Is sixty seconds the cut length or the scene length?

The cut length, including the two-second title card and the four-second credits card. The drafter writes beats that add up to roughly fifty-four seconds of scenes.

Can I make it shorter than a minute?

Yes. Delete beats or trim seconds on the sheet; the cut uses whatever beats are shot. Eight beats is the minimum the drafter writes, but you can cut with fewer shot.

How much does a one-minute movie cost in credits?

Two for the beat sheet, two for the cut, and the scenes. Eight seven-second beats at 480p standard are about 168 credits; at 720p standard about 336. A poster is three more and a trailer two.

Who owns a one-minute movie I make here?

You own it, under the terms of service. Because copyright law is not the same everywhere, take legal advice before relying on it commercially in your country.

Can I use my own face?

No. Characters are always generated from a written description so that the reference images the renderer receives are ones it accepts. Costumes, sets and props can be uploaded.

Coming of Age · 1 minute target

Make a one-minute movie with a beginning, a middle and an end

Sixty seconds is enough for a whole story if every shot earns its place. The one-minute runtime target gives you eight beats, a title card and end credits, and nothing you did not choose.

Start a one-minute movie See public flicks

Last Dock Summer, a cut in the Coming of Age genre. Logline: On the final night of camp, a counsellor who was supposed to leave for the city tells her best friend she took the job, and the best friend already knew.

Why one minute is the right first flick

A minute forces decisions. There is no room for an establishing shot that does not establish anything or a line of dialogue that only sounds nice. The eight-beat sheet the drafter writes for a sixty-second target follows a three-act skeleton for your genre: two or three beats to set the want, three or four to complicate it, two to pay it off. Each beat is about seven seconds, which is a comfortable length for a single shot with one action and one line.

It is also the cheapest flick to make. Eight beats at 480p standard cost around 170 credits to shoot, which fits inside the smallest plan. If you want to learn how the studio thinks before committing to a three-minute piece, start here.

The shape of a sixty-second beat sheet

Beat one is usually a wide: the world and the person in it. Beat two is a medium or a close-up that shows the want. Beats three to six are where the plan runs and goes wrong, and the drafter varies shot sizes so that a two-shot follows a close-up and an insert on an object lands before a reveal. Beats seven and eight pay it off and leave an image on screen that the end-credits card can sit on.

You can change all of this. The sheet is editable line by line, and the running total at the top tells you the cut length as you add or trim seconds. The drafter aims for fifty-four seconds of scenes so the cards bring the cut to sixty, but a fifty-second cut or a seventy-second cut is just as valid.

Casting a one-minute movie

Keep the cast small. One or two people carry a sixty-second story better than four, and the renderer holds likeness best when the same two faces reappear beat after beat. Pick characters from the preset roster or generate your own for three credits each, give them a costume so wardrobe stays consistent, and choose one or two sets. The same set in a wide and then in a close-up reads as one place; six different sets in sixty seconds reads as a montage.

From cut to trailer to page

Once the cut exists you can publish the flick to its own page with the poster, the logline and the cut, and add a trailer by picking the two or three strongest scenes. For a one-minute movie a trailer is almost a second cut, so pick scenes that pose the question without answering it.

Made the same way

Each with the logline or beat that made it

Cut · Heist1:02

The Last Reel

Logline: A retiring projectionist and a nervous usher have one closing night to lift a reel of unreleased footage from the cinema vault before the chain demolishes the building.

Cut · Road Movie1:58

Salt Flats

Logline: Two estranged sisters drive their late father’s pickup across the desert to scatter his ashes at a drive-in that closed thirty years ago.

Cut · Survival1:04

Blue Ice

Logline: A glacier guide separated from her group by a whiteout has one flare, a cracked thermal camera and six hours of daylight to find the orange tent.

Questions

Is sixty seconds the cut length or the scene length?: The cut length, including the two-second title card and the four-second credits card. The drafter writes beats that add up to roughly fifty-four seconds of scenes.
Can I make it shorter than a minute?: Yes. Delete beats or trim seconds on the sheet; the cut uses whatever beats are shot. Eight beats is the minimum the drafter writes, but you can cut with fewer shot.
How much does a one-minute movie cost in credits?: Two for the beat sheet, two for the cut, and the scenes. Eight seven-second beats at 480p standard are about 168 credits; at 720p standard about 336. A poster is three more and a trailer two.
Who owns a one-minute movie I make here?: You own it, under the terms of service. Because copyright law is not the same everywhere, take legal advice before relying on it commercially in your country. Read the terms.
Can I use my own face?: No. Characters are always generated from a written description so that the reference images the renderer receives are ones it accepts. Costumes, sets and props can be uploaded.

Start with the sample logline, or your own

The studio opens with this logline, genre and runtime filled in. Change anything.

Start a one-minute movie