Year-in-review video script template

A year-in-review video script opens fast, moves through 4-6 real highlights or numbers in quick succession, lands on one standout stat, and closes by pointing at what's next. For a 30-45 second video that's four beats: cold open, highlight montage, the number, and the forward-look close. The whole thing works on specificity, so every beat should carry a real detail rather than a generic superlative.

Most year-in-review videos fail the same way: they try to summarize everything and end up saying nothing. The format only works when you resist the urge to be comprehensive and instead pick the handful of moments that actually made the year feel like a year. This guide covers what makes recap scripts different from a normal brand video, the beat structure that keeps them tight, how to choose which highlights make the cut, and a finished example you can copy.

What makes a year-in-review video script different?

It's edited before it's written. A normal brand script starts from a message and builds outward. A recap script starts from a pile of real moments (launches, numbers, customer wins, a screenshot worth keeping) and the writing job is almost entirely selection: which four or five earn a spot, and in what order they build. The temptation is to include everything from the year; the videos that actually get watched all the way through are the ones that cut hardest.

You don't need Spotify's audience to borrow the mechanic. What makes Wrapped shareable isn't the platform, it's the shape: real personal or brand-specific numbers, delivered fast, that feel worth showing someone else. That shape is exactly what a recap video script should copy.

What is the best structure for a year-in-review video script?

Four beats, ordered for momentum rather than chronology: cold open, highlight montage, the number, and the close. Recap videos are one of the few formats where jumping around the year is not just acceptable, it's expected. Nobody watches a year-in-review for narrative order; they watch it for pace.

Cold open (0-6s)

Skip the "here's what we've been up to" setup. Open on the single most visual or surprising moment from the year, no context needed yet. The cold open's job is to earn the next 40 seconds, not to explain anything.

Highlight montage (6-30s)

Move through 3-5 real moments fast: a launch, a milestone, a customer or community win, a behind-the-scenes beat. Each one gets a line of voiceover and a few seconds of footage or a graphic, not a full explanation. Specificity carries the whole section: name the product, name the number, name the person, don't summarize.

The number (30-38s)

Land on the single stat you'd want someone to remember: total customers, videos made, hours saved, cities reached. This is the "Spotify Wrapped" beat, the one number engineered to be screenshot-worthy on its own.

Forward-look close (38-45s)

End on what's coming, not a recap of what you just said. A recap that only looks backward reads as an obituary for the year; one that closes on next year's plan reads as momentum.

"Brands are always trying to tap into what people are talking about online. I know that social managers are very much on the lookout for when Wrapped is coming out and want to be the first." — Rachel Karten, Social Media Consultant, Modern Retail

How do you choose which highlights make the cut?

Pick moments that carry a real number or a real name, and cut anything that only carries an adjective. A year has hundreds of things that happened in it; a 45-second video has room for maybe five. The filter that works: could this line be true of any brand's year, or only yours? If it's generic, it's out.

If you're short on standout numbers, look for a standout moment instead: a customer quote, a milestone shipped, a specific "first." The goal is the same either way, give the viewer one concrete thing to hold onto rather than a mood.

What does a year-in-review video script look like (example)?

Here is a real prompt you can paste into PlanThatVideo, and the timed script it turns that paragraph into. Notice the shape: the cold open skips setup entirely, the montage moves fast with real specifics, and the close points forward instead of just summing up.

And the script it produces, laid out beat by beat with timecode, voiceover, and on-screen action:

Count it: five real specifics (a nonprofit story, a launch month, a signup number, a redesign, a milestone), delivered in under 45 seconds, with a close that looks forward instead of just wrapping up. From the same prompt, PlanThatVideo also generates the matching shot list, so the script and the edit plan stay in sync:

Same prompt, same beats, a matching shot list. The script sets the pace and the specifics; the shot list turns it into what gets filmed or cut together. If you want the mapping in detail, see what is a shot list.

A reusable year-in-review video script template

Copy this and fill every line with a real detail, not a placeholder adjective. If a beat has nothing specific to say yet, that's a sign you need a better highlight, not a vaguer sentence.

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