Lesson 06

Remotion assembly

Turn speech, pictures, and captions into a timed sequence you can explain and revise.

Hike scene scheduled on the Remotion timeline — A picture becomes a timed shot when you decide when it appears, how long it stays, and which words accompany it.

Remotion was the assembly tool for Ellie. It describes a video using code: what appears on a frame, where it sits, and when it changes. A conventional video editor expresses those same decisions with clips on tracks.

This lesson builds the timing plan in a table. You do not need Remotion or Ellie’s project files to complete it. If you later produce a video, the table becomes an editing guide for whichever tool you use.

A complete 20-second example

The times below are an illustrative plan for the Mira script from Lesson 03, including pauses. They are not measured speech timings. Read or record your lines, then adjust the boundaries to fit their actual delivery.

Practice edit plan
Time	Picture	Speech and caption
0–4 s	Mira with lantern	Mira’s lantern only lit lost things.
4–8 s	Puzzled close view	Why won’t it light the path?
8–14 s	Glow beneath a leaf	Then a tiny glow appeared beneath a leaf.
14–20 s	The key revealed	Your key! Maybe this light is enough.

Within each interval, start the caption when speech begins and leave enough time to read it. A caption does not need to remain visible through every pause. Split a long line into shorter cues if needed.

How seconds become frames

A frame is one image in the video stream. At 30 frames per second, four seconds occupy 120 frames. The example’s four intervals start at frames 0, 120, 240, and 420, with durations of 120, 120, 180, and 180 frames.

Planning formula, not a command:
start frame = start time in seconds × frames per second
duration in frames = duration in seconds × frames per second

20 seconds × 30 frames per second = 600 frames

This is the scheduling idea behind a code-based composition. Pictures, captions, and audio each have a start and duration. At frame 240, the third picture begins in this example.

Keep motion and captions readable

A slow pan or zoom across a still is often called a Ken Burns effect. Use it only when it supports attention. Keep the subject in view throughout the move and avoid carrying captions across a busy background.

Ellie gradually reveals words within a spoken line. That effect is different from having an exact timestamp for each word. For your first edit, a complete short caption shown at the right moment is a useful starting point.

When speech changes

If the second line grows from four seconds to six, the third interval starts at 10 seconds and the fourth at 16 seconds. The whole plan becomes 22 seconds unless you shorten another part. Update pictures and captions together.

A teaser needs a chosen focus

The full Ellie story explains the ability and its payoff. A teaser can focus on the mysterious ability or the kindness it makes possible. Choose which feeling your short should promise, then keep only the beats that support it.

Activity · Time your storyboard

Add start and end times to the four panels from Lesson 05. Read the script while pointing to each panel. Adjust the holds so speech and pictures agree. Then extend one line by two seconds and recalculate the later starts.

Checkpoint

Your intervals connect without accidental gaps or overlaps, your total duration matches their sum, and every spoken beat has a matching picture and caption. If you make a video, review a short export before finishing the whole edit.