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How to Create a ‘Bruce Smith Virginia Tech Confession’ Short with Python

Daniyal Ahmed
Bruce Smith Virginia Tech Confession

Bruce Smith Virginia Tech Confession

Imagine you’ve got a short video idea: a “confession” style, inspired by the moment when Bruce Smith (former NCAA/NFL star) made a heartfelt reflection at Virginia Tech. You want to turn that into a short video clip say 30-60 seconds using Python. You might ask “How do I pick up video clips, add text overlays, maybe animate something, export it and share it”.

build a “Bruce Smith Virginia Tech Confession” with Python

Before diving into code, let’s talk why this is a fun and meaningful project.

Capturing a moment with purpose:

The idea of a “confession” short is compelling: it’s personal, reflective, and resonates emotionally. In Bruce Smith’s case, his message at Virginia Tech about home, legacy and returning to roots carries weight. By making a short you’re not just editing footage you’re telling a story.

Python gives you flexibility:

While you could use a video-editing GUI app, Python lets you automate, template, batch process, and tailor things exactly to your style. Want to reuse it for future “confession” shorts (for other people)? Python helps. Want to overlay consistent branding, auto scale, export multiple formats Python helps.

Adding polish with code:

You can programmatically handle:

Making it share ready:

Shorts optimized for social platforms (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, TikTok) need specific aspect ratios (e.g., 9:16), durations (<60s), emphasised visuals. Python scripting helps you target these specs. The story of Bruce Smith and Virginia Tech gives you content; the script gives you form.

Setting up Your Environment

Choose Python and libraries

You’ll need Python (3.8+ is safe). Then install key video-processing libraries. I recommend:

pip install moviepy  
pip install Pillow  
pip install numpy

Organise your project folder

Create a folder structure such as:

confession_short/
  assets/
    video_clip.mp4
    logo.png
    bg_music.mp3
  scripts/
    create_short.py
  output/

Place the raw video (e.g., an interview clip of Bruce Smith at VT) in assets, put logos and music there too. create_short.py will contain your Python script, and output/ will contain the final exported file.
Tip: keep file names simple (no spaces) to avoid path issues.

Decide specs for your short:

Before coding, decide:

Writing the Python script

Here’s a structure of the create_short.py script, and then we’ll walk through each part.

Import libraries and set paths:

from moviepy.editor import VideoFileClip, TextClip, CompositeVideoClip, AudioFileClip
from moviepy.video.fx.all import fadein, fadeout
from PIL import Image
import os

# Paths
ASSETS_DIR = "../assets"
OUTPUT_DIR = "../output"
VIDEO_FILE = os.path.join(ASSETS_DIR, "video_clip.mp4")
LOGO_FILE = os.path.join(ASSETS_DIR, "logo.png")
MUSIC_FILE = os.path.join(ASSETS_DIR, "bg_music.mp3")
OUTPUT_FILE = os.path.join(OUTPUT_DIR, "bruce_smith_confession_short.mp4")

This sets you up. Moviepy is the main player.

Load and trim the video:

clip = VideoFileClip(VIDEO_FILE)
start_time = 10   # seconds
end_time = start_time + 45   # 45 second segment
trimmed = clip.subclip(start_time, end_time)

Here we choose to start at 10s into the original clip and take 45 seconds. You might adjust based on when Bruce’s key “confession” moment happens.

Resize/Set aspect ratio:

Suppose you’re outputting for mobile (9:16), we must crop or pad accordingly.

final_width = 1080
final_height = 1920
trimmed_resized = trimmed.resize(width=final_width)
# If height is less than final_height, we can add black bars or background.

Moviepy has functions for cropping/padding; you might use trimmed_resized.fx(vfx.crop, ...).

Create text overlay lower-third:

name_txt = TextClip("Bruce Smith", fontsize=70, color='white', font='Amiri-Bold')
affiliation_txt = TextClip("Virginia Tech Hokies", fontsize=50, color='yellow', font='Amiri-SemiBold')

# Set duration, position
name_txt = name_txt.set_duration(5).set_position(("center","80%")).fadein(0.5)
affiliation_txt = affiliation_txt.set_duration(5).set_position(("center","85%")).fadein(0.5)

These two TextClips appear at the bottom (80% and 85% vertical). You could add a semi-transparent rectangle behind them for better readability (using PIL to create an image and overlay).

Add logo overlay:

logo = ImageClip(LOGO_FILE).set_duration(5).resize(height=100).set_position(("left","top")).fadein(0.5)

This assumes your logo is PNG with transparency; you display it top-left for first 5 seconds.

Combine video + overlays:

composite = CompositeVideoClip([trimmed_resized, logo, name_txt, affiliation_txt])

Add audio (background music):

bgm = AudioFileClip(MUSIC_FILE).volumex(0.1)  # reduce volume to 10%
video_audio = composite.audio
final_audio = video_audio.audio_fadeout(1).set_duration(composite.duration).volumex(1.0).set_audio(bgm.set_duration(composite.duration))
composite = composite.set_audio(final_audio)

This mixes your video’s original audio (voice of Bruce or interview) with a lowered-volume background music track. You might want to fade in/out the music.

Add transition effects:

final_clip = composite.fx(fadein, 1).fx(fadeout, 1)

This adds a 1-second fade at the start and end.

Export the video:

final_clip.write_videofile(OUTPUT_FILE, fps=30, codec='libx264', audio_codec='aac', threads=4, preset='medium')

This writes out your file with standard settings. You can adjust preset for faster/slower encoding and quality trade-offs.

Captioning for Accessibility

Add subtitles so your short is accessible and platform-friendly (sound-off viewing). Using moviepy:

from moviepy.editor import SubtitlesClip

generator = lambda txt: TextClip(txt, font='Amiri-SemiBold', fontsize=45, color='white')
subs = [ (0,10,""I chose Virginia Tech because I felt something special about Virginia.""), (10,20,"… etc")]  # list of (start, end, text)
subclip = SubtitlesClip(subs, generator).set_position(("center","90%"))
composite = CompositeVideoClip([trimmed_resized, logo, name_txt, affiliation_txt, subclip])

This adds timed subtitles at 90% vertical. This is a feature beyond simple overlay; many competitor posts don’t mention accessibility or captions.

Optimising for multiple aspect ratios:

Perhaps you want both 9:16 (mobile) and 1:1 (Instagram feed) versions. You can script a small loop:

for ratio, size in [("9:16",(1080,1920)), ("1:1",(1080,1080))]:
    clip2 = trimmed.resize(newsize=size)
    # reposition overlays appropriately (e.g., bottom lower-third moves)
    output_file2 = OUTPUT_DIR + f"/bruce_smith_confession_{ratio}.mp4"
    clip2.write_videofile(output_file2, fps=30, codec='libx264', audio_codec='aac')

Competitor posts usually don’t explain multi-format output via script.

Scripted branding for reuse:

If you plan to create similar “confession” shorts for different people/organizations, turn your script into a template:

def create_confession_short(person_name, affiliation, video_path, logo_path, quote, duration=45, output_path):
    # load, trim, overlays, etc.
    # reuse code above

You can then call:

create_confession_short("Bruce Smith", "Virginia Tech Hokies", "video_clip.mp4", "logo.png", "I chose Virginia Tech because …", 45, "bruce_smith_confession_short.mp4")

Final Thoughts

If you followed along, you now have a clear blueprint: how to create a “Bruce Smith Virginia Tech Confession” short using Python, from planning through export. Even if you don’t in fact use Bruce Smith or Virginia Tech, the template works for any person/organization “confession” short you want to make.

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