YouTube series style guide template for your editor

What goes in a style guide for a YouTube series?

A series style guide is the part of the brief that never changes between episodes: pacing targets, how shots join, text-card rules, fonts and colors, recurring graphics, music level, credit rules and a do-not list. Keep it to one page, so every episode, and every editor, feels like the same show.

Brief vs. style guide: what's the difference?

An editing brief is written once, for one video: this episode's goal, the footage handoff, the deadline. A style guide is written once for the whole series and reused on every episode after that. If you haven't briefed a single video yet, start with the editor brief template first. This page is the layer above it, the one that stops a series from looking like a different show every few uploads even when each individual brief was clear.

Style drift shows up fastest once a series changes editors, or grows past one editor at a time. I review every project myself, and for high-volume clients a small team of trusted editors works to a written style guide, checked before delivery — that guide is what makes it possible without a personal walkthrough per episode.

The template, copy-ready

Paste this into a doc, fill in the blanks once for your series, and send it to every editor who touches it.

SERIES STYLE GUIDE — [series or channel name]
Version: [v1] · Last updated: [date]

FORMAT AND RUNTIME
- Typical runtime: [e.g., 8-15 minutes]
- Aspect ratio: [16:9 / 9:16 / both]
- Upload cadence: [e.g., weekly, Tuesdays]

PACING TARGETS
- Picture changes per minute: [number, measured from your own recent uploads]
- Median shot length: [seconds]
- Longest a single shot is allowed to run: [seconds]

TRANSITIONS
- Default: [hard cut / cross-dissolve / dip to black]
- Where a different transition is allowed: [e.g., only between acts]

TEXT CARDS
- Font and colors: [names/hex]
- When a fact goes on a card vs. stays in narration only: [rule]
- On-screen duration: [seconds, or "until it can be read twice"]

RECURRING GRAPHICS AND TITLE DEVICES
- Series-specific device: [e.g., a repeated on-screen tag, a counter, a symbol]
- Where it appears: [corner / full-screen card / lower third]
- What must NOT change between episodes: [list]

STILL-PHOTO MOTION
- Ken Burns speed: [slow / none / fast]
- Default zoom direction: [in / out / alternates]

COLOR AND BLACK-AND-WHITE
- When B&W is used: [rule, e.g., only for archival aftermath material]
- Color grade reference: [link to a graded episode]

MUSIC LEVEL AND LOUDNESS
- Music level under narration or dialogue: [e.g., "clearly under, never competing"]
- Target integrated loudness: [LUFS]
- Ducking: [yes/no, and roughly how much]

SOUND EFFECTS POLICY
- Allowed: [list, e.g., transition whooshes, impact hits]
- Not allowed: [list]

CREDITS
- Format: [on-screen / description only / both]
- What must be credited: [stock, archive footage, music, guests]

OPENING
- Fixed elements: [logo card, cold-open length, intro card]
- What changes per episode: [title-card text, the hook that matches the thumbnail]

DO-NOT LIST
- [Things this series never does, however tempting — e.g., no jump cuts on faces,
  no stock passed off as archive, no fades longer than 1 second]

REFERENCE TIMESTAMPS
- [Link + timestamp: "the hook style we want, 0:00-0:20"]
- [Link + timestamp: "the text-card timing we want, 4:12"]

Most fields take one sentence. The two that matter more than they look are pacing targets and the do-not list: they're what a second editor uses to check their own cut against before sending it, instead of guessing at "your style" from memory.

What does a real recurring device look like?

Series consistency usually starts with the title, before it ever reaches the edit. On Rex's channel (@RexandAlexa), most recent duo-challenge uploads carry "WITH ALEXA!" in the title, a tag that repeats episode to episode. Crazz's survival series (@crazzbloxx) runs on "99 Nights But..." followed by that episode's twist. AshleyBunni's would-you-rather and challenge videos carry a ⭐ in the title. None of these are complicated moves. They work because the rule was written down once and applied every time, not reinvented per upload.

The same idea should extend past the title into the edit itself: if a series always opens on the same short bumper, always keeps a counter in the same corner, or always cuts to the same reaction shot on a fail, that belongs in the "recurring graphics and title devices" field above. More on how these formats get cut in editing for obby, tower and 99 Nights challenge channels.

A client's own style guide, followed to the pixel

The clearest example of a style guide doing its job is The Interpreter's Tenerife 1977 documentary. The Interpreter is a faceless disaster-documentary channel, and the brief came with its own style guide already written: three points of view (cockpits, passengers, the tower), quotes shown as on-screen quote cards, key facts on text cards in the channel's own card design, slow Ken Burns moves rather than anything flashy, and music that stays under the narration. None of those five rules were invented for the edit. They were the channel's rules, applied to the letter.

The pacing that style produces was measured frame by frame on two of the channel's other public uploads: 12.9–13.6 picture changes a minute, a 4.3–5.0 second median shot, hard cuts on every one of 26 changes checked, and text on screen 34–42% of the time. Those are exactly the kind of numbers a "pacing targets" field is built to hold, once a channel measures its own back catalog the same way instead of guessing.

How do I fill this out if I don't have my own numbers yet?

Start from two or three of your own recent uploads, not a default. Count how often the picture changes in a minute, note whether cuts are hard or dissolve, time how long text cards actually stay up, and listen for where the music sits under your voice. Those become the pacing-targets, transitions, text-cards and music-level fields above, filled in with your channel's own numbers instead of a guess.

If you're bringing a new editor onto an existing series rather than writing the guide for the first time, pair this with the first-30-days onboarding checklist. If the series has grown past one editor at a time, see editing multiple channels at scale for how a shared style guide is what keeps several editors from drifting apart on the same show.

Keeping the style guide current

A style guide nobody updates turns into a false description of the show by episode 20. Put a version number and a "last updated" date at the top, and keep a short change log under it: what changed, when, and why — a new recurring graphic, a pacing shift after a retention dip, a new sound-effects rule. Send the updated version to every editor on the series the day it changes, not the next time someone happens to ask.

Copy it and use it today

The block above is plain text: select it, paste it into a doc, and fill in the blanks for your own series. It works whether you hand it to Umbrella Creators, a freelancer, or an in-house editor. Pair it with the editor brief template for the parts that change on every episode, and keep this page for the parts that shouldn't.

Style guide FAQ

How do I keep a YouTube series consistent across episodes?

Write down the rules that shouldn't change between episodes once, in a one-page style guide: pacing, how shots join, text-card rules, recurring graphics, music level and a do-not list. Give it to every editor who touches the series, and update it in one place when a rule changes.

My editor keeps changing my style between videos. How do I fix it?

Most style drift happens because the style was never written down, only shown video by video. A style guide turns "make it feel like my channel" into specific fields an editor can check their cut against before sending it: pacing targets, transitions, card design, music level and a do-not list.

Does a style guide still matter if I only have one editor?

Yes, mainly for the editor's own consistency over time and as insurance if they're ever unavailable for an episode. It matters even more with more than one editor on the same series, or a small team working to it, since it is what keeps their cuts from drifting apart.

How is a style guide different from an editing brief?

A brief is written per video: this episode's goal, footage handoff and deadline. A style guide is written once for the whole series and reused on every episode after: the rules that stay the same from one upload to the next.