Making a film
The stages your agent works through, the review page, notes and versions.
A film is a folder your agent edits and Clipwright draws. You never edit a timeline; you read one. Your agent works through nine stages, and you decide at the ones that matter.
The stages
- Channel. Once per channel: its look and its place, from a short brief. You approve the sheet. See Channels and identity.
- Premise. Your agent offers three premises, each one quantity changing over a home you know and running into a real limit. You pick one or change it. Nothing is built before you pick.
- Steps. It plans the film as 10 to 14 steps. Every value comes from a calculation or a source you can read.
- Film. It writes
film.js. The checks run on every save and name each problem with the fix. - Self-review. Before you see anything, it draws contact sheets of exact frames, reads every one against a checklist and fixes what fails.
- Your review. You open the review page, watch and leave notes.
- Package. Thumbnails, title options, the description with chapters and credits, Shorts, caption files.
- Export. You choose where it renders. See Renders and credits.
- Upload kit. One folder with the film, thumbnails, Shorts, captions and the description. You upload.
Ask your agent where things stand at any point: it can tell you the stage, what is done and what is left for you.
The review page
The review page is where you watch what your agent made. The player is frame-exact: it plays the film live in your browser, with its timeline of chapters and steps. Free accounts preview at 720p with a watermark; exporting needs a plan.
- Space or K
Play and pause
- J and L
Back and forward one second
- Left and right arrows
One frame back and forward; with Shift, ten frames
- Home and End
The start and the end
- N
Pin a note at the playhead
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space or K | Play and pause |
| J and L | Back and forward one second |
| Left and right arrows | One frame back and forward; with Shift, ten frames |
| Home and End | The start and the end |
| N | Pin a note at the playhead |
Notes
Press N to pin a note at the exact frame and write what you saw. Your agent reads the open notes, changes the film and answers each with one line saying what changed and where. A note it fixed shows as fixed by the agent; you resolve it when you are happy, or reopen it. A note that needs no change is yours to resolve.
Versions
Every sync is a new version, with your agent’s one-line summary. The review page keeps them all: you can open an earlier one, and compare two at the same moment with one playhead. The page reloads in place when your agent syncs a change and keeps the playhead where it was.
Only you can approve a version, on the review page. An agent’s key cannot.