Music Video · Step 1

Your song: uploading and quick styles

Formats and limits, sending a finished master straight from Projects, the lyrics option, and the Quick Styles row: Color or Black & White, plus POV, Handheld, Dreamlike and Vintage.

Step one. The song card is the only thing you have to fill; everything on the right is optional.

#Where it lives

Music Videos is the fourth tab of the upload page. The header keeps the tabs while you work.

Open Upload Track and pick Music Videos, or use the Music Video Generator link in the sidebar. Either way you land on the same page: a numbered path of Your song, Storyboard and Your film across the top, the credits pill and Examples on the right.

#What you can upload

AcceptedNotes
Formatsmp3 wav flac m4a aac ogg aiffAudio only. A video file is not accepted here; extract the audio first, or master it and send the master over.
Sizeup to 1 GBA full-length WAV is fine. The song is analysed as soon as the upload finishes.
LengthanyThe storyboard starts with a preview of the opening; the rest follows once you like the direction. Film pricing scales with the length.

Drop the file on the card or click anywhere on it to browse; the whole card is the picker. The name of the file becomes the project title. Once the upload completes the card says Song's ready. and shows a small player, so you can check you sent the right mix.

Song's ready. Replace track swaps the file without losing your references or direction.

#From a finished master, without downloading

On any finished master in Projects, the row menu has Generate music video.

In Projects, open the menu of a finished master and choose Generate music video. The Music Videos intake opens with the master already in the song slot, copied server-side; the card reads Preparing your master… and then Uploading your master… with a percentage. No download, no re-upload. Everything after that is the same as a picked file.

#Use the lyrics as inspiration

The checkbox under the song card, Use song's lyrics as inspiration, has the vocals transcribed and hands the words to the director as material, next to your direction. The film may follow a line, a place or an image from the lyrics, and you can point at specific lines in your direction. What it never does is print the words on screen: this is a music video, not a lyric video. Leave it off for instrumental tracks, or when the lyrics would pull the story somewhere you do not want it.

#Quick Styles

Color or Black & White is a choice; the four styles on the right are toggles you can stack.

Color / Black & White

One or the other. Black & White uses the monochrome look and the final contrast and grain grade of the Catacombs film; it costs nothing extra.

Color
The default. The palette comes from your references and your direction.
Black & White
Monochrome from the storyboard on, with a contrast and grain preset at the final grade. Say "silver print" or "high-contrast" in the direction if you want to push it.

POV · Handheld · Dreamlike · Vintage

Optional visual preferences. Toggle any number of them; they colour the treatment and the camera, they do not replace your story.

POV
See the story through your character's eyes. The Catacombs film is a single first-person night.
Handheld
Natural camera movement with an intimate feel.
Dreamlike
Atmospheric light and poetic visual transitions.
Vintage
Nostalgic light and lens character, with crisp detail.

#Before you press Next

Everything in place: song, one style reference, a main character, and the footnote under it all saying what Next will do.

The line to the left of Next · Create storyboard says what the next step covers on your account. Press Next and the storyboard starts. If you left the direction empty you are asked once whether you meant to; you can continue without one.

Can I change the song later?

Before the storyboard, yes: Replace track on the card. Once scenes exist the project is locked to that audio, because every scene is addressed in its bars. Start a new project for a different song.

Does the upload count against anything?

No. Uploading and the analysis that follows are free. Credits are only used by the storyboard, scene tools and the film.

My upload says it was interrupted

Choose the file again; the previous attempt is removed. Very large WAVs on a slow connection are the usual cause. An MP3 or FLAC of the master analyses identically.

Ready to see your song as a film?

Upload a song, add a picture or a line, approve the storyboard, and the film comes back cut to your beat.

Try it on your own song

The first storyboard preview is free. Nothing is filmed until you approve it.

Open Music Videos