Make a film
Turn an idea or a script into a storyboard, draw and animate every shot, and export one MP4.
A film in Blockbuster Studio is a project made of scenes, and each scene is made of shots. The studio draws a first frame (a keyframe) for every shot, animates it into a clip, and joins the clips into one video.
Start from a script lets you write or paste your idea, then add the scenes and shots yourself, or have your AI agent plan them. For in-app script breakdown, set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (or an OPENAI_* provider) as a pod variable — see Settings and API keys. You can also build a film by hand.
This page covers Start from a script: the studio picks each shot’s camera and cuts for you. If the camera moves and cut timing need to be exact — or you want to try the same edit in a different visual style — bring a previs instead. See Make a film with a previs.
Start a new film
Go to Projects, click New film, and choose Start from a script. Give it a name, and under What’s it about? write anything from a one-line idea to a full screenplay.
Choose an aspect ratio. Every shot uses it, and changing it later means redrawing the frames.
Click Create and break down.
Review the breakdown
The AI reads your idea and plans the film, which takes about a minute. It creates the characters and locations (reusing any that match ones you already have), and the scenes and shots. Each shot gets an action, optional dialogue, a shot size, a camera move and a duration.
Uncheck any scenes you don’t want. You can delete individual shots later. Leave Draw the frames now checked to start drawing every shot straight away, then click Create storyboard.
Check the frames
The Storyboard tab shows each scene and its shots. Frames appear as they finish.
Before drawing the shots, the studio makes reference images for every character and an establishing shot for every location. It uses these for every shot, so the same character looks the same throughout the film.
If you unchecked Draw the frames now, or added shots later, click Generate frames at the top of the page. The button shows how many shots still need a frame, for example Generate 12 frames, and only draws those.
To change a shot, click it. See Edit a shot.
Animate the shots
When you’re happy with the frames, click Animate shots at the top of the page (it shows a count, like Animate 12 shots). Each shot takes a few minutes, so a whole film can take a while. You can watch progress in the Queue.
Export the film
Open the Timeline tab to play the shots in order. Click Export film to join every animated shot into one MP4, then click Download film at the top of the project to save it.
Edit a shot
Click any shot to open its panel. Changes save automatically.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Action and Dialogue | What happens in the shot. For dialogue, pick Who says it to hear the line in that character’s voice. See Dialogue and voices |
| Characters | Who’s in it. Pick from your Cast |
| Shot size | ECU (extreme close-up), CU (close-up), MCU (medium close-up), MS (medium), MWS (medium wide), WS (wide) or EWS (extreme wide) |
| Camera move | The same 17 presets as the Create page |
| Duration | How long the clip is |
| Quality | Fast (about 480p) or HD (720p, several times slower) |
| Video model | Only shown when more than one video model is installed: pick which one animates this shot |
| Camera & blocking | Drag the camera and where it looks on a small map of the location, and set its height. The panel shows where each character lands in the frame |
| Auto prompts | The prompts the studio wrote for this shot. Edit them if you want, or click Reset to auto |
| Keyframe mode | Auto picks the best method. Compose builds the frame from the location’s establishing shot and the references of up to two characters in the shot. Generate draws it from text alone |
| Seed | Lock it to repeat a result |
If the scene has a previs and a reference sheet, the shot panel shows a Follow previs slider instead of needing a keyframe. See Make a film with a previs.
Click Generate keyframe to redraw the frame, or Animate to make its clip. The panel keeps your recent frames and clips for each shot, so you can click back to an earlier one if you liked it better.
A shot can also have an end frame: open any image in the gallery, choose Add to shot, and pick As end frame. The clip then starts on the keyframe and ends on that image. Remove it in the shot panel to let the model finish the shot on its own.
At the bottom of the panel, Duplicate copies the shot’s settings (but not its frame or clip), and Delete shot removes it. A deleted shot’s frames and clips stay in the gallery.
Dialogue and voices
If a character has a voice, the studio records their lines in it, so they sound like the same person in every shot.
- In a shot’s panel, the line appears under Dialogue, where you can play it or record another take. If the line is longer than the shot, you can stretch the shot to fit it.
- At the top of the project, Record lines records every line that’s missing or out of date. It shows a count, like Record 8 lines. If the AI breakdown suggested a voice for a character who doesn’t have one yet, it designs that voice first.
When you export, each recorded line is mixed into its shot. Clips that already have their own sound keep it.
Arrange scenes and shots
On the Storyboard tab:
- Drag scenes and shots to reorder them.
- Set each scene’s location and time of day (dawn, day, golden hour, dusk or night).
- Click Blocking to place characters on the location’s map. Select a character and press R to turn them, or use the turn buttons.
- Click Shot in a scene’s header to add a shot, or Add scene at the bottom.
Give your film a look
Use the Style picker at the top of the project to apply a look to every shot. Click New style, name it, and describe the look, for example “35mm film, anamorphic, teal and orange grade”.
Next to Export, you can switch No grade to Film look: a gentle warm, cinematic color grade applied to the whole film.
Export in 4K
Next to Export, switch HD to 4K to upscale the finished film. It’s slow, about 5 minutes per second of film on the recommended GPU, so leave it off while you’re still working on the film and turn it on for the final export. Render your final shots in HD first: 480p shots look soft in 4K.
4K needs the 4K upscaler download (about 9 GB), which is off by default. Set DOWNLOAD_UPSCALE_MODELS to true with Edit Pod in Runpod (see Choose which models download); it downloads on the next start.
Build a film by hand
You don’t need an AI to make a film. Without one:
- Click New film, choose Start from a script, and click Create film.
- On the Storyboard tab, click Add scene, then Shot for each shot.
- Open each shot and fill in its action, characters, shot size and camera move.
- Continue from step 3 above: generate frames, animate, and export.
You can also write or paste your script on the Script tab at any time. With an AI key set on the pod, click Break down with AI to plan it.
Back up a film
Click Back up at the top of a project to download everything in it as one ZIP: the final cut, every shot and keyframe, and the cast and location images. Keep a backup of anything you care about before you terminate a pod. See Stop, resume and back up.