Takes, picks and stale scenes — how rendering works in Cinema's storyboard

The Story tab is where a film costs money, so it is worth knowing exactly what a render does — what you get, what is kept, what the edit follows, and what makes the studio tell you a shot is out of date. None of it is hidden; this is the guide to reading it.

A shot block

In the Story, scenes (a place and a time) hold shots, numbered across the film. Each shot is a block; on it, and in its tab of the side panel when you select it:

• the action, under its scene's slugline;
• shot — a camera move from the 24 in the rack, or none, or the one you wrote in the action ("slow dolly-in" is detected);
• seconds — snapped to the engine's grid and capped by your plan: 15 on Hobby, 20 on Creator, 30 from Studio up, never more than 30;
• cast — up to eight characters whose sheets ride as references (set on the scene, or per shot);
• takes — how many the next render produces, 1 to 4;
• the price of the next render, before you click.

The header counts scenes, shots, rendered shots and the running time; the Render N shots button asks first: the missing shots only, missing plus changed, or every shot again, each with its price and an estimated time. If the wallet is short for all of them, the button says so and you render one at a time.

What a render produces

A render queues one video job per take on the film's engine — the same pipeline as the Video tool, POST /v1/videos/generations, with the look, the cast, the mentions and, when the shot is linked with Continue the shot, the previous shot's last frame as the start frame (with Same scene, new angle, that frame rides as a reference instead). Each take is charged separately; a take that fails refunds itself.

Takes land in a row under the shot as they finish. A shot keeps its eight most recent takes on its block; older ones are not deleted — every take is a creation in your Library, with its full recipe — they simply leave the picker.

Renders survive you. Jobs in flight are saved on the shot, so closing the tab, reloading, or opening the film on another device picks the takes up when they land. A job older than a day is treated as finished either way: it landed in the library, or it refunded itself.

The pick

One take per shot is the pick, marked In the cut. The latest take is picked automatically when it lands; click any other take to pick it instead. The edit's clip for that shot follows the pick, so changing it re-cuts the film without touching the timeline. Picking is free; it moves a pointer.

When the next shot is linked to this one, the pick is also the frame it is built from. Change it and the next shot is marked stale.

"Changed" and "stale"

Two badges, two meanings:

• Changed — the shot's text, camera or length differs from what the picked take was rendered from. The studio keeps a fingerprint of the render inputs on every take; edit the action after rendering and the block says so. The take is still good; it just does not show the new version. Render again when the edit is meant.
• Stale — this shot is linked to the one before, and the previous shot moved. Its take was re-rendered or its pick changed, so this shot's take was built from a frame that is no longer in the cut. The join moved. Render again, or keep it if the join still reads.

Neither badge blocks anything. They exist so you never export a cut whose shot four is a draft you forgot you rewrote.

Paying only for what changed

The Story is built so a fix costs one shot:

• Re-render one shot — its takes are re-queued; every other shot keeps its takes and is not charged.
• Render shots in any order — a linked shot waits for the one before it; unlinked shots render in parallel.
• Takes multiply the price — four takes of a five-second Seedance 2.0 Mini scene are 300 credits; one is 75. Render one take to find the framing, then four takes of the scene that matters.
• Adding a shot is free until you render it. Write all 24; render six.
• A draft is free to keep. Nothing on the shelf bills for existing.

A rough budget for a six-scene, five-seconds-each film with one take per scene: 450 credits on Seedance 2.0 Mini, 870 on Motion One, 1,620 on Kling 3.0. Add a second take on the two hardest scenes and the Mini film is 600.

Reordering, duplicating, deleting

Move up and Move down move a shot, or a whole scene with its shots and notes, so the Story stays in the order the film plays. A moved shot is not re-rendered; linked shots around the move go stale, because their neighbours changed.

Duplicate a shot or a scene to reuse its settings for a variant; the copy has no takes. Delete a shot and its block goes; its takes stay in the library.

Private mode

Cinema keeps every take in the library because the film is cut from them. With the studio's private mode on, it renders nothing rather than store what you asked to keep off the cloud — the button says so. Turn private mode off for the film, or render single clips privately in the Video tool.

FAQ

Do I pay for a take I do not pick?

Yes — every take is a render. What you do not pay for is picking, re-picking, reordering, editing the Story, or keeping the draft.

Where are takes older than the eight on the card?

In your library, with their full recipe. The block shows the eight most recent so the picker stays readable; nothing is deleted.

What if I close the tab while shots render?

The jobs are saved on the shot. Reopen the film and the takes are picked up as they land — on any device.

Why is shot three "waiting"?

Shot three is linked to shot two, and shot two has no take yet, or is still rendering. Shot three needs its last frame. It starts by itself.

Open a film in Cinema and render one take of shot one — the badges explain themselves from there.