Showreel Studio Help
Help · Getting started

Make your first film

From an empty folder to a finished film you can share, using the local UI.

Video Voice, record and build0:44

This walks through one film from start to finish in the local UI. It takes about fifteen minutes, most of it the recording and the build running by themselves.

Before you start

1. Make a project folder

A project is a folder that holds your films, decks, kits and app profiles. Make one and open the local UI over it:

mkdir our-films && cd our-films
showreel init --cloud-project my-google-project
showreel ui

The local UI opens in your browser at http://127.0.0.1:4321.

2. Connect your app

  1. Open Apps in the left rail.
  2. Under Connect an app, type the app's address and press Look at it.
  3. Showreel Studio opens the app, works out how it loads, how its navigation works and what to hide, and checks every finding against the running app. Check what it found, change anything wrong, and press Test again if you did.
  4. Press Save and use it.

If your app needs signing in, see Apps that need signing in.

3. Write the storyboard

  1. Open Films and press New film.
  2. Give it a Title, and say in What should it show? which feature it is about and who it is for, in a sentence or two.
  3. Under How should it start?, leave Explore the app and write it chosen.
  4. Press Create the film.

Showreel Studio walks the app, reads its screens and writes the script, with the steps to record each line. In a Claude Code session, Claude writes it on your own plan; see Who writes the storyboard.

4. Read it and approve it

Read every line: what is said, and what happens on screen. Fix anything that is wrong, then press Storyboard at the start of the pipeline to approve it. Nothing records until the storyboard is approved, and saving a change withdraws the approval.

5. Voice, record and build

Press Voice, then Record, then Build in the pipeline. Each shows its progress as it runs and ticks when it is done. Record turns the storyboard's steps into the code that operates the app (the Driver step) by itself, and the first build also makes the film's opening and closing from your brand kit.

Verify runs as part of the build: it checks every line's frames and makes a contact sheet. Look at the film in the monitor, and at each line's frames against what it should show.

6. Share it

Press Share for review (under Files) to send the film to the web app, where colleagues can watch it, comment and approve it. From there you can publish it at a link. See Share a film for review.

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