I sat down in North Carolina with Travis Reynolds and Ben Hopkins to talk about the part of social media dunkers tend to skip: what makes someone stop scrolling long enough to watch. A great dunk can still get buried if the video is hard to see, starts slowly, or only speaks to people who already follow dunking. I’m Dylan Haugen, and this episode of the Dunk Talk Podcast compares three different approaches to short-form content.
Travis and I had already talked about why dunkers should make long-form videos in Episode 69. For more on his story, see my Episode 21 conversation about his dunk journey and injuries and his Dunk Talk profile. Ben’s Dunk Talk profile covers his background, and I talked with him about his Dunk Camp win in Episode 61. Here, we focus on what the three of us think makes a short-form video worth watching.
Why a raw dunk can miss its audience
I started by posting long YouTube videos when I was young, then moved into TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms. For a while, I posted whatever I wanted: random basketball clips, edits, and eventually more dunking. Following TikTok trends helped me get to around 70,000 followers there. I’ve since put more attention into the podcast and long-form videos, and I don’t treat short-form as seriously as Travis does.
That difference matters. If you post only raw dunks, you’re mostly speaking to people who already care about dunking. Travis learned that his audience grew when he widened the frame to basketball or another familiar idea, then connected it back to dunking. He still posts simple dunk carousels for people who want to follow his progress. Those posts document the dunks, even when the trend-based clips reach more people.
Travis’s point is to make each video understandable to a stranger. A person scrolling might never have seen you or heard of dunking. They need to understand the setup quickly. That also means paying attention to each platform’s audience and its analytics, rather than assuming one kind of post will work everywhere.
Travis tests trends and keeps the dunk moving
Travis’s approach is built around volume, trends, and small experiments. He watches what works, adapts it to dunking, and isn’t afraid to repeat a format. A progress video may feel repetitive to a regular follower, but most people who see the next upload are new. He tries to make it clear and simple enough that anyone can get the idea.
He also looks for patterns in the comments. One of his recurring captions says he is “only six feet,” which reliably gets people debating what that means. On Facebook, a running vertical check drew arguments about whether an approach jump counts as a vertical. He noticed the response and made more of the format. The lesson from the conversation is to pay attention to what viewers actually react to, then test it again.
Sometimes the experiment is a caption that deliberately invites an argument. Travis described posting an eight-foot dunk and adding “11 feet” on screen. He made a second version of a video after realizing he had forgotten the caption, and that version performed much better. He treats the text as part of the video’s hook and a reason for viewers to comment or replay it.
That kind of bait isn’t Ben’s style, and I don’t use it much either. It is one route to attention, though. If a creator chooses it, the useful part is watching whether a specific choice changes retention or comments instead of repeating it blindly.
Clean footage gives the idea a chance
Travis adjusted the color on a Hide-and-Seek video I sent him before posting it. He thought the original looked washed out. The Facebook post then reached around five million views and earned me a couple hundred dollars. He recommends working with saturation, sharpness, and contrast so the footage looks crisp instead of flat.
We talked about camera distance, zoom, and text, too. If your phone is far away and you crop in after filming, the final clip may look soft. A stable tripod and a clear angle help the dunk read. For captions, readable white text with a black outline is a dependable choice. A decorative font doesn’t help if someone has to work to read it.
Then cut the dead time. Travis has started cutting dunk mixes as soon as he lands, even when he likes the landing. A viewer who doesn’t already know you may not wait through someone standing around, dribbling, or walking back into frame. Starting on the action and moving quickly to the next moment gives the video a better chance.
Ben combined dunking with what he already knew
Ben’s path changed after an injury left him unable to dunk for a while. He still wanted to make content, and he wanted to build an audience that could support dunking as a full-time pursuit. He had studied Sustainable Materials and Technology, a degree with an engineering focus, and saw a way to bring that knowledge together with dunking and his interest in games and anime.
One of his early videos asked whether he could jump higher than a video-game character. He said it reached roughly 250,000 views, his biggest video at that point. A later Roblox video reached around 16 million. Those ideas let him speak to dunkers and to viewers who came from gaming or anime, rather than relying on dunk clips alone.
Ben told us that he now earns about what he would from a regular full-time job through content, while setting his own schedule and keeping time to train. He had more than 100,000 YouTube subscribers when we recorded. I liked how directly the strategy connected to his life: he took two interests he already had and built videos that could introduce one audience to the other.
There’s a personal side to that, too. A dunk clip can entertain someone for a few seconds. Talking videos give viewers a chance to hear how you think and what you care about. When people feel they know the person behind the dunk, they have more reason to follow along. Ben’s earlier episode about building his dunk bag shows another side of that story.
Give a talking video a question and a payoff
Ben plans his talking videos around a question that makes the viewer curious. He often adds a second hook, and sometimes a third one midway through, to open another question before the first has been answered. Then he shows why viewers should trust the explanation: a source on screen, a chart, or the calculation itself. He keeps paying off the viewer with smaller answers and useful details while building toward the main one.
He saves the main answer for the end. Once the viewer gets the answer they came for, they’re likely to swipe, so he cuts right after the payoff. Sometimes that means trimming the final word. The small answers along the way keep the viewer feeling rewarded, while the main answer stays just out of reach until the close. If the answer is on screen and the video keeps going, that extra beat can be enough for someone to leave.
His edits also change the visual rhythm. He uses sound effects to make transitions feel smoother and adds a related image or a quick cat GIF when he needs a visual break from talking to camera. The point isn’t to decorate every second. It is to keep the viewer engaged and make a research-heavy idea feel enjoyable.
Read the retention graph, then improve one thing
We both came back to the retention graph in platform insights. If viewers leave at seven seconds, find that part of the video and ask what was happening. Did the action start too late? Did the edit linger after the dunk? Did the opening give people a reason to stay? The graph won’t make the edit for you, but it can show where to look.
Travis described taking a break and then seeing his YouTube Shorts get only a few hundred views, even when he thought the videos were good. He kept posting until one started doing better and helped bring attention back to the others. Instagram and TikTok felt less affected for him. Ben, meanwhile, follows a more fixed schedule: research and script one day, then film, edit, and post the next. He usually spends at least four hours on a video and aims for one every other day.
Those schedules fit their different formats. Travis can post more often with lighter edits. Ben’s videos take more planning. Neither described a guaranteed formula. They talked about making each new video a little better, learning from the response, and not letting a desire for perfection stop them from posting.
Make something you can keep making
Travis’s version is direct: make the footage stand out, cut the boring parts, test text and trends, and study what viewers respond to. Ben’s version starts with something you enjoy, then gives it a clear hook, useful details, and an ending that answers the opening question. I’m somewhere between those approaches. My short-form output has been less disciplined, but I’ve learned that a dunk is only one piece of the video.
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