2026-10-29
A Free YouTube Script Template You Can Copy (Case File Structure)
A blank page is the slowest part of making a video. A template turns the problem into filling in blanks. Here is the Case File structure, one of the six we use in the Faceless YouTube Starter Pack. It suits mysteries, disasters, engineering failures, business collapses and any story where something went wrong and you need to explain why.
The beats (about 10 minutes, 1,460 words)
| Time | Beat | What to do | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00-0:30 | Cold open | Drop into the key moment or the strangest detail | 75 |
| 0:30-1:30 | What was supposed to happen | The normal situation: who, where, when, what was expected | 150 |
| 1:30-3:30 | What went wrong | Chronological steps; one fact per sentence; dates and numbers | 300 |
| 3:30-5:30 | The investigation | Who looked into it, what they found, what they got wrong first | 300 |
| 5:30-7:30 | The theories or the cause | The evidence for each; say what is proven and what is not | 300 |
| 7:30-9:00 | What changed afterwards | Rules, designs or beliefs that changed because of it | 225 |
| 9:00-9:45 | The open question | What is still unknown; an honest ending, no false certainty | 110 |
Copy and fill in
[COLD OPEN] It's [time/place]. [Person] notices [odd detail]. Within [time], [consequence].
[SETUP] Normally, [normal situation]. [Number] people / [number] dollars depended on it.
[WRONG] First, [event 1]. Then, [event 2]. At [time], [event 3].
[INVESTIGATION] [Investigators] found [finding]. At first they assumed [wrong idea].
[CAUSE] The evidence points to [cause]. What we cannot say is [uncertainty].
[AFTER] Because of this, [change].
[CLOSE] We still don't know [open question]. But we know [one firm lesson].How to use it
- Research first. Two or three reliable sources, with every number written next to its source.
- Fill in the beats in bullet points, not sentences. Check the order makes sense.
- Write the cold open last. Find the most striking true moment in your research and start there.
- Read it aloud and time it. At about 150 words per minute, 1,460 words runs about 9 minutes 45 seconds. See how long a script should be.
- Cut anything that adds neither a fact nor a feeling.
An illustration of the opening
It's 3 a.m. in January 1928. A radio operator on a small cargo ship notices that the signal from a sister ship has stopped. Not faded. Stopped. In the next six hours, three more ships would try to reach her. None would hear a thing.
(This opening is an invented illustration of the structure, not a real event. When you write a real one, every detail must come from your sources.)
Keep it honest
The structure works because it separates three things: what happened, what investigators found, and what is still uncertain. Never present a theory as a fact, and say clearly which parts are evidence and which are interpretation.
More templates
The free sample includes this skeleton plus 10 hook templates. The Faceless YouTube Starter Pack has five more structures (Rise and Fall, Explainer, Myth-Buster, Countdown, Timeline Walk), plus a complete worked example.
Next: write a stronger opening.