You already made the long video. The shorts are where the new audience comes from — but scrubbing a 40-minute video to find the ten best 30-second moments is its own full-time job. CelestiAI's Long Video to Shorts tool scores the strongest moments in a video and cuts them into vertical, captioned shorts. Here's the workflow.
What you'll need
- A free CelestiAI account.
- A YouTube link to a video you have the rights to repurpose — your own content, or content you're licensed to clip.
- A little taste for which moments will land as standalone shorts.
Why repurpose into shorts
- One recording, many posts. A single long video becomes a week of short-form content.
- Reach new audiences. Shorts algorithms surface you to people who'd never watch a 40-minute video.
- Compounding returns. Your best moments keep working long after the upload.
Step 1: Open Long Video to Shorts
From CelestiAI's content tools, choose Long video to shorts (labelled "Clip a video"). This is the repurposing engine — separate from the script-to-video maker.
Step 2: Paste the YouTube link
Drop in the URL. CelestiAI analyses the video and scores the best moments — the hooks, punchlines, and self-contained insights that work as standalone clips. You don't have to hunt through a timeline; the tool proposes the strongest candidates.
Step 3: Review the scored moments
Look through the suggested clips. For each, ask:
- Does it stand alone? A clip that needs the previous 10 minutes of context won't land.
- Is the hook in the first second? Shorts decide in the first moment whether to keep scrolling.
- Is it one idea? The best shorts do a single thing well.
Select the moments you want and drop the rest.
Step 4: Cut to vertical, captioned shorts
CelestiAI cuts each selected moment into a vertical 9:16 clip with word-timed captions — the format Shorts, Reels, and TikTok reward. Captions keep the clip watchable on mute, which is how most people scroll.
Step 5: Review, refine, and export
Check each short for framing (faces and key text stay in the safe zone), caption accuracy, and a clean cut at both ends. Export the set and publish across platforms.
Tips for shorts that actually perform
- Lead with the payoff. If the best line is at 0:20, cut it to 0:02.
- One clip, one idea. Don't cram two insights into one short.
- Keep captions bold and readable on a phone screen.
- Post the best clips first while the long video is fresh, then drip the rest out.
- Test hooks. Try two different openings for the same moment and see which holds.
Common mistakes
- Clipping content you don't own. Repurpose your own videos or licensed material — the Originality checks exist for a reason.
- Choosing context-heavy moments. They confuse new viewers who never saw the long video.
- Ignoring the caption. A great clip with unreadable captions loses the mute scroller.
Where this fits in your system
Long video to shorts is the repurposing arm of CelestiAI. Pair it with the Winning content breakdown tool to understand why a moment performs, and with clipping campaigns if you want creators to push the shorts further.
Wrapping up
Your long videos are a library of shorts waiting to be extracted. Paste the link, let CelestiAI score the best moments, cut them vertical and captioned, and publish. One recording just became a week of content.