---
title: "Documentary Teaser Generator"
description: "Describe the film in a sentence and the storyboard boards it shot by shot: a card per beat, a still on every card, animated clips, and a cut teaser on the timeline."
canonical: https://docs.nodetool.ai/use-cases/documentary-teaser
markdown: https://docs.nodetool.ai/use-cases/documentary-teaser.md
product: NodeTool
source: https://github.com/nodetool-ai/nodetool/blob/main/docs/use-cases/documentary-teaser.md
---

# Documentary Teaser Generator

<p class="usecase-eyebrow">Use case · Documentary</p>

Describe the film in a sentence and the storyboard boards it shot by shot — a
card per beat, a still on every card, then animated clips and a cut on the
timeline. The teaser below is one run: *DEEP — Life Below the Light*, a dive
from the surface at dusk to a bioluminescent whale on the abyssal plain, six
shots and 26 seconds.

<div class="usecase-hero">
  <video src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep_teaser_example.mp4' | relative_url }}" poster="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-1.jpg' | relative_url }}" autoplay loop muted playsinline controls></video>
</div>

## How it works

The storyboard editor runs the whole thing. Each step leaves something you can
read and change before the next one spends anything. This is an editor
workflow, not a workflow template, and NodeTool does not ship the DEEP board.
The shipped boards are under **Examples** in the sidebar, **Storyboards** tab.

{% mermaid %}
graph LR
  brief["Premise · style · shot count"]
  board["Direct → shot cards"]
  stills["Still per card"]
  clips["Animate approved cards"]
  timeline["Timeline → export"]
  brief --> board
  board --> stills
  stills --> clips
  clips --> timeline
{% endmermaid %}

1. **Write the premise.** In the Screenplay section, fill in Title, Brief, and
   Style. Under Direction, pick the screenplay model, the aspect ratio, and the
   number of shots (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, or 12).
   *(e.g. "A dive from the surface to the abyssal plain · IMAX documentary look · 6 shots")*
2. **Direct the board.** Press **Direct** and the cards fill in — one beat each,
   with action, framing, and movement, all under one style bible.
3. **Review the stills.** **Render stills** opens a dialog where you pick the
   still model and see the estimated cost. Re-render a single card from its
   edit panel until it looks right; the rest of the board stays put.
4. **Animate and cut.** **Render clips** animates every shot that has a still
   and no clip yet, with a video model you pick per clip type. Then **Create
   timeline** (or **Rebuild linked timeline** on later passes) sends the clips
   to the timeline in shot order, ready to trim, narrate, score, and export.

## Six shots, one teaser

The style bible under every card: IMAX 70mm look, volumetric light shafts, a
deep teal-and-black palette with cyan and magenta bioluminescent accents, subtle
film grain, 16:9.

<div class="usecase-gallery">
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-1.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="Aerial wide at dusk over a lone research vessel on a glass-calm ocean">
    <figcaption>Aerial wide at dusk, a lone research vessel on a glass-calm ocean</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-2.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="A submersible's headlights cutting through ink-black water">
    <figcaption>The descent, headlights cutting through ink-black water</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-3.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="A field of bioluminescent jellyfish pulsing cyan against darkness">
    <figcaption>First encounter, a field of jellyfish pulsing cyan</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-4.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="Extreme close-up of a colossal squid's eye reflecting floodlights">
    <figcaption>Creature reveal, a colossal squid's eye in the floodlights</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-5.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="A towering hydrothermal black smoker field swarming with white shrimp">
    <figcaption>The vent city, black smokers swarming with white shrimp</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure>
    <img src="{{ '/assets/use-cases/deep-shot-6.jpg' | relative_url }}" alt="A freediver suspended in the void under a bioluminescent whale">
    <figcaption>Finale, a freediver under a bioluminescent whale</figcaption>
  </figure>
</div>

## Make it yours

Nothing here is locked. Change the look, change the model, change one shot.

- **Swap the video model.** Veo, Seedance, Kling, Runway. Render that shot
  again; the board, the stills, and the other clips stay as they are.
- **Restyle the series.** The visual style you typed is the style bible behind
  every card. Change one line and the next pass boards it that way.
- **Fix one shot, not the reel.** Revise a single clip and it swaps back into
  its card. The other five never re-roll.
- **Keep the subjects consistent.** Save the vessel, the submersible, and the
  creatures as named entities. A shot picks up an entity when its text names
  it, or when you attach it on the shot, and the entity's description goes
  into that shot's prompt.

## Models in this use case

Three jobs, one model each, every one a dropdown. They are called with your own
keys, so the bill comes from the provider and you can switch any of them for a
better model the day it ships.

| Job | Role | Pick from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Director | Writes the shot list, action, and camera notes | Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI |
| Stills | Renders each card's still | GPT Image, Flux, Nano Banana |
| Motion | Animates each still into a clip | Veo, Seedance, Kling |

See [Models &amp; Providers]({{ '/models-and-providers' | relative_url }}) to set up keys.

## Next steps

- [Movie Trailer Generator]({{ '/use-cases/movie-trailer' | relative_url }}) — the same board, cut as a chase teaser
- [All use cases]({{ '/use-cases' | relative_url }})