustainable buffer	2 weeks
Capture cadence that works	Weekly or fortnightly batching
Yield loss from unbriefed capture	30–50%
Recommended variants per concept	3

Buyer context and objections

who buys

Marketers, editors and founders planning video work

typical budget

Free tool — retainers from $2,495/mo

common objection

Do I need a vendor at all for this?

failed prior attempt

Planning video budgets and schedules from guesswork

Our 5-step process

01
Brief and audit — we review your goals, past performance and raw material before touching a timeline.
02
Hook extraction — every asset is scanned for the highest-retention 1-3 second opener.
03
Native edit — pacing, captions, safe zones and sound are tuned to the destination platform.
04
Revision rounds — two included rounds with timestamped comments, no ticket queue.
05
Delivery pack — masters, verticals, captions, thumbnails and a posting brief in one drop.

Case example

A coaching client planned five posts a week from a single monthly recording day. The planner showed roughly 18 publishable shorts a month against a 21-post requirement. They moved to fortnightly capture, hit the cadence, and stopped burning weekends on emergency filming.

Keep going: Video Editing for SaaS Companies — that turns product demos into pipeline, Event Recap Video Editing — that extends the moment for months, Podcast Editing Cost — per episode, per clip, per season.

Pricing anchor

Our monthly retainers start at $2,495/mo for 15 shorts and scale to $3,995/mo for 30 shorts plus long-form support. Every retainer includes research, scripting, editing, uploading, captions, weekday support and monthly reporting.

View packages

Six per hour is the honest number

Well-briefed footage yields around six publishable shorts per hour. Unbriefed rambling capture yields three or fewer, because most of it lacks a self-contained idea. This is why briefing before capture is worth more than any editing improvement afterwards.

If the planner tells you your cadence is unsustainable, the fix is almost always more structured capture rather than more editing budget.

Build a two-week buffer

A content calendar with no buffer breaks the first time someone is ill or a shoot is cancelled, and recovering a broken posting rhythm costs more than maintaining it. Two weeks of banked evergreen content is the minimum that survives normal disruption.

Build the buffer during your first month, before you announce a cadence, not after you have already missed a week.

Content volume planner

Interactive, no email required. Numbers come from our own production data.

Hours of raw footage captured per monthPosts per week you want to sustain

Realistic shorts per month

12

Based on ~6 publishable cuts per hour of well-briefed footage.

Weeks of runway at that cadence

4

Under 4 weeks means you need a second capture day or a repurposing layer.

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Frequently asked questions

How many shorts can I get from an hour of footage?

About six publishable ones from well-briefed capture. Unstructured footage yields three or fewer, because most of it lacks a self-contained idea with a usable opening. Briefing before you record roughly doubles yield at no cost.

How often should I capture footage?

Weekly or fortnightly batching works best for most teams. Monthly capture creates a feast-and-famine cycle where content ages and reactive topics are impossible. Daily capture rarely survives contact with a real calendar.

What posting cadence should I aim for?

Three to five posts a week is the range where compounding distribution becomes visible without breaking most teams. Consistency at three beats an erratic seven, because the algorithm and the audience both reward reliability.

How big should my content buffer be?

Two weeks minimum. That absorbs illness, travel and cancelled shoots without breaking the rhythm. Build it before you announce a cadence rather than trying to catch up once you have already missed a week.

Do variants count towards volume?

Treat them separately. Three hook variants of one concept are one piece of content tested three ways, not three pieces. Counting variants as volume is how calendars look full while the audience sees the same idea repeatedly.

What if my footage yield is too low?

Change capture, not editing. Brief specific topics, ask for concrete numbers and stories, cap segments at eight minutes, and record a clean intro line per topic. Those four changes typically double the yield from the same shoot length.

Get a sample edit for Content Volume Planner

Want the numbers checked against your actual footage? Send us a sample and we'll come back with a real plan.

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Content Volume Plannerhow far your footage actually goes