Making something worth watching
The controls on the make page take a minute to learn. What takes longer is knowing what to type in the box, and that is what decides whether a film is any good. Everything below can be pressed: each recipe opens the form already filled in, so you can change one thing and see what it does.
Every film is made as a draft first. You see it, and it only costs credits when you accept it — so trying something odd is close to free.
Four ways to start
Pick the wrong one and nothing else you choose will save it.
You describe what you want. It writes the script, picks the pictures, chooses the music. Most films start here.
Say what it is ABOUT, not what shots to use.Give it a news story or an article and it reads the page, then makes a film from what is actually there.
The box is for your angle, not the story.Your words, spoken exactly as written. Nothing is rewritten, nothing is added, and the film runs as long as the words take.
Instructions go in the direction box, or they get read out.Up to forty of your own pictures. It looks at them, finds the story and writes narration around them.
Upload them in the order the day happened.Briefs that work
Press Try this and the form opens with everything filled in. Change a line, see what moves.
From an idea
The commonest thing anybody makes here, and the easiest to make badly. The difference is naming ONE memory instead of listing virtues.
A birthday wish for my wife Amila. Warm, a little funny, not sentimental. Mention the morning she drove four hours to Kochi in the rain because I had forgotten my passport, and that I have never once heard her complain about it since. End on wishing her a quiet year.
TipOne specific memory beats five adjectives. "Kind, loving, always there for me" could be about anybody; four hours to Kochi in the rain could only be about her.
Cinematic treatment is for when the picture IS the point — no talking head, no explanation, just something worth looking at.
Tiny people in white mundus cooking a giant Onam sadya on an enormous banana leaf, steam rising, shot like a nature documentary. No narration.
TipCinematic costs the most and rewards the least explanation. Describe what the camera sees, not what the audience should feel.
The shape most news video takes: a presenter opens, hands to the pictures, comes back for the next point. Neither a talking head nor a slideshow.
Today's weather for Bengaluru — what it is doing this morning, what to expect this afternoon, and the one thing worth planning around. Brisk and practical, no drama.
TipTwo settings, and they answer different questions. HOW MUCH ON CAMERA is a real ratio of the running time — counted in seconds after the script is written and corrected to match, because a shot to camera runs as long as its line while a picture is two seconds. THE FRAME decides what a to-camera shot looks like: her alone, or her in half of it with the picture in the other half. This recipe uses Half and half with a Split frame — the standard bulletin cut, and it costs no more than Half and half on its own, because it films the same number of shots and just puts a picture beside each.
The same split as the vertical bulletin, turned the other way: the presenter on the left, the picture on the right. For anywhere a film is watched wide — a site embed, a television screen, YouTube rather than a phone.
The three things that moved markets in India this week, and what each one means for somebody with a salary and a home loan. Plain language, no jargon.
TipShape changes which way the frame divides, and nothing else has to be said about it: portrait stacks the halves, landscape sits them side by side. A 16:9 frame cut down the middle gives two tall slivers with a head in neither, so the split follows the shape rather than the other way round.
When the person IS the story — a correction, an apology, a statement, an explainer where the authority matters as much as the facts. Pictures appear for relief, not as the substance.
Why the water in this district has been going off every afternoon, what is being done, and when it will stop. Calm and specific. Do not speculate about blame.
TipMostly on camera is the dearest ratio there is — filming a talking head is the most expensive second this app buys, and this asks for about three quarters of the film. If the budget cannot stretch, the film says so on its panel rather than quietly making fewer.
From a link
Give it the article and let somebody front it. The difference between a summary and a bulletin is that a bulletin has a person in it who appears to have read the thing.
Keep it to what actually changed and who it affects. Skip the background.
TipPaste the article link in the box above the brief; the line you write here is the ANGLE, not the summary. Without an angle it summarises; with one it argues, and an argued thirty seconds is worth more than a balanced ninety.
From an idea
Square survives everywhere — a timeline, a WhatsApp forward, a story crop. Worth having when a film is going somewhere you do not control.
One number from today's news and why it matters, in fifteen seconds. Open on the number.
TipShort films want ONE idea. Fifteen seconds is four shots, and four shots cannot carry three points — it will pick one and the other two will be a blur. Say which one matters in the brief.
The shape the animal-character channels use: one character, drawn once, carried through every shot. Nothing is photographed and nobody reads it to camera — the whole film is generated and the joke is in the picture.
A fat orange cat who runs a roadside thattukada. He is very proud of his dosa. Tonight the batter has other ideas. No dialogue — tell it in what he does with his face and his hands.
TipThe character description is the whole film. It is generated ONCE as a character sheet — the full figure, standing, on a plain background — and every shot with him in it is drawn from that one image. That is where the consistency comes from; no amount of describing him again in each shot will hold him together. Say the build, the colour, the clothing and the one thing that identifies him, and be specific about proportions. Try Silent as well: most of these work better with a music bed and no voice at all.
From a link
Give it the link and an angle. Without an angle it summarises; with one it argues.
Focus on what this actually costs an ordinary household per month, and end on the one thing nobody in the story mentions.
TipThe box is for the ANGLE, not the story — it already has the story. Leaving it blank gets you a competent summary nobody shares.
From a script
The whole passage on screen at once, still, over a moving background. For verses, quotations, and anything meant to be read rather than heard.
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." — Mahatma Gandhi
Show the whole passage on screen at once and hold it there for the entire film. Do not scroll it.
TipSay this in the DIRECTION box, not the script box. Anything typed in the script box gets spoken aloud, word for word — including your instructions.
Long text that would not fit on one screen: it rises from the bottom and leaves at the top, timed to the length of the film.
Paste the full passage here — a poem, a verse, a letter. Every word of it will be spoken and shown.
Put the entire text on screen and move it slowly from the bottom to the top, so it has all left the frame by the end.
TipRead it aloud first. If you stumble over a line, so will the voice — and the film is exactly as long as it takes to read.
From your photographs
It reads your photographs, works out the story, and writes the narration around them. Nothing is generated — these are your pictures.
Our week in Munnar with the boys. It rained the whole time and we did not mind.
TipUpload them in the order the day happened. It follows the order you give it, and a story that starts at the end reads like a shuffle.
Every photograph redrawn in one style, keeping the faces. This is the MemoryToon effect — the same trip, as a cartoon.
Our week in Munnar with the boys. It rained the whole time and we did not mind.
TipPick the look with the buttons, not in the brief. Cartoon holds a likeness best; Ghibli is prettier and looser with faces.
Three of the drawings move — a few seconds of real motion each — while the rest hold. The moving ones are what people remember.
My grandmother in her kitchen, the year before she died. Gentle, unhurried, no sad music.
TipMotion costs more per moving shot, which is why it is a few and not all. Choose photographs where something COULD move — hands, steam, cloth.
When you have exactly one good picture. It stays in every shot and the film moves around it.
The only photograph I have of my father at work. He ran this press for thirty-one years.
TipUpload one photograph and it works this out by itself. Do not apologise for having one picture — a single held image with the right words is stronger than nine weak ones.
What each control actually does
In the order they appear on the page.
- Treatment — Photos, Standard, Cinematic
- How the pictures are found. Photos uses stock photography and is free when the libraries have what the script needs. Standard generates images that match the script. Cinematic generates moving footage and costs the most. If you are not sure, Standard.
- Shape — Vertical, Square, Horizontal
- Vertical for anything going on a phone, which is nearly everything. Horizontal only if it will be watched on a television or inside a website. Getting this wrong is the most visible mistake on this page.
- Length
- Shorter is almost always better. A thirty-second film that starts in the middle beats a sixty-second one with ten seconds of throat-clearing. Auto lets the story decide, and is a good default. Scripts and photograph films set their own length and the picker steps aside.
- How much on camera when somebody reads it
- Whether the presenter opens and hands over, alternates with the pictures, or carries most of the film. Unlike almost everything else here this is a ratio, not a suggestion — the shot list is counted after it is written and corrected until it matches, because a film that was meant to be half pictures and came back as a talking head is not a style choice, it is a fault.
- Language
- What it is written and spoken in. Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and the rest are all available, and the voice changes with the language.
- Captions
- Burned into the picture, so they survive being reposted anywhere. Leave these on for social media — most people watch with the sound off, and a film with no captions is a film they scroll past.
- Music
- A bed chosen to fit the mood of the script. You can name what you want in the brief — "a slow sitar", "no music at all" — and it will try to honour it.
- Look — As taken, Cartoon, Ghibli, Watercolour photograph films
- Redraws every one of your photographs in one style, keeping the people recognisable. Cartoon holds a likeness best. Ghibli is the prettiest and the loosest with faces. As taken leaves your pictures alone.
- Bring a few moments to life photograph films
- Two or three of the drawings become short moving clips instead of stills. It costs extra per moving shot, which is why it is a few and not all of them. Choose pictures where something could plausibly move.
- Direction scripts only
- How to film it, as opposed to what to say. This is the box for "hold the text still", "no faces", "keep it on one wide shot". Put these in the script box and they get read aloud.
Your face, your voice, your people
Three different things, and the difference is worth understanding before you use them.
- A photo of you Account → Photos
- Lends one picture to one film — you appear in it, or read it to camera. The photograph is used as it is. Nothing is learned and nothing is kept beyond the picture you uploaded.
- Your voice Account → Voice
- A short recording of you reading a sentence on screen, in your own language. Afterwards films can be narrated in your voice. The recording is kept as the record of your consent, and an administrator checks it before anything is cloned.
- A taught person Account → People
- Different in kind, and the reason this studio can do something others cannot. Fifteen to twenty-five photographs of one person, and afterwards that person can be drawn in scenes that were never photographed — riding a bicycle, standing in a doorway, anywhere the story goes. It takes about fifteen minutes and happens once.
Fifteen to twenty-five pictures of one person alone, mostly head and shoulders. Vary the angle, the expression, the light and the clothes. Crop other people out. Keep them all from around the same period — a mix of a child and a teenager teaches a blur of both. Six is the minimum and six is not enough: with six you get somebody who looks like the right sort of person rather than the right person.
TipOne taught person per picture. Two in the same frame blend into somebody who is neither, so a film is about your son, not about your whole family.
Nine things that make a film better
None of these are settings. All of them matter more than the settings.
- Say one thing. A film about three things is a film about nothing. If your brief has an "and also" in it, make two films.
- Start in the middle. The first two seconds decide whether anyone sees the rest. Cut the introduction — "today I want to talk about" is where people leave.
- One specific detail beats five adjectives. "Kind, loving, always there for me" could be about anybody. "Drove four hours to Kochi in the rain" could only be about her. Specifics are what people remember and what they send on.
- Name the feeling, not the shot list. You do not have to describe camera angles — it is better at those than most people are. Tell it whether this is funny, or aching, or proud, and it will find the pictures.
- Use real nouns. "A steel tumbler of chai on a wet windowsill" produces a picture. "A beautiful morning scene" produces something you have seen a thousand times.
- Read a script out loud before pasting it. If you stumble over a line, the voice will too — and unlike you it will not stop and try again.
- Order your photographs like a story. It follows the order you upload them. Arrival, middle, the good bit last. A shuffled album makes a shuffled film.
- Say what music you want. Music sets the genre faster than any picture does. "A slow sitar", "nothing sentimental", "no music at all" — all of these work in the brief, and the default is only a guess at your mood.
- Make the draft, then judge. Every film is a draft before it is a film. Watch it, change one thing, redraft. People who make three drafts make better films than people who write better first briefs.
Films made here, and what was typed to make them
From the gallery — only films whose makers chose to list them.
An Explainer on Notice Period Formalities for an employee on his last working day
Wish the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi a happy birthday
Create a realistic Delhi Metro explainer with clean stations, trains, commuters and modern infrastructure. Show the foreign traveller’s positive reaction and comparison with Japan and South …
Have you seen claims that the Indian government is imposing MDR charges on UPI payments? Let’s fact-check it. MDR stands for Merchant Discount Rate — a fee associated with processing certa…
wish indian prime minister Narendra Modi Happy Birthday
A brass lamp in a Kerala temple has burned for two hundred years. Tonight the wind comes through the door and it has to fight to stay lit. It wins, barely.
A stray dog and a temple elephant have an ongoing disagreement about who owns the shade under the banyan tree. Today the dog tries diplomacy. It does not go well. Pass: both animals hold. …
An old fisherman in Kochi mends the same net every morning. Today he finds a hole he cannot explain. He examines it, argues with it, and eventually decides the sea owes him an apology. Pas…
Drafts are free to look at. Make something bad on purpose and change one line.
Make a video