Filming: a-roll, b-roll and the shot list

1. Before you press record

• Use your phone. Open the app on the phone and tap Film on a script.
• Hold it upright. Turn it sideways and you get Hold the phone upright. until you turn it back.
• Allow camera and microphone when the browser asks. The camera opens straight away — there is no start button.
• Stand where it is quiet and where the light is on your face, not behind you.

The a-roll uses the front camera and shows a face guide so you can frame yourself. The preview is mirrored — that is only the preview; the recording is not.

2. Filming the a-roll

1. Open the script and tap Film. The camera opens with the first line already on the prompter.
2. Tap the round record button. Recording starts on that same tap — there is no countdown.
3. Read. The prompter scrolls itself and a timer counts up.
4. Tap the record button again to stop. There is no time limit, so take as long as you need.

When the script runs out, the prompter shows your call to action, or Done — stop when ready. if the script has none.

3. Working the teleprompter

• Speed — Slower and Faster change the scroll in steps. The toast tells you where you are, e.g. Prompter speed 1.0x. It ranges from 0.6x to 1.8x.
• Step forward by hand — tap the prompter text to advance one line. Useful if you ad-libbed and got ahead of it.
• Following your voice — on a desktop browser the prompter can follow what you are actually saying. When it engages you see Teleprompter is following your voice once. On phones and tablets it always scrolls on a timer instead.

You do not have to hit the words exactly. Say the line the way you would say it — the machine transcribes what you actually said and cuts to that.

4. Keep, retake, trim

When you stop, the take plays back with two buttons.

• Retake throws it away and puts you back on the camera.
• Keep uploads it. The button reads Uploading… with a progress bar. Uploads resume where they left off if the connection blips.

Then a Take saved panel offers three things:

Button	What it does
Trim silence	Cuts the dead air and shows you the rough cut, e.g. Rough cut · 12s of dead air gone. You can compare against See the original take.
Approve as-is	Marks the take approved without trimming.
Film another take	Back to the camera. The take you kept is not lost — it stays in your footage.

Approving sends you into the b-roll for that script, or to the Ads tab if the script has no b-roll.

Film as many takes as you like. Nothing is capped and nothing is deleted; approve the ones you would put money behind and the cut pulls from those first.

5. The b-roll shot list

B-roll is the cutaway footage laid over your voice — the van, the hands, the finished job. It uses the rear camera, with no face guide and no mirror. You can also skip the shot list and upload footage you already have.

The prompter is replaced by the shot list: Shot 1 of 4, what to shoot, and how to frame it.

Three things you can do with each shot:

• Record it — same record button. Keep it and it goes straight to the next shot with Shot saved — next one. There is no trim or approve step on b-roll.
• To-do — parks the shot for later. It shows up on Home under Still to film.
• Skip — moves past it without saving anything.

Shots only move forward. If you skip one you wanted, tap Close and go back into B-roll from the script.

6. Finishing the shot list

At the end you get one of three headings — That's every shot, No b-roll for this script, or something like 2 of 5 filmed — and these buttons:

• Assemble my ad — cuts the ad now. See Approving and assembling.
• Save the rest for later — banks the missing shots as to-dos. Nothing gets lost.
• Get an easier shot list for the rest — asks for simpler shots that cover the same ground. You can then Film these now or Save these to my to-dos.
• Back to scripts.

A partly-filmed shot list still makes a real ad. Your a-roll carries it.

7. Footage you already have

You do not have to film every cutaway. If you already have video of the van, the job, the shop, upload it instead — Upload footage on a script, or Upload footage you already have from the camera screen.

1. Pick one video off your phone or computer.
2. Drag the start and end handles over the bit you want, then Add this clip. Repeat for each moment worth keeping.
3. Describe each clip in a few words — what it shows. This is required, and it is how the machine works out where to place it.
4. Upload and cut.

It is a trimmer, not an editor: no transitions, no reordering, no filters.

Limit	What it is
File size	2 GB per video.
Clip length	1 to 20 seconds.
Clips per video	10. Upload the video again for the rest.
Storage	20 GB an account. The screen shows what you have left.

Once the clips are cut, the original upload is deleted — only the clips are kept. Uploaded clips behave exactly like filmed b-roll from there on: the cut places them over your voice on its own.

8. What makes a take usable

• Sound beats picture. Get somewhere quiet and close to the phone. Bad audio cannot be fixed later; slightly soft picture can be lived with.
• Look at the lens, not at yourself on the screen.
• Let the first second run before you speak, and hold still for a second at the end. It gives the cut room.
• Do not perform. Say it the way you would say it to a customer standing in front of you.
• B-roll: short and still. A few seconds per shot, phone braced, one movement at most.

Camera or upload refusing to cooperate? See Troubleshooting.