How do I turn pages into one video with Film mode?

Film mode plays the pages of a template as one video: each page is a scene, each scene starts with a transition from the one before, and the API's video render returns the whole film as a single mp4. Without Film mode, a multi-page template renders one video per page (or a stitched video with combinePages).

Use Film mode for any video longer than a quick animation (about 8 seconds) that is not a carousel. Keep one idea per page, 2 to 8 seconds each.

Turn Film mode on#

Open the template in Studio and click the Film mode switch at the top of the pages panel. The switch shows the film's length, for example Film mode · 0:21. While it is on, the pages play as one film in the editor and in API video renders.

Film mode is available in the workspace Studio. The embed editor and shared template links do not have it, and a template that is not saved yet can still be previewed as a film.

Set the transition into a page#

Click between two pages in the pages panel to set how the second page starts. The popover has:

• Transition: Cut, Fade, Dip to color, Slide, Push, Wipe, Iris, Clock wipe, Flip, Cube, Whip, Blur swap, Zoom, Color flood, Grow, Zoom through or Match. A hint under the list says what each one does.
• Length: how long the transition takes. During it both pages play at once, so the film gets shorter by this amount. A transition can take at most half of either neighbouring page.
• Direction (Slide, Push, Wipe, Flip, Cube, Whip): Left, Right, Up or Down.
• Color (Dip to color, Color flood).
• Layer on "page" (Grow, Zoom through): the layer on the previous page that grows into, or that the camera dives through into, this page. If that layer is later deleted, the cut plays as a Zoom.

Match pairs layers that have the same id on both pages and moves each from its place on the previous page to its place on this one; the rest of the page is revealed around them. Pick one transition family per film and vary within it.

The first page has nothing to transition from, so it has no transition.

Page length#

Each page's Page length is how long it plays in the film (the page's videoDuration). The striped parts of the timeline are the overlaps where a page plays together with its neighbour during a transition.

Time a page to its content, not to a fixed number. A viewer reads each text block in the order it appears, at about 2.5 words a second from when it starts entering, then the page holds for about a second and cuts. Not faster, or a stat leaves before it is read; not slower, or the frame lingers after everything has been read. A one-line hook page is 3-4s, a chart or table page 8-11s. Most transitions default to 0.9-1.2s (Whip is a quick 0.6s); under 0.8s a cut reads as a jump. When an agent builds the film through the Orshot MCP, it gets a "Cut too soon" warning when a page is shorter than its reading time and a "Dead stretch" warning when nothing changes for more than 3s after the text has been read.

The timeline#

The timeline's What plays switch has two modes:

• This page: the page's own layers, audio and look, as on any video page.
• Whole film: a Pages row with every page on the film's clock (click a page to edit it) and, under it, one row per film track: Sound for music that runs across pages and Across pages for layers that stay on screen across cuts. Tracks are authored through the API or an agent; Studio shows them in place and plays them.

Preview the film#

The play button plays the whole film in a Film mode preview with the real transitions, tracks and audio, using the same engine the renderer uses. Previews do not use credits.

Turn Film mode off#

Click the switch again. Each page keeps its transition, so turning Film mode back on restores the film, including its tracks, until you leave the template. If the film has tracks, Studio asks first: music and layers that play across pages stop playing once Film mode is off.

Render the film#

Render the template as mp4 and the API returns one video of all pages joined by their transitions:

body: JSON.stringify({
  templateId: <TEMPLATE_ID>,
  modifications: { "page1@headline": "Launch day", "page3@cta": "Try it free" },
  response: { type: "url", format: "mp4", mode: "async" },
}),

• data.content is the film; data.videoDuration its length.
• includePages: [2] renders that page on its own, as a normal page video.
• size and extraSizes (up to 4) render the same film in other formats; each size is a full film render.
• videoOptions.muted and videoOptions.fps apply; combinePages and pageTransition do not (the film already has its own cuts).

Film mode writes a film object on the template and a transitionIn on each page. The full schema, defaults, limits and validation rules are on the Film page; the same fields can be sent through Create Template and Update Template, so an agent can build a film without opening Studio.