Breakdown: how this reel was made
A breakdown shows a finished reel next to its plan. The reel plays on one side, in a phone frame (or a browser frame for a landscape video). On the other side is its storyboard: one card per beat with its number, its kind, what it says and when it starts. A highlight moves to the beat that is on screen, and a progress bar runs underneath.
It's useful for:
- Pitching. Show a client how their reel was put together, beat by beat, and what a series of them could look like.
- Teaching. Explain why a reel works: where the hook ends, how long each idea stays on screen, where the proof lands.
- Showing your process on your own channels.
The breakdown is an ordinary 16:9 Kinetic Scenes scene. Preview it in the Studio, change anything, and export it like any other video.
What you need
- The finished reel as a video file (MP4 or WebM). If the reel is still a scene, export it first.
- Where its beats are, in one of three ways (the first one available is used):
- the beats document the reel was built from (see Beats) together with its scene: each card shows the beat's kind and words;
- the scene's markers: each card is named after its marker, and shows the first words that appear in that part;
- a reference rhythm (see Learn the rhythm of a reel): the cards are its sections.
Up to 8 cards are shown. A longer reel is thinned to 8 evenly spread steps.
Make one
From the AI Dev Kit's command line:
node studio-cli.mjs breakdown reel.mp4 --scene reel.scene.json --beats reel.beats.json
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
--scene file.json | The reel's scene (its markers, and with --beats, where each beat starts). |
--beats file.json | The beats document the reel was built from. |
--rhythm file.reference.json | Use a reference rhythm's sections as the steps instead. |
--title "…" | The heading (default "How this reel was made"). |
--accent #B08968 | The colour of the highlight, step labels and progress bar. |
--out file.json | Where to write the breakdown scene (default: <reel>.breakdown.json). |
AI agents use the scene_breakdown tool. If the reel hasn't been exported yet, the agent asks you before rendering it.
The layout
- The reel, at the left, with its own sound. A vertical reel sits in a phone frame and a landscape one in a browser frame.
- The title and a small "Made with kinetic-scenes.unysonplus.com" line at the top right.
- The cards, each with a step number and kind in the accent colour, its start time, and its words on one line (shortened with "…" when long).
- The highlight, an outline that steps to the next card just before that beat starts and holds there.
- The progress bar under the cards, filling across the reel's length.
All text is sized to stay readable on a phone, and everything stays clear of the area a video player's controls cover.
Limits
- It needs the reel as a video. A scene can't be embedded inside another scene.
- The cards follow the beats or markers you give it. Add markers in the Studio for a reel without any.
- Footage, photos and names in the reel are yours or your client's to share. A breakdown of a client's reel is for that client, unless they agree to it being shown elsewhere.