Make an AI short film from one sentence with Ask and Cinema

A short film starts as a sentence. Type it into Ask, the bar at the top of the studio home, and Cinema opens with a new film whose scene one is what you described — or, if you name one of the six recipes, with that recipe's whole script. Nothing has rendered and nothing has been charged. From there the Script and Storyboard tabs take over, and you pay per scene, when you render it.

This walkthrough goes from one sentence to three rendered scenes, with the credit math on two engines. Everything else Ask does is on /ask.

Ask for a film

Say it is a film and describe the opening shot. Name an engine if you want one:

A short film on Seedance 2.0 Mini: a woman in a red coat waits on an empty train platform at night as the last train pulls in

→ Setting up Cinema · Seedance 2.0 Mini with your parameters…

About a second after that grey line, Cinema opens on the new film. Scene one's action is your description, written as a prompt for the engines — in English, whatever language you typed in.

Ask only sets what you asked for:

• The engine. Name one and it becomes the film's engine; a family name means that family's standard engine ("with Kling" is Kling 3.0, not the Pro). Name none and the new film starts on Seedance 2.0 Mini, the cheapest engine.
• The seconds. "5-second scenes" gives scene one five seconds.
• The cast. Name one of your characters and they join scene one's cast. A character appears in renders only once it has its look sheet, made in its Identity tab; one without is flagged "Needs a look sheet". The casting guide covers it.

Everything you type lands in scene one, so describe the opening shot, not the plot. "A heist in three scenes: …" gives you one scene holding all three. The other scenes get written in the Script, which is where they belong anyway. If you want a single clip rather than a film, ask for a clip: the one-clip route opens the Video tool instead.

Two more cases. "New film" on its own opens a blank film. And an engine your plan does not include — Kling 3.0 needs the Hobby plan — comes back as a proposal instead of a jump: the grey line, an Open Cinema → button and the plan badge.

Or name a recipe

The six recipes on the Cinema shelf are whole scripts — notes, callouts, lists, three scene cards with their dialogue — plus a complete look. Name one and it opens as your film:

Open the Horror teaser recipe

→ Cinema · Horror teaser

• Perfume ad opens as Amber
• Music video opener opens as Neon Run
• Horror teaser opens as The Visitor
• Streetwear drop opens as Drop 07, vertical 9:16
• Romance short opens as Same Book
• Travel diary opens as Postcards

The Quick-to-Cinema guide walks through each recipe's scenes and look. Rewrite them, delete one, add a fourth — a recipe is a starting shape.

Write the rest in the Script

Cinema opens in the Script tab. It works like a Notion page — / opens the block menu — with one block of its own: the scene. Scene one is already there, holding your description as its action. Add two more scene blocks:

EXT. TRAIN PLATFORM — NIGHT
A woman in a red coat waits under a flickering light as the last train pulls in.

INT. TRAIN CAR — NIGHT
The doors open; she steps into the empty car and takes a window seat.

INT. TRAIN CAR — NIGHT
Close on her reflection in the window as city lights streak past. She unfolds a letter.
  WOMAN (to herself)   He kept his word.

Each scene card holds a heading (the slugline), an action (what the engine renders), its lines of dialogue — + Line adds a speaker, a manner and the line — and a fold-out What the engine reads. Everything outside the scene cards is notes, and none of it goes to an engine.

The rules from the script editor guide hold here:

• One event per scene. Four events in ten seconds come out as none.
• A slugline on every scene. It keeps the platform a platform from scene one to scene three.
• Dialogue in the lines, never in the action. A five-second scene holds one short line; ten seconds hold an exchange.

Render from the Storyboard

Every scene block is a card in the Storyboard tab, in script order. Camera move, duration, takes and cast are set on the card — they are render settings, not writing — and you render from there. The takes and picks guide covers choosing between takes.

Continuous shots are what turn three clips into one film. With them on, each scene opens on the last frame of the one before. Render scene one first: scene two opens on its last frame once it exists, and scene three on scene two's. That is why the example reads as one unbroken move — the platform, the doors, the seat, the window.

Continuous shots are on by default. The recipes set their own: only the Horror teaser keeps them on, because its three scenes are one take; the other recipes cut between separate places. The continuity guide covers when to turn them off.

What it costs

Asking is free, and so is writing: a film with every scene written and none rendered costs nothing. Each scene is billed when you render it, at the engine's price for its length. Three scenes at default settings:

Three scenes	Seedance 2.0 Mini	Kling 3.0
5 s each, one take	135	510
10 s each, one take	270	1,020
5 s each, two takes	270	1,020

One five-second scene is 45 credits on Seedance 2.0 Mini, on any plan, and 170 on Kling 3.0. A render is billed per scene, so re-rendering scene two after a rewrite costs scene two again, not the whole film — though scene three then opens on a frame that is no longer there, and may want a re-render of its own.

A pattern that fits a budget: render the three scenes on Mini first — 135 credits — to see whether the script works as pictures, then switch the film's engine to Kling 3.0 in the look and render them again. The film costs 645 in total, 135 more than going straight to Kling: the price of finding out that scene three needs rewriting before Kling renders it. Plans and their monthly credits are on /pricing.

When the takes are in, the Edit tab cuts them together — a crossfade, a title, music, a fade out — and exports the film; the edit guide has the details.

FAQ

Can AI make a whole short film from one prompt?

Not in one render. Ask turns your sentence into scene one of a new film, or opens a recipe with three scenes already written, and each scene renders as its own clip. You write the other scenes in the Script tab, and continuous shots join them at the cuts.

Does asking for a film cost credits?

No. Ask prepares and opens; it never spends credits, and writing the script is free too. Credits go when you render a scene, and each scene is billed on its own.

Which engine should I use for an AI short film?

Start on Seedance 2.0 Mini: 45 credits for a five-second scene, on any plan. Kling 3.0 is 170 for the same scene, from the Hobby plan up. To compare the others, ask "what's the cheapest video engine?" or "which engine does 1080p with sound?" — Ask answers from the studio's live catalogue.

What are continuous shots in Cinema?

Each scene opens on the last frame of the scene before, so the cut joins on the same picture. They are on by default, and the recipes set their own. A scene chains only once the scene before it has rendered, so render in order.

Can I describe my film in another language?

Yes. Write or speak in your own language and Ask answers in it. The scene's prompt is written in English for the engines.

Can Ask add lip-sync or upscale the film?

No. eroq has no lip-sync, no upscaling and no inpainting, and Ask says so instead of pretending.

Open the studio, type "a short film" and your opening shot, and let Cinema take it from there.