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Brand Video Generator
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Genre Selection

Genre is the formal language a video speaks. It determines editing tempo, the role of music, whether narration is appropriate, and what kind of visual authority the video claims. Choosing the wrong genre produces a video that is technically correct but tonally alien — a product that nobody asked for.

Genre must be derived, not assumed. See Phase 0.5 in the main skill for the derivation process.

Genres for Rational-Appeal Brands

Used when the audience is evaluating: developers, technical buyers, B2B decision-makers, financial consumers.

Feature Demonstration

The product is the protagonist. The video is a structured tour of capability.

  • Editing: Medium tempo, deliberate. Each cut serves a new capability.
  • Music: Neutral — present but not emotive. The product should be audible over the music metaphorically.
  • Narration: Usually appropriate. Voiceover or text captions that name what is being shown.
  • Visual authority: Screen recordings, UI interactions, real product behavior. Illustration only for abstract mechanics (data flow, request handling).
  • Wrong for: Any brand whose audience chose it for aesthetic or identity reasons. A developer tool used by indie hackers for its personality should not produce a clinical feature tour.

Problem-Solution

Two states — before and after. The product is the bridge.

  • Editing: Contrast-driven. Before scenes feel heavier, slower, more cluttered. After scenes feel lighter.
  • Music: Can shift register between before/after to reinforce the contrast.
  • Visual metaphor: The "before" state must be specific to this product's actual users, not a generic "chaos" stock image. What does friction look like for a developer deploying? For a designer sharing files? Name it specifically.
  • Wrong for: Brands that don't have a clear before/after (lifestyle, identity brands). Forcing a problem-solution structure onto a brand whose appeal is aspirational produces an awkward, unearned arc.

Proof / Evidence

The product's claims are shown, not stated. Data, metrics, real usage patterns.

  • Editing: Methodical. Each scene introduces one piece of evidence.
  • Music: Minimal. Evidence speaks for itself.
  • Use when: The brand's differentiation is empirical (performance, scale, reliability) and the audience needs to be convinced, not just felt-at.

Genres for Sensory/Aesthetic-Appeal Brands

Used when the audience is seeking experience: consumer beauty, fashion, food, fragrance, interiors, premium goods.

Mood Film

The video is a sensory argument. It does not explain; it demonstrates a feeling.

  • Editing: Driven by music tempo and texture. Cuts land on beats or against them deliberately.
  • Music: Primary carrier of meaning. Music choice is a brand decision, not a background choice.
  • Narration: Rarely appropriate. If text appears, it should feel like poetry, not copy.
  • Visual language: Texture, light, skin, material, detail. Close-ups over establishing shots. Movement over stasis.
  • Duration: Mood films work at 15–30s. Longer requires a narrative arc to sustain.
  • Wrong for: Any brand where the audience needs to understand something before they can feel something.

Product Poetry

The object in motion — no people, no narration, pure product behavior.

  • Use when: The product is visually distinct, the design is the message, and the audience is already familiar with the category.
  • Motion approach: The product's own material logic should generate the motion — a skincare product's texture suggests slow pour; a streetwear drop suggests quick reveal; a precision tool suggests deliberate movement.
  • Wrong for: Products that look generic (the design is not differentiated) or products the audience hasn't heard of (no context).

Texture Reel

A sequence of material close-ups — fabric, skin, food, surface — that builds a sensory argument for quality or feeling.

  • Editing: Fast or slow depending on energy. Often music-forward.
  • Use when: The brand's truth is material (what it's made of, what it feels like) and the website/photography already reflects this.
  • Compositional note: Each shot should isolate one texture. The sequence builds an argument through accumulation.

Genres for Community/Identity-Appeal Brands

Used when the audience is seeking belonging: lifestyle brands, streetwear, music, fitness culture, subcultures.

Community Portrait / Faces Film

Real people as the brand's primary visual material. The brand is the audience.

  • Editing: Humanistic tempo — long enough on each face to register the person, not just their demographic.
  • Music: Should feel like something the community would actually listen to, not background licensing.
  • Visual authority: The faces must be real or feel real. Polished model shots break the community contract.
  • Narration: Rarely appropriate. Let faces speak.
  • Wrong for: Any brand that doesn't already have a community — this genre requires authentic material. Fabricating it reads as hollow.

Cultural Artifact

The video looks like something the community produces, not something the brand made about the community.

  • Editing tempo: Platform-native. What does content on this platform look like at its best? Match that register.
  • Visual quality: Often deliberately lo-fi, handheld, grain-forward. Polish is a liability for authenticity-first brands.
  • Music: Culturally specific. The wrong track is a category error.
  • Wrong for: Premium brands where polish is part of the product promise.

Aspirational / Dream State

The audience in the world they want to inhabit — the product is how they get there, but it's not the subject.

  • Use for: Lifestyle brands where the aspiration is the product. The brand sells a version of a life, not a physical object.
  • Editing: Slow, expansive. Room to imagine.
  • Visual language: Space, light, movement. The aspiration has physical textures — cold water, warm light, open sky.
  • Wrong for: Products that require explanation before aspiration. If the audience doesn't know what the product does, aspiration won't land.

Hybrid Genres

Sensory → Rational (Earned Evidence)

Lead with mood or sensation; resolve with a fact that gives the feeling a foundation.

  • Use when: The brand has both sensory appeal and a rational claim worth making (premium food brand with real sourcing; skincare brand with actual clinical data)
  • Structure: Establish feeling → reveal the reason behind it
  • Wrong version: The sensory section is disconnected from the rational section. They must feel like the same argument.

Rational → Sensory (Made Real)

Lead with a technical truth; show what it feels like in practice.

  • Use when: The brand's differentiation is structural but the audience experiences it emotionally (a payments API whose reliability means a founder's business doesn't go down on Black Friday)
  • Structure: State the fact → show the human consequence
  • Wrong version: The emotional section is generic human-interest footage unconnected to the specific technical truth.

Genre Fitness Checks

Before committing to a genre, run these:

1. Audience test: Would the target audience, encountering this genre cold, feel it was made for them? Or would it feel like it was made for someone else?

2. Truth test: Does the chosen genre allow the Phase 0 brand truth to be expressed? A truth about invisibility fits a mood film. A truth about a specific API design does not.

3. Platform test: Does the genre work at the required duration and aspect ratio? A mood film at 60s on LinkedIn is wrong. A community portrait at 15s on TikTok might work.

4. Anti-pattern check: Is the chosen genre the default for this product category? If so, what would a competitor produce? If the answer is "the same thing," the genre is wrong unless there is a strong reason to own the default.