Make video shots in Video Studio on Mac

Video Studio turns a chapter into a list of shots, drafts a video prompt for each, renders takes and plays them back in order on the timeline. It shows as Video in the toolbar's mode switch when your account has video editing turned on.

Open Video Studio

Click Video in the toolbar's mode switch, or choose View ▸ Video (⌥3). The toolbar is the same as in Prose and Canvas; the window's subtitle names the chapter you're working in. While Video Studio shows, a Video menu appears in the menu bar.

The shot list

The sidebar lists the shots, in the order they play:

The chapter picker at the top shows one chapter, or All Chapters, which groups the shots under a header for each chapter. Click a header's arrow to fold it.
The filter chips show All shots, those with No take yet, those Rendering, or those whose render Failed.
Each row shows the shot's number in its chapter, a poster from its take, its title, its length and how many takes it has. The mark at the end says where it stands: a percentage while a take renders, a warning triangle when the render failed, a check when it has a take in the sequence, and a link when it has no take yet and continues from the shot before it.
The tray at the bottom counts the shots shown, their running time and how many still need a take.

Drag a row to move the shot within its chapter (with the All chip on). Drop video files on a row to add them to that shot as takes. Control-click a row for New Shot, Generate Take and Delete Shot.

Make a chapter's shots

On a chapter with no shots yet:

Pick the chapter in the shot list's chapter picker.
Click the ✦ beside the picker to open Make Shots. You can also choose Video ▸ Make Shots…, Control-click the chapter's header (under All Chapters) or one of its shots, click Make Shots… on the empty stage, or type Make Shots in the Omnibox (⌘K).
Set About to roughly how many shots you want. It starts at the number Merrimo suggests: about one shot per beat of the screenplay (an action paragraph or a line of dialogue), or more when the chapter's prose holds more.
Leave Draft every prompt checked to write each shot's video prompt, and check Generate the takes to render a take for each shot once its prompt is drafted.
Click Make Shots.

The AI directs the chapter's shots. It reads the screenplay and the chapter's prose, so a compact screenplay still gets the moments, reactions and details the prose describes. Every line of dialogue stays word for word, and each shot only shows the characters and props of its own scene. A chapter with only prose is adapted to a screenplay first. If the AI can't plan the shots (no AI set up, or it doesn't answer), Merrimo cuts the screenplay into shots by length instead and says so. While prompts draft, the bottom of the shot list shows how many are done, with a Cancel button; the prompts already written stay if you cancel.

Update a chapter's shots

Once a chapter has shots, the ✦ opens Update Shots. Check the steps you want:

Break down the screenplay again replaces the shots that have no takes with a fresh breakdown, planned the same way. Shots with takes stay.
Draft missing prompts writes the prompts that are missing or out of date.
Generate missing takes renders a take for every shot without one.

Drafting runs first; the takes then render one at a time. With All Chapters picked, the ✦ asks which chapter to work on.

Pick a take

Select a shot and open the Video group in the inspector. Its takes are listed at the top, newest first, each drawn as a filmstrip the width of the inspector, like its clip on the timeline. The take in the cut has a colored ring and an In cut badge; a rejected take is faded.

See a take: move the pointer along a take. A white playhead shows where you are in the take, and the stage shows that frame. Move the pointer off the list and the stage goes back to the playhead.
Use a take: click it. It goes in the cut in place of the take that was there. Choose Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z) to put the other take back.
Render another take: click Generate Another Take above the list. While it renders, it sits at the top of the list with its progress and a Stop button. When it finishes, the new take goes in the cut, and the line under the header names the take it replaced. Choose Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z) to put that take back. A video file you drop on a shot goes in the cut only when the shot has no take yet.
More: Control-click a take for Use in Sequence, Approve, Reject and Delete Take.

A take that came back noticeably shorter than its shot has a warning sign next to its length; point at it to read how short (for example, Short take: 3.0 s of 6.0 s).

References and chained shots

References follow the picture: a shot's reference to a character, place or prop shows its current picture, so a new portrait reaches the next take of every shot that uses it. Takes already rendered keep the pictures they were made with: the line under the Takes header names them for the take in the cut, and says since replaced when the picture has changed.
Keep a picture: Control-click a reference and choose Keep This Picture to keep the one it shows now, even after a new one is made. A kept reference has a pin. Choose Follow Current Picture to let it follow again.
Chained shots: a shot chained to the one before it starts on that shot's last frame, which sets the scene. When the two shots are at different places, a warning under Chain to previous shot says so: turn the chain off to show the shot's own place.
A failed take holds the shots chained after it: they wait instead of failing, and say why (for example, Waiting on Shot 3 · its take failed). Click Retry Shot 3 to render that shot again; the waiting take renders after it.
When you move or delete shots so that a chained shot comes first in its chapter, its chain is turned off: the first shot has nothing to start from.

Add shots and edit the cut

New shot: click New at the left of the toolbar, or choose Video ▸ New Shot. The shot goes straight after the selected one in its chapter, or at the end of the chapter when no shot is selected.
Trim: choose Video ▸ Trim (⌘\) to open the clip trimmer for the selected shot.
Split: choose Video ▸ Split (⌘B) to cut the shot under the playhead in two.
Chain: choose Video ▸ Chain to Previous Shot so the selected shot starts on the last frame of the one before it.
Keyframes and references: drag a picture onto the First frame or Last frame well in the inspector's Keyframes to start or end the shot on it, or onto the References strip to add it as the next picture. It can come from the Images window (⇧⌘I), Finder, Photos or a web browser. A picture dropped on a filled well replaces the one there.
Delete a take: choose Video ▸ Delete Take to delete the take on the stage. The shot goes back to its newest remaining take. Choose Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z) to bring the take back.

The same commands are in the Omnibox: press ⌘K and type their names.

Every change to the cut is one step you can undo: a new shot, a split, a trim, a move, a chain, a deleted shot, a take picked on the timeline, approving or rejecting a take, and the shot's settings in the inspector. Choose Edit ▸ Undo (⌘Z) to take it back, and Edit ▸ Redo (⇧⌘Z) to do it again.

Export the video

To save the chapter's video as one movie file, click the Export button (the square with an arrow) in the toolbar, choose where to save it, and click Export. The movie is the cut on the timeline, played in order: each shot's take as you trimmed it, and black for as long as a shot without a take lasts. Shots without a take at the very end of the chapter are left out, so the movie ends on the last take. It's saved as an MPEG-4 movie (.mp4) unless you name it .mov.

The button's icon shimmers while the movie is being written. It's dimmed until at least one shot in the chapter has a take.