# Introducing Cinema — write, storyboard and cut a film in one workspace > A product note on Cinema, the new film workspace in the eroq studio. Script, storyboard and edit in one project, continuous shots, cast that stays the same, and an export that never leaves the browser. Published 2026-09-28 · eroq.ai — canonical: https://eroq.ai/blog/introducing-cinema-script-storyboard-edit Film mode was a tab inside the Video tool. It worked, and it taught us what a film actually needs that a clip does not: a place to write before you render, a way to keep the cast and the light identical from one shot to the next, and an edit — trims, sound, titles — before anyone sees it. Those three things did not fit in a composer. So Cinema is now **its own workspace** at [/studio/cinema](/studio/cinema), with three rooms and one look panel that serves all of them. This is the product note: what shipped, what changed for people who used Film mode, and what stays the same. ## What shipped A film is now a **project** with three faces, in one page: - **Script** — a Notion-style document where the film is written. Notes, headings, lists, to-dos, callouts, and the block that makes it a screenplay: the **scene** card — slugline, action and the lines said in it. Every scene card *is* a storyboard scene; the storyboard order is the script order; everything around the cards is notes no engine ever reads. - **Storyboard** — the scenes as cards, each with its slugline, the action the engine renders, its lines, a camera move, a duration, a cast and its takes. Render one scene, or every scene that has no take yet. Drag a card and its whole section — notes included — moves with it. - **Edit** — a magnetic video track, three free audio tracks, a titles track, transitions and a fade-out. Exported to one MP4 in the browser, saved to your library, published to the [Community](/community) as the film. Above them, the **Look** panel: one engine, one frame format, one resolution, sound on or off, a seed, continuous shots, and the director's rack — film type, era, tempo, camera gear, lens, aperture, palette, lighting — folded into every scene server-side. Set it once; the whole film is lit and framed alike. Cinema runs on every one of the 16 video engines, [Motion One](/models/eroq-motion-one) included. A scene costs what a clip costs on the engine you picked — 45 credits for five seconds of [Seedance 2.0 Mini](/models/seedance-2-0-mini), 60 on Motion One — and a draft is free to keep. Failed renders refund themselves. ## The three things a clip does not need **Writing first.** Film mode asked for a prompt per scene. Cinema asks for a script, because a film is decided in the writing: which shots exist, in what order, who speaks. The scene card carries a slugline ("INT. LIGHTHOUSE — DUSK"), the action and the lines said in the scene; all three ride the scene's prompt, and every speaking cast member joins the scene's references — their character sheet, and on engines that take an audio reference, their voice. You write the film and the render follows the writing, not the other way around. The [script editor guide](/blog/cinema-script-editor-screenplay-blocks) goes block by block. **Continuity.** This is the one that took the longest. With **continuous shots** on (the default), scene N+1 opens on the *last frame* of scene N: the studio grabs it from the rendered take, uploads it as the start frame, and the next scene picks up where the previous one stopped. A scene waits for the one before it; if you re-render a scene or pick a different take, the scene after it is marked stale so you know the join moved. Add the cast (sheets ride as references on engines that read them), the shared look and one seed for the whole film, and you have the four layers of continuity Cinema stacks — [written up here](/blog/continuous-shots-cinema-continuity). **An edit.** Film mode played the takes back to back. Cinema has a timeline: the video track mirrors the storyboard until your first hand edit, then the cut is yours — trims that ripple, crossfades, fades through black, a dip to white, titles in four styles, music and voice on free audio tracks with fades, a fade-out at the end. Pick another take of a scene and the cut follows it. The export composes every frame with the same compositor the monitor uses and encodes it in the browser, 720p or 1080p; nothing leaves your machine until you save the cut. The [editor guide](/blog/cinema-edit-timeline-and-export) has the details. ## What changed for Film mode users Your drafts are Cinema projects now. A v1 storyboard opens as a v2 project with one scene block per scene, its look intact, its takes intact. An old `/studio/video?mode=film` link lands in Cinema, the draft as scene one. Nothing was re-rendered and nothing was charged. The Video tool keeps Quick and Ads. It also grew a bridge: **Continue as a film** on any Quick result opens a new Cinema project with that take as scene one — and because the take's library id travels with it, scene two chains from its last frame. The [Quick-to-Cinema guide](/blog/quick-clip-to-cinema-film-recipes) covers that and the five starter recipes. Limits, so nobody discovers them mid-render: 24 scenes per film, 30 seconds per scene at most (your plan and the engine clamp it — 15 on Hobby, 20 on Creator, 30 from Studio up), 1 to 4 takes per render, 8 takes kept per scene, 400 script blocks, 80 clips and 40 titles on the timeline, three audio tracks. ## What stays private Same rules as before, restated because people ask: prompts, the script, the look, the seed, the cast and the references are never shown to a viewer. A published film is its cut, its title and its cover, and it goes live on the shelf once the team has reviewed it. Drafts are yours until you publish; every take is kept in your [Library](/studio/library) with its full recipe, for you. One consequence worth knowing: Cinema keeps every take in the library because the film is cut from them, so with the studio's **private mode** on it renders nothing rather than store what you asked to keep off the cloud. Switch private mode off for a film, or render single clips privately in the Video tool. ## The API Everything Cinema does, the API does: `GET/POST/PATCH /v1/films` hold the project, `POST /v1/films/{id}/render` renders scenes, `POST /v1/films/{id}/export` saves a cut, `/publish` publishes it. The project format is a capped JSON document (400 KB) the routes keep opaque. The [films API guide](/blog/cinema-projects-with-the-films-api) is the scripted version of this note. ## FAQ ### Is Cinema a different price from the Video tool? No. A scene is a clip on the engine you chose, at that engine's per-second price and your plan's length cap. Writing, storyboarding, editing and exporting cost nothing. ### Can I mix engines in one film? The look sets one engine for the whole film, which is what continuity wants. You can still drop any clip from your library into the edit — a take rendered on another engine, an upload, a still — from the media bin. ### Where did "My films" go? They are the shelf at [/studio/cinema](/studio/cinema). Every draft is there with its scene count, running time and a preview of its first take. ### Does the export need a plugin? No. It uses the browser's own video encoder (a recent Chrome, Edge or Safari). It counts against your storage like any library file, and it is free. [Open Cinema](/studio/cinema) and start with a blank film or a recipe — the script is free to write.