AI short film agent: storyboard to video, then the cut in Cinema

A short film is a stack of decisions: who stars, how long it runs, the light, the cost of each scene. Make, the second mode of Ask, is an AI short film maker that takes them with you. Clap, eroq's clapperboard mascot, asks what it needs, writes the storyboard, prices every render, shoots what you approve and hands you the cut in Cinema.

This tutorial follows one production to an MP4: a three-scene noir in 16:9 starring two of your characters, Mara and Kai. The overview of Make covers the other kinds.

Switch to Make and pitch the film

Open the studio. Under the Ask bar at the top of the home, a switch reads Ask | Make. Pick Make, then tap the "A short film" starter or type your own: "A 3-scene noir short film with my characters, 16:9." Next to the switch, the brain picker stays on Auto, which is included.

Clap asks, one question at a time

One question per message, at most three before the first storyboard (a request that says everything gets a storyboard at once). Answers are chips to tap, or you type.

1. Who stars? The chips are your characters, with their pictures. Tap Mara and Kai, then "Continue (2)". A character without a look sheet shows "no sheet".
2. How long? You tap 30 seconds.
3. A voiceover or lines? You tap "Both".

While Clap writes, a block above the reply streams what it is doing ("Writing the storyboard…", "Pricing the plan…") and its production notes, then folds to "Thought for 7s".

The storyboard, and why it repeats itself

A film gets three to six scenes. Yours gets three of ten seconds: The client (Mara walks into Kai's office), The docks (at dusk, Kai watches her drop an envelope into the water), The car (night, she slides into his passenger seat). Scene prompts are written in English for the engines, whatever language you type in, 50 to 110 words each. Click a scene in the Production panel to read it. Scene 1:

Medium-wide shot, 35mm lens feel, Kai's office at night. Kai, a man in his late thirties with a short dark beard, in a charcoal three-piece suit and loosened black tie, sits behind his desk. Rain streaks the window; venetian blinds throw hard stripes of tungsten light across the room. Mara, a woman in her thirties with a sleek black bob, in a belted camel trench coat over a black silk blouse, walks in and lays a sealed envelope on the desk. Slow push-in. Low-key light, cold blue fill, teal-and-amber palette, 35mm grain.

Scenes 2 and 3 repeat the same descriptions word for word: the bob and the camel trench coat, the beard and the charcoal suit. That is continuity: each clip is rendered on its own, so a coat described two ways comes out as two coats. The last line repeats too: the same light words across the film make the shots cut together.

The Production panel on the right fills in as you go (on a phone, the "Production" button opens it): the brief (title, logline, 16:9, 30 seconds, engine, the look in words), the Cast, the Elements, the Storyboard. Characters and elements you add there, Clap uses from your next message.

The look test: one keyframe per scene

With the storyboard comes the first plan, a look test: one keyframe image per scene, the cheap way to lock the look before the clips. The card reads "Plan · 3 renders":

Render	Model and format	Price
Keyframe · Scene 1	Krea2 · 16:9	10 cr
Keyframe · Scene 2	same	10 cr
Keyframe · Scene 3	same	10 cr

Then the total and one button: Approve · 30 credits. Each row opens on its full prompt, with a link to open that render in its own tool ("Open it in Image"). Nothing renders before you approve, and the price shown is the price charged. Short on credits? The button says how many it needs and links to top up.

Mara and Kai ride every keyframe as their look sheets, their identity pictures. A character without one stays out of the pictures: the plan says so under its rows, links to make the sheet, and the prompt's words carry them.

Approve. The renders run through the tools' own pipeline and land in a grid under the plan card; click one to see it big, with a Download button. A grey line marks it: "3 renders landed".

Shoot: every clip opens on its keyframe

Clap reads the results and proposes the next step. It knows what landed or failed but does not watch your pictures to grade them: judging the look is your part. Happy? The next plan:

Render	Model and settings	Price
Clip · Scene 1	Seedance 2.0 Mini · 10s · 16:9 · sound · from keyframe	90 cr
Clip · Scene 2	same	90 cr
Clip · Scene 3	same	90 cr

Approve · 270 credits. Action! "From keyframe" is the trick: each clip opens on its scene's keyframe, which becomes its first frame on engines that accept a start frame, Seedance 2.0 Mini included. The look you approved is the look that moves (keyframes first, in depth). On this default engine a 5-second clip is 45 credits and a 10-second one 90 credits; one plan holds up to 8 renders, 6 of them clips.

"3 renders landed." A failed clip would be refunded automatically ("not charged"), and Clap would propose the fix: a retry, another engine, a shorter clip. Under its reply, Next steps suggests, in your words: "Make scene 2 at night", "Add a voiceover".

Redo one scene with a sentence

Between two night scenes, the dusk of scene 2 breaks the spell. Tap "Make scene 2 at night". Clap rewrites scene 2 alone: dusk becomes night, sodium lamps on wet planks, while the coat, the suit and the palette words stay put. The plan covers scene 2 only, a new keyframe and a new clip that opens on it: 100 credits. Scenes 1 and 3 keep their clips, nothing is bought twice, and the dusk take stays in your library. Cheaper still: catch it at the look test, where a redo is 10 credits.

Lines and a voiceover

Tap "Add a voiceover". Clap asks which voice (the chips are the roster voices and your cloned ones) and you pick Orion, low and unhurried. Since you answered "Both", Mara already has the last line, in scene 3. The plan:

Render	Voice	Price
Voiceover	Voice One · Orion · 172 characters	6 cr
Line · Scene 3	Voice One · Mara · 37 characters	3 cr

Voice One costs 3 credits per started 100 characters. Spoken words keep their language: a film made in Spanish can be narrated in Spanish. Mara's line is read in the voice set on her character. There is no lip-sync: lines play on the audio track, under the picture. Noir helps: narration over a wide shot, a face in shadow.

Open the cut in Cinema

When every scene has its clip, a card says "Your cut is ready" ("3 scenes · 30s, every clip in order"). Open in Cinema, there or in the Production panel, turns the production into a Cinema film and opens its Edit tab:

• each scene's latest clip in storyboard order, the night version of scene 2 included;
• the voiceover from the top of the film and Mara's line at the start of scene 3, on the audio track;
• the title and logline at the head of the script.

From there it is an ordinary Cinema film: trim and reorder the clips, add your own music and titles, re-render any scene from the Storyboard tab, export an MP4. Do big redos in Make first, while Clap holds the continuity.

Ask or Make for a film?

Both end in Cinema. Ask, which is free, sets it up: describe a film and the button under its reply opens Cinema with your scenes ready and nothing rendered; you render scene by scene (that route, step by step). Make produces it with you, every render priced and run on your approval, and delivers the cut with its clips in place. This walkthrough came to 409 credits on Auto, thinking included.

FAQ

Can an AI agent make a whole short film?

With you, yes. In Make, Clap asks what it needs, writes a storyboard of three to six scenes and proposes the renders as plans you approve, then runs them and hands you the cut in Cinema. It never spends without your click.

Can AI turn a storyboard into video?

Yes, scene by scene. In Make, each scene can become a keyframe you approve, then a clip that opens on it, each priced before it renders. The finished clips open in Cinema in storyboard order.

How much does a three-scene AI short film cost?

This one: 30 credits for the look test, 270 credits for three 10-second clips on Seedance 2.0 Mini, and voice at 3 credits per 100 characters. Auto is included; a named brain is billed per message, priced before you send. Plans are on /pricing.

How do characters stay the same in every scene?

Give each one a look sheet in Characters: it rides every keyframe and clip as their identity picture. Clap writes the same wardrobe into every scene, and each clip opens on a keyframe you approved. Without a look sheet, the plan says so and the words carry the character.

Does Make do lip-sync or music?

No. Make has no lip-sync, no upscaling and no music generation. Lines and voiceovers are voice renders on the audio track; for music, bring your own track into Cinema.