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    Make reels with Claude Code

    Every reel on @theleakyfunnel is made with code, not a video editor. Here's the setup, and the prompt that gets you a first 30-second explainer.

    Skip the reading: hand it to Claude

    Copy the whole guide and paste it into Claude, or install it as a Claude Code skill so it’s always there.

    Download as a Claude skill

    Save it as ~/.claude/skills/make-reels-with-claude-code/SKILL.md, then ask Claude Code to “make reels with claude code”.

    The prompts

    Your first 30-second reel

    Paste this first. Change the topic on the first line.

    Make me a 30-second vertical explainer video with Remotion (1080x1920, 30fps) about: [YOUR TOPIC].
    
    1. Script. Write 8-10 short spoken lines, about 90 words in total. Open with a question, give three concrete facts, one practical tip, and end with a call to action. Write it to be said out loud: contractions, short fragments. Show me the script and wait for my OK before going on.
    
    2. Voice. Use the ElevenLabs text-to-speech "with timestamps" endpoint (the key is ELEVENLABS_API_KEY in .env) to make an MP3 of the script. Turn the character timings it returns into a start and end time for every word, and save them as JSON in the project.
    
    3. Video. Build a Remotion composition with one scene per line. Each scene has a headline of 3-6 words, and each word appears at the moment it's spoken, using the word timings. Pick one accent word per line and give it a different colour. Something must be moving on screen at all times: no stretch longer than 0.3 seconds where the picture is still.
    
    4. Render. Add the MP3 as the audio track and render to out/reel.mp4.
    
    5. Check. Compare the caption timings with the audio and tell me any line where they drift by more than 0.1 seconds.

    Make it punchier

    Paste this once the first version renders.

    Make the reel punchier. Every 1 to 1.5 seconds, something new should land on screen exactly on a spoken word: a pop-in illustrated object, a stamp-style label, or a number counting up. Give each one a short sound effect that matches it, kept quieter than the voice. Add a quick whoosh when a new scene comes in. Then re-render to out/reel-v2.mp4 and list what lands on which word.

    Setup

    1. Install Claude Code using the instructions on claude.com/claude-code, then sign in.

    2. Create a Remotion project and open it.

      npx create-video@latest
    3. Add Remotion's skills so Claude Code knows the library.

      npx skills add remotion-dev/skills
    4. Make an ElevenLabs API key and put it in a file called .env in the project.

      ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=your-key-here
    5. Start Claude Code in the project folder and paste the first prompt below. Swap in your own topic.

      claude

    What I use

    • Claude CodeWrites the script and builds the video.
    • RemotionTurns React code into an MP4. Free for individuals and small teams; see their licence.
    • Remotion's agent skillsTeaches Claude Code how to use Remotion properly.
    • ElevenLabsThe voice, plus the timing of every word for the captions.
    • HiggsfieldOptional: illustrated props that pop in on key words.
    • ACE-Step 1.5Optional: open-source music model that runs on your own machine.

    Worth knowing

    • Remotion is free for individuals and companies of up to three people. Bigger companies need a company licence: check remotion.dev/license before using it for client work.
    • ElevenLabs charges by the character. A 30-second script is roughly 500-700 characters.