Scriptwriter / Story Producer — Bodycam Documentary YouTube Channel (Long-Term)

I run a YouTube channel built around real police bodycam footage, edited into 40–50 minute documentaries. The footage is public and anyone can get it. The script is the only reason someone watches my version instead of somebody else's. That's what I'm hiring for. I want one writer for the long term, not a rotating cast of freelancers. Someone who learns the format, gets sharper with every video, and eventually knows what works better than I do. What you'd actually be doing You get the case: the raw footage, the reports, the timeline, whatever else I've pulled together. You come back with the blueprint for the whole video. That means: The structure. What we open on, what we hold back, where we break for context, where the story turns. You're deciding the shape of 45 minutes. The narration. Every word the voiceover reads. Written to be spoken out loud, not read off a page. The beats. For each footage segment, tell me which moment you want and why: "Reyes cam, the moment he sees the passenger reach down — hold there, no narration, let it run until the shouting stops." You don't need frame-accurate timestamps. My editor finds the exact frame. You decide what matters and in what order. Format is a simple two-column doc — footage beat on the left, narration on the right. Blank narration cells where the footage should just play. Knowing where those blanks go is most of the job. What I care about Retention. Real, structural retention, not gimmicks. Open loops, controlled information, tension that builds instead of resetting every five minutes. If you understand why a viewer leaves at 1:40 and how to stop it, we'll get along fine. If you write "In this video, we're going to take a look at..." we won't. And accuracy. This is real footage, real people, often the worst day of their lives. No inventing motive, no fabricated dialogue, no sensationalizing what didn't happen. The facts are dramatic enough. Handle them straight. Requirements — please skip this one if these aren't true You've written scripts for YouTube channels that performed. I want links to the videos and their view counts. Not a portfolio of unpublished samples. No AI-written scripts. Use AI for research or organizing notes if you want, that's your business. But the writing has to be yours. I read a lot of scripts and I know what it sounds like. If I find AI-written work passed off as original, we're done immediately. No plagiarism. Not from other channels, not from articles, not "rewritten" from someone else's video. I check. English at native or fully fluent level. This gets read aloud, so it has to sound like a person talking. You can handle heavy material without either flinching from it or getting off on it. The work 2 scripts per week, ongoing. That's a real load at this length and I know it, so I'd rather have two strong scripts than three rushed ones. If you think you can do more once we've found a rhythm, we'll talk about it then. I pick the cases and hand you everything you need. Before you write a single word, you'll get my style reference — a video that shows exactly the tone I'm after — plus the script template and formatting notes. Nobody has to guess what I want. How to apply Please don't send a template. Four honest sentences beat a polished proposal you sent to fifty other people, and I can tell the difference instantly. Send me: Links to 2–3 videos you wrote, with view counts. Tell me which structural decisions were yours. Pick any bodycam or true-crime documentary video — mine or anyone's — and tell me one specific thing you'd change about how it's written and why. One paragraph. Start your message with the word BODYCAM so I know you read this. Your rate per script and how many you can take per week. Everyone I shortlist gets a paid test script on a real case. If it works, we start right away, and I'll raise your rate as we go. I'd much rather pay one good writer properly than churn through cheap ones.