Videos
Starting a video, the five built-in structures, autosave, the video browser, closing, and projects outside a workspace.
A video is one folder inside the workspace, with its own files and copied media. This page covers the New Video sheet, the built-in structures, how a video saves itself, the browser in the workspace window, closing, and .be projects outside a workspace. The browser calls them Videos and the menus say Project; both mean the same folder.
New video
Press ⌘N, or click New Video in the workspace window. The sheet asks for:
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Name | The video's folder under projects/, numbered when the name is taken |
| What the video is about | A brief, kept with the video for you and for an agent |
| Canvas | 9:16, 16:9, 1:1 or 4:5; 9:16 unless the workspace says otherwise |
| Start | Blank, or one of the built-in structures below |
Return on the empty sheet makes an Untitled video at once. The project window opens with Video 1, which is magnetic, and Audio 1, which ducks. To rename a video, change its name in the Video panel and press Return; see The Video panel. The canvas can change later from the viewer; see Canvas ratio.
Structures
A structure lays the video out before there is any footage: named placeholders in order on the video track, each with a note saying what goes there, a voiceover or music slot underneath, and the texts. Five are built in:
| Structure | Slots on the video track | Underneath | Texts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talking head | Hook, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, Call to action | A Voiceover slot | The hook line at the top, "Follow for more" at the end |
| Tutorial | The result, Step 1 to Step 4, The result again | A Voiceover slot | A step number on each step, "Follow for part 2" at the end |
| B-roll montage | Shot 1 to Shot 8, three seconds each | A Music slot | A title over the first shot |
| Before and after | Before, The process, After | A Music slot | "Before" and "After" at the top of each |
| Listicle | Hook, Item 1 to Item 5, Call to action | A Voiceover slot | An item number on each item |
Each slot carries a note saying what to shoot or pick, shown in the sidebar when the placeholder is selected.
Shoot to the list, then drop each clip on its placeholder. A structure is a template; the same shape can be imported from a file or laid out by an agent. See Placeholders and templates.
Autosave
A workspace video saves itself right after each change, into its three files. The window subtitle reads "Saving…" and then "In workspace". There is no dirty state and no prompt on close. Undo and redo work across everything, an agent's changes included.
⌘S saves at once. The thumbnail on the video's card follows a couple of seconds after a save.
The video browser
The workspace window lists every video as a card of one size, its thumbnail inside at the video's own shape (a 16:9 video lies across the card, a 9:16 one stands), with its name, length, size on disk and when it was last saved. Under that, a line says what is happening to the video, when anything is: Open (its window is up), Open in the background (an agent holds it with no window), the agent at work on it and the tool it last called, Exporting with the progress, or Exported with the file's name once an export from the card is done. Click a card to open the video, or to bring its window forward when it has one. Right-click for the menu.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open | Opens the video's window, or brings it forward |
| Rename… | Renames the video and its folder |
| Duplicate | Copies the folder under a new name |
| Reveal in Finder | Shows the folder |
| Export… | Renders the video in the background with the export sheet's defaults, to your export folder; the card shows the progress, then Reveal Export in Finder |
| Move to Trash | Moves the folder to the Trash, closing its window first if open. Refused while it exports |
An empty workspace shows one way in, Create Video.
Windows
Every video opens in a window of its own, and several can be open at once; opening a video that already has a window brings that window forward instead of opening a second one. The workspace window stays where it is. The Window menu lists the workspace, the open videos and the open libraries.
⌘W closes a video's window and nothing else: the video was saved after its last change. If an agent is working on it, or it is exporting, it stays open in the background and its card says so; otherwise it leaves memory. When the last video window closes and the workspace window was closed too, the workspace window comes back. ⇧⌘W shows the workspace window at any time. Quitting and reopening the app brings the workspace back with the video windows that were up.
A video an agent opened is in the background: no window, until the agent shows it or you click its card. Its window then opens on the agent's work so far, with every step in the undo history.