🎬 Movie Maker: Workflow, Use Cases & Pro Tips

This guide walks you through Cannon Studio’s Movie Maker—from first idea to final cut. Use it as a quick-start and a reference for best practices around universes, chapters, scenes, zones, shot lists, narration timing, and finishing. We’ve also included real-world use cases to spark ideas.

🚀 What You Can Make with Movie Maker

🎬 Filmmaking

Feature-length AI films
Short films & proofs-of-concept
Storyboards & previsualization

📺 Episodic

Web series & pilots
Chaptered documentaries
Anthology shorts

📱 Social & Marketing

YouTube Shorts, Reels, TikTok
Concept trailers & teasers
Product & brand promos

🎮 Creative & Audio

Narrated lore videos
Audio-driven mood pieces
Animatics with temp VO

⚡ Quick Start (10 Steps)

Describe your story idea with characters, locations, themes, and tone.
Generate your Cinematic Universe (lore, genre, style anchors).
Approve or tweak Chapters (high-level story beats and pacing).
Define your Cast (see Character Fields below).
Set Locations and add Zones (sublocations & angles).
Generate Scenes: who’s in it, where it is, what happens, and why it matters.
Build the Shot List: image prompt, video prompt, audio prompt, narration, and narration timing.
Iterate: refine scenes, tighten prompts, and lock continuity (looks, props, lighting).
Stitch your shots together and add music (upload or prompt-generated).
Repeat for each scene and chapter and download your final cut.

🧱 Core Concepts

Cinematic Universe

This is the foundation of the world your story lives in. Define lore, a knowledge base, genre, style palette, and more (e.g., “soft natural light, 35mm feel”). These anchors stabilize style across every scene.

Chapters

Story beats and rhythm. Keep one clear question per chapter and a visible turn by the end. Approve chapters before generating scenes to avoid structural rework later.

Characters

Give each character a look (face, body, wardrobe, miscellaneous), a personality, a backstory, a voice and more. Add recurring props, clothing, and weapons to help the model keep them consistent. Create Variations of your character to define different outfits, weapons, or anything you can imagine!

Locations & Zones

Locations are the defining style guides for your setting (e.g., “Abandoned Subway”). Zones are repeatable sublocations within them (“Platform A,” “Ticket booth,” “Track-level”). Reuse zones to maintain continuity across scenes. Create angles to view your Locations and Zone from different perspectives. You can also use the Location image directly for your shots for things like overhead drone shots.

Scenes

A scene is who + where + what changes. Define the high level interaction between your characters and the world that integrates with your story beats.

Shot List

For each shot, perfect the: image prompt, video prompt, audio prompt, narration, and narration timing. Keep the visual prompts specific (shot type, lens/mood) and ensure narration lines sync to on-screen actions.

🧩 How Shot Images Are Generated

Shot images pull smart context from your project:

Primary source: other images from the current or a previous related scene. This preserves character looks, lighting, and set dressing.
Fallback influence: the selected angle, zone, and location, plus the chosen character image.
Prompts still matter: when references are thin, strong image/video prompts become the deciding factor for composition, mood, and detail.

🧾 Fill These Fields for Best Results

Characters

The more concrete, the better:

Personality
Backstory
Voice & Voice Volume
Face
Body
Clothing
Misc Appearance
Name
Type (man, woman, etc.)

Locations

Each location includes a description (lore) and an image prompt. Both are used appropriately during image generation:

Lore/Description: narrative context, world rules, atmosphere.
Image Prompt: concrete visual guidance (lighting, materials, composition).

💡 Practical Tips for Stronger Results

1) Lock Style Early

Commit to a look in the universe approval step (lighting, palette, texture). This will be the guide for the visual style override at a scene level.

2) Name Things Clearly

Use readable names like Abandoned Subway / Ticket Booth /Overhead Shot. Clear labels make iteration and fixes painless.

3) Scene Micro-Beat Recipe

Write one sentence each: Intent → Obstacle → Turn → Button (what the audience is left thinking). Your shot list should visualize those turns, not just coverage.

4) Shot Prompts that Read Like Camera Notes

Include shot type + movement + subject + light + mood. Example: “Medium close-up, slow push-in on Mara, flickering fluorescent light, anxious breathing, shallow DOF.”Your scene-level style override will be appended to every image prompt behind the scene, so keep it subject focused. Make sure your image prompt describes the start of the scene as the video will continue from that point. It's best practice to have every character in the shot in the image prompt since the video model has no context on your characters.

5) Narration Timing

Keep lines concise and tied to on-screen changes. At the time of writing, we support one narration line per shot. Feel free to leverage the duplicate tool in the shot sidebar to extend narrations.

6) Zones Prevent Drift

If a scene returns to the same place, reuse the same Zone label and repeating details (signs, props, practical lights). This keeps spatial logic consistent.

7) Music: Upload or Prompt

After stitching shots together, you can either upload a track or generate one by prompt (e.g., “somber strings with subtle piano, intimate and reflective”).

🛠️ Troubleshooting & Gotchas

Characters drift across shots

Reassert look anchors (hair, wardrobe, palette) in the prompts.

Location doesn’t match earlier scene

Confirm you used the same Zone. Copy over lighting/weather notes (e.g., “rainy dusk, sodium vapor glow”).

Narration feels out of sync

Shorten lines, add [beat] markers, and shift cut points so visual changes land on line endings or emphasized words.

Pacing is mushy

Trim the first and last second of wide shots, vary shot sizes in a 3:2:1 ratio (WS–MS–CU), and let sound design punch transitions.

📖 Mini Glossary

Universe: World rules, style, lore; your continuity backbone.
Chapter: A major beat with a question and a turn.
Scene: Who + where + what changes; one location setup.
Zone: Named sublocation/angle you reuse for consistency.
Shot List: Per-shot prompts, narration, timing, and audio cues.

Want more? Dive into prompting and the editing tool suite.

Prompting Tips Editing Tool Suite Explore More Guides