10,000+ Hours of YouTube Scriptwriting in 1hrs 9mins (George Blackman)

**George Blackman** (0:00)
The course launched, and so like the most I ever, you know, made in a single month was in January of this year, 2024, and it made like $80,000 in the first, in its launch weekend.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:09)
One weekend, you made $80,000.

**George Blackman** (0:11)
Yeah, it was, it was stupid. This is kind of how a Mike Shake script would look.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:16)
What are the five things that are most impactful to keep retention high?

**George Blackman** (0:20)
That's a really good question. The first thing, which...

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
There we have a script writer with over 25 million views under his belt and work with some of the biggest YouTubers like Mike Shake, Ali Abdaal. Guys, welcome George Blackman. Hey, everyone.

**George Blackman** (0:34)
Thank you so much for having me on. It's good to be the first guest on the podcast.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:39)
Yeah, thanks for joining us. We're starting this journey here. And we also have Vexen here, who's the lead strategist at 1of10. Cool. So that was the hook. First question is, can you roast it? How would you make it better?

**George Blackman** (0:58)
Okay, great question. I think that's probably a pretty good place to start. And worth saying as well, with podcasts as well, the rules are kind of a bit different. I think really depending on the length of the video you're looking at, you might be looking at a slightly different way of approaching the hook. But the one thing I would say maybe it's missing if we're going really in depth is like, we haven't reflected anything back on the viewer per se. So we know a bit about me. We've hit them with some interesting stats and something that's exciting, something that's going to get them maybe invested initially. But we kind of need to then hold up a mirror and shine that back at them and be like, and therefore, this podcast, this episode, this video is going to be useful for you in X, Y, Z ways. But that's being really picky. I think that was just fine. And we got right into the meat after that. So that was pretty good. Like we didn't waste too much time.

**Vexen** (1:46)
That was our hook for the podcast. Not too bad. But someone who's got some really good hooks, a little guy known as MrBeast. I'm sure you probably know him.
And this is one of his recent videos that I actually found was quite good. It was an over performer on his channels. And that's going to be, Surviving 100 Days Trapped win $500,000. I'm going to read the hook for you now. I've built a massive isolation chamber, and we're going to see if these two strangers can survive in this cube for the next 100 days. They have never met each other ever. Bailey, this is Suzy. Suzy, this is Bailey. Nice to meet you. Obviously this is them talking there. And then MrBeast gets back right into it with, if you two can survive the next 100 days in here, I will give you half a million dollars inside this vault. But if one of you leaves before the 100 days is up, you both get nothing. All right, I think you guys understand the rules. Have fun.

**George Blackman** (2:30)
Cool. So are you looking for critiques of this or something pointing out the stuff that works really well about this?

**Vexen** (2:37)
Critiques, what's working well, what's not working well, what you personally like about it from a script writer standpoint, tactics they use to re-hook the viewer, setting up stakes, and then things like that, I think, are good. I think there's some really interesting stuff here, specifically with everybody before, Bailey, this is Susie, et cetera. I think that's actually quite interesting how he's done that there.

**George Blackman** (2:55)
Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I'd be interested even to hear what you guys are thinking with regard to this. But the thing that always stands out to me and the advice I give over and over again when it comes to hooks, is just trying to simplify it as much as possible. A lot of the time, people feel the need to really, really get people invested by maybe hammering down, whether it's a personal stake for the viewer or whatever it might be, kind of repeating themselves because they feel like they need to really, really convince whoever's watching to keep watching. But especially with entertainment stuff, the way I simplify writing a hook is character context, sorry, character concept stakes. So in this one, it's like it's really, really simple. We've got the characters, Suzy, this is Bailey, Bailey, this is Suzy. As you kind of mentioned, Vex, there's some inherent tension and some inherent stakes built there with the fact that they've never met each other before. And so immediately, it's raising questions for me as a viewer where it's like, oh, okay, how are these two going to either work together or work against each other potentially, given that they have no prior connection?