Your first episode, end to end

An episode goes through four steps, shown as tabs at the top of the episode: Story, Cast & places, Clips and Video. At the end of each step, the bar at the bottom of the page says what happens next and what it costs, and nothing runs until you approve. You can always go back to an earlier step.

The recordings follow the demo episode Not the same, from the show Power Couple.

Video, about 45 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: On the show's page, press New episode.
2. 2Step 2: Set the Target duration in seconds, or press 1, 3, 5 or 10 min. The Director treats it as a target, not a promise.
3. 3Step 3: Choose the Tier: Regular for most episodes, or Premium for longer, more continuous clips. The tier is fixed once the episode exists. The box on the right estimates the cost for this length.
4. 4Step 4: Press Next: the idea.
5. 5Step 5: Brainstorm with Penny, your Screenwriter, and press Use this on an idea you like. Or press Write it yourself and type the idea in the Topic box: one or two sentences, saying what happens and to whom. Add Guidance if you want a tone, a place, or something to avoid.
6. 6Step 6: Press Create episode. Creating an episode spends nothing. The episode stops for you after every step.
7. 7Step 7: On the episode, press Write the story.

Video, about 30 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: Read the story. At the top is its one-line summary. Below it, the story in numbered beats (B1, B2…), grouped into scenes. It says Written by Penny.
2. 2Step 2: On the right, check the Places and Props the story needs, and what everyone is Wearing this episode. Press Keep in the show on a place or prop you want future episodes to reuse.
3. 3Step 3: To change the words yourself, press Edit the story, change the summary or the beats (one per line), and press Save. Or press Cancel to leave it as it was. Once clips exist, a saved change means they are planned again on the next run, and the note above the editor says which clips that shoots again.
4. 4Step 4: To ask for another version instead, press Rewrite with a note… and say what you want different.
5. 5Step 5: When you are happy, press the approve button at the bottom. It reads Approve story → draw cast & places · ~N credits, with its price. It moves on to Cast & places and draws the pictures.

Video, about 25 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: Check everyone under People, as they will appear: each character, drawn from their model sheet in this episode's outfit.
2. 2Step 2: Scroll down to check each place and prop. Each is drawn once and reused in every clip, so it looks the same throughout.
3. 3Step 3: If something is wrong, point at a person's picture and press Redraw, Outfit or Description on it; the editor opens under the picture. On a place, Redraw and Edit description sit under its picture. A place or prop that belongs to the show says Its description is shared with the show instead of Edit description; its Redraw stays.
4. 4Step 4: Press Approve cast & places → plan the clips · ~N credits. Slate, your Director, plans the clips.

Video, about 50 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: The list on the left has every clip, with its length and who is in it. Click a clip to open it on the right.
2. 2Step 2: Read the clip's prose: a one-line summary, then each beat with its timing, what the camera does, who does what, and every line spoken. Names show as tags; press As sent to see the exact words the video model gets.
3. 3Step 3: To change a clip's words, click into the prose and type, then press Save. Press Revert to put the words back. Until you choose one, the bar at the bottom says the clip has unsaved words and Approve waits. A changed clip is shot again only when you approve the step.
4. 4Step 4: To change a clip another way, set its Length, or press Rewrite with a note… on the clip's page and say what you want. To have the Director plan all the clips again, use Re-plan the clips with a note… in the bar at the bottom.
5. 5Step 5: When every clip is right, press Approve clips → shoot N clips · ~N credits (or → make the cut when every clip is already shot). The clips are shot (only the ones not shot yet, or changed) and joined into the cut, and the episode moves on to Video.
6. 6Step 6: To redo a clip that has been shot, go back to the Clips tab, open the clip and scroll down to its video. The Re-shoot button says its price; pressing it shoots a new take straight away, and the cut is made again with it. Take counts the takes (4 of 4). If a re-shoot would throw away a sharper 1080p finish you paid for, it asks you first.

Video, about 30 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

1. 1Step 1: Press Play to watch the whole cut.
2. 2Step 2: Subtitles are on, heard from the clips' own sound. Under Look, pick a Style, a Position and a Size; Lines lists every line, which you can correct. Under In your export, choose whether they are drawn on the picture, and whether you also get a subtitle file. Switch subtitles off with the switch at the top of the panel.
3. 3Step 3: Under the player, the clips are in order on a timeline. Drag a clip's edge to trim it, and press the scissors between two clips to choose a cut or a transition. Press the × on a selected clip to take it out (Put back brings it back), and drag a clip onto another, or hold Alt and press the arrow keys, to change the order. Undo and Reset take changes back.
4. 4Step 4: Press Export · free. When it says Your video is ready, press Download (and Download .srt for the subtitle file), or Publish: see Publish and the Library.

Video, about 55 seconds, no sound. The steps below say the same.

Draft first is for Premium episodes: every clip is first shot as a cheaper 480p draft, you watch the whole episode, and then you keep it as your final cut, or upscale any clip to 1080p later. Nothing is spent upscaling a clip you were going to change.

1. 1Step 1: When you choose Premium on the set-up, the Draft first switch appears under the tiers, on. The words beside it say what it does at your episode's length, with prices. It is chosen once, here, and fixed after the episode exists. Regular has no draft step and no switch.
2. 2Step 2: On the Clips step, each clip is marked 480p, and the clip list counts them (for example 2 at 480p · 0 in 1080p).
3. 3Step 3: Open a clip and scroll to its video. It says 480p.
4. 4Step 4: Press Upscale to 1080p · ~N credits to make the same take again, sharper. Or press Re-shoot · ~N credits to shoot a new take: if that would throw away a 1080p version you already paid for, it asks first.
5. 5Step 5: On the Video step, press Upscale all N to 1080p · ~N credits (or Upscale the other N to 1080p · ~N credits) to upscale every clip that is left in one press.
6. 6Step 6: You can upscale any time, or never. Upscale to 1080p makes the same take sharper, so you can watch everything first and upscale only the clips you keep.
7. 7Step 7: An episode shot Draft first exports at 1080p: the Video step says Exports at 1080p — 480p clips are scaled up to fit, so you can export without upscaling.

About the recording: rehearsal mode's stand-in footage is colour bars, so the clips look like test patterns. The dates, the marks, the buttons and what they do are the app's own.

If a step cannot finish, the episode shows Needs your attention with what went wrong and what to do. See The Pipeline and "Needs your attention".

Tips

• Export · free costs nothing: change the subtitles or trim a clip and export again as often as you like.
• Reopen in the bar at the bottom of a step takes its approval back, so you can change it. Only what depends on the change is made again.
• You can always go back to an earlier step from the tabs at the top.