Guide
Unpopular opinion video format: your view, backed by experience
An unpopular opinion video disagrees with the usual advice in your field, states the other side fairly, then shows what your own work taught you. Here is a 40-second structure and an example script.
In short
- An unpopular opinion video is a short video where you disagree with the usual advice in your field.
- This format works best at 35 to 45 seconds, filmed vertically with you talking to the camera.
- The other side deserves about 8 seconds, stated fairly, before you disagree with it.
- Your experience is the proof, so give a count, such as sixty websites built or ten years of clients.
- This format is a poor fit if you are new to your field, or if the topic is health or tax.
- length of the example structure
- 40 s
- given to the other side's case
- 8 s
- words in the example script
- 90
What is an unpopular opinion video?
An unpopular opinion video is a short talking-head video where you disagree with the usual advice in your field.
- It usually runs 35 to 45 seconds, in vertical 9:16.
- It opens with the words "unpopular opinion", then the belief itself.
- Next comes the usual advice, stated fairly, then your experience, who should ignore you, and an invitation to disagree.
- It works best with a view you have held for years, not this week's news, so you can post it any time.
- It attracts clients who share your view and puts off those who do not.
- Fairness matters, because an opinion that gets the other side wrong is easy to dismiss.
Unpopular opinion or myth-bust?
| Unpopular opinion | Myth-bust | |
|---|---|---|
| Is about | A judgement from your experience | A factual error |
| Proof | A count of clients, sites or years | A number that settles it |
| Can people still disagree? | Yes, people in your field do | No, once the number is shown |
: Is about
- Unpopular opinion
- A judgement from your experience
- Myth-bust
- A factual error
: Proof
- Unpopular opinion
- A count of clients, sites or years
- Myth-bust
- A number that settles it
: Can people still disagree?
- Unpopular opinion
- Yes, people in your field do
- Myth-bust
- No, once the number is shown
Who should make unpopular opinion videos?
It works when you have done the usual thing many times and watched it fail for one type of client.
- Designers, accountants, trainers, planners and consultants all have common advice they disagree with.
- Freelancers who turn down work the usual advice would sell can use it to explain why.
- Founders whose product exists because they disagree with how their industry works can use it too.
- Creators with enough client history can say how many times they have seen it happen.
- It sets you apart from competitors who repeat the usual advice.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
How to structure an unpopular opinion video in 40 seconds
Your experience is the longest part, at 13 seconds. The other side gets 8 seconds, said the way its supporters would say it.
- Give a count, such as sixty sites, two hundred returns or ten years of clients. The number tells viewers the opinion comes from work you have done.
- Say who should ignore you. That takes 8 seconds, and it stops the people you are not talking about from arguing with you.
An unpopular opinion video in 40 seconds
State the other side fairly before you disagree with it.
Opinion
0-4 s. The words unpopular opinion, then the belief
Other side
4-12 s. The usual advice, stated fairly
Your experience
12-25 s. What you saw, with a count
Exceptions
25-33 s. Who should ignore this
Call to action
33-40 s. What to do instead, and an invitation to disagree
Example unpopular opinion script
Here is an example script for a web designer who builds sites for local businesses. It is 90 words, which takes about 40 seconds to say out loud.
Example script: local businesses and blogs
One line for each part of the structure above.
| Part | Time | What you say |
|---|---|---|
| Opinion | 0-4 s | Unpopular opinion. Your local business does not need a blog. |
| Other side | 4-12 s | Every marketing guide says publish weekly. The logic is sound. More pages, more searches, more visitors. |
| Your experience | 12-25 s | I have built sites for sixty local firms. The blogs got written for a month, then stopped. A last post from two years ago makes a plumber look closed. |
| Exceptions | 25-33 s | If you enjoy writing and you will keep it up, ignore me. It works for the few who do. |
| Call to action | 33-40 s | For everyone else, five good service pages work better than fifty posts. Disagree? Tell me why. |
Part: Opinion
- Time
- 0-4 s
- What you say
- Unpopular opinion. Your local business does not need a blog.
Part: Other side
- Time
- 4-12 s
- What you say
- Every marketing guide says publish weekly. The logic is sound. More pages, more searches, more visitors.
Part: Your experience
- Time
- 12-25 s
- What you say
- I have built sites for sixty local firms. The blogs got written for a month, then stopped. A last post from two years ago makes a plumber look closed.
Part: Exceptions
- Time
- 25-33 s
- What you say
- If you enjoy writing and you will keep it up, ignore me. It works for the few who do.
Part: Call to action
- Time
- 33-40 s
- What you say
- For everyone else, five good service pages work better than fifty posts. Disagree? Tell me why.
Hook lines for an unpopular opinion video
The hook is your first sentence. It is the words unpopular opinion plus the belief, short enough for one caption line. Here are three the web designer could say, with your own belief in place of theirs.
- Unpopular opinion. Your local business does not need a blog.
- I have built sites for sixty local firms. I have stopped recommending a blog.
- Most web designers will disagree with me. A blog is the wrong first job for a local business.
Where to put captions and b-roll
Stay on camera for most of it. Viewers read your face to decide whether you have earned the opinion.
- One cutaway during your experience is enough, such as a scroll past an abandoned blog.
- Put the words "unpopular opinion" on screen as a headline over the opening.
- Plain captions at the top of the screen, or outlined letters, fit a video that is one flat statement.
- You can keep the headline up for the opening only, or for the whole video.
Caption styles that suit a plain statement
Four caption styles from the Cutroom editor. Meme puts plain text at the top of the screen. Hollow draws outlined letters that fill in as you speak. Neon adds a soft glow. Retro sets the words on an amber box.
Meme
Hollow
Neon
Retro
Common unpopular opinion mistakes
The label is overused, so viewers test it fast. A weak opinion gets called out in the first comment.
- Putting the label on a popular opinion fools nobody. "Consistency matters" is not unpopular.
- Skipping the other side makes you easy to dismiss. State its best case in one or two sentences.
- Without a count, it is only an opinion. Say how many clients, sites or years it rests on.
- Leaving viewers with no alternative is unhelpful. Tell them what to do instead, in one sentence.
Unpopular opinion videos on Reels, TikTok and Shorts
It works as a normal post on all three apps. It is not an ad format.
- The opinion does not date, so you can pin it to your profile and repost it every few months.
- Answer the best counter-argument in a follow-up video that replies to that comment.
Where an unpopular opinion video works
| Platform | How to use it |
|---|---|
| TikTok | Post it. Disagreement in the comments helps it spread, and naming who should ignore you keeps it civil. |
| Instagram Reels | Post it. Comments help it spread here too. |
| YouTube Shorts | Put the belief in the title without the label, because the belief is what people search for. |
Platform: TikTok
- How to use it
- Post it. Disagreement in the comments helps it spread, and naming who should ignore you keeps it civil.
Platform: Instagram Reels
- How to use it
- Post it. Comments help it spread here too.
Platform: YouTube Shorts
- How to use it
- Put the belief in the title without the label, because the belief is what people search for.
Making an unpopular opinion video in Cutroom
Cutroom edits the video for you. You say your opinion to the camera once, and get a finished vertical video back.
- You upload one video of yourself talking, up to 3 minutes long.
- You type "unpopular opinion" as the headline on screen, and keep it up for the opening or for the whole video.
- You pick one of 40 caption styles. Captions are timed to your voice and burned in.
- You highlight the one phrase where you want a cutaway, and the clip lands on those words.
- You get a 9:16 MP4. Your first video is free, with no card, and you have 7 days to make it.
Questions people ask
- How long should an unpopular opinion video be?
- 35 to 45 seconds. The example here runs 40 seconds and 90 words. It is a little longer than a hot take because it includes the other side and who should ignore you. Those two parts stop it sounding like provocation.
- How is an unpopular opinion different from a myth-bust?
- Proof. A myth-bust corrects a factual error and can show a number that settles it. An unpopular opinion is a judgement from experience that reasonable people in your field still dispute. If a measurement would end the argument, film a myth-bust instead.
- Will an unpopular opinion video lose me clients?
- It will lose the ones who disagree, and that is the point. Clients who want the usual approach were a poor fit for you anyway. Keep the opinion about practices, never about groups of people.
- How do I pick an opinion worth filming?
- Pick the advice you give clients in private that contradicts what they read online. If you have said it in ten sales calls and it surprised the client each time, it is an unpopular opinion with evidence behind it.
- Can Cutroom edit an unpopular opinion video?
- Yes. Film the script as one video of up to 3 minutes and upload it. Cutroom returns a captioned 9:16 MP4 with "unpopular opinion" as the headline on screen over the opening, and a clip where you highlight a phrase. Your first video is free, no card, and you have 7 days to make it.
- When is an unpopular opinion the wrong format?
- When you are new to the field, or the topic is regulated, such as health or tax law, where a wrong steer causes harm. Share what you have seen as a case study video instead.
Say your view, the other side and your count in one video, and let Cutroom edit it. Your first video is free.