Long-form films

A long-form film is one original story of six to ten minutes, made for the wide screen: researched, fact-checked, scripted, built act by act, directed as one film and reviewed against a floor of 8 out of 10 — for the whole film and for every act. Its price is fixed before it starts, and it is charged only if it reaches the floor. A film that falls short is held for you, free, with three ways out.

What a film is#

A film is not a compilation: a compilation is your shorts, back to back.

Before you start#

• Your plan: films are on Creator and above, and need a live paid plan (or a contract with ChannelForge) — trial, promotional and pack credits alone never start one. Without it, Long-form shows the price list and why.
• A channel that can make films: every channel started from one of the proven formats, once its kit is built; and a channel with a kit of its own, once its film template is built (below). Long-form → Channels says which of your channels are ready.
• One film per channel at a time: a channel with a film in production makes its next film when that one is done.
• Who: editors, admins and owners start films and decide on them; viewers watch.

Long-form in the sidebar has six tabs: Overview, Films, New film, Schedule, Channels and Jobs. Its badge counts the films that need you.

Start a film#

1. Open Long-form → New film (or New film at the top right).
2. The channel — pick one of the channels that can make films. The others are listed under "Not for films yet", each with why.
3. The topic — Let the research choose (it reads the channel, its audience and what it has not done yet) or Name it, in up to 300 characters, for example "What actually happens inside a jet engine at take-off".
4. The length — 6 to 10 minutes. The price of each length is shown under it.
5. Options:
   • Review the outline before production — production waits until you approve the plan; useful when a client approves it first;
   • Notes for the film — optional, up to 1,000 characters, such as "end on the scale of the whole galaxy". The artists and the director read them as your words.
6. Read The quote:
   • the price, "Held now — charged only if the film reaches 8/10";
   • what is included: research, an independent fact check and the script; every act built and directed as one film, rendered at 1080p; the review against the floor, with up to 2 improvement rounds; captions, a thumbnail and an Instagram teaser; the posting pack and its audit;
   • "A film held under the floor is free: improve it, release it at this price, or discard it";
   • Credits after the hold, when it Starts and when it should be Ready by, in your time, and your plan's Films left · 30 days.
7. Press Start the film · N credits, then press it again to confirm.

The film opens on its own page. A film takes about four to six hours; you can leave: you are told when it is done.

How a film is made#

 PLAN (a CPU worker)                       MAKE (a whole GPU box, reserved for the film)
 screen ─▶ research ─▶ fact check          checks ─▶ scaffold ─▶ acts ─▶ director ─▶ render (1080p)
   ─▶ script ─▶ script review ─▶ outline       │
                       │                       └─▶ review: every act + the whole film
       (outline review, if chosen)                 ─▶ rounds (up to 2, only what is under the floor) ─▶ deliver

1. Screen — the topic is checked against the platforms' policies and our acceptable-use rules. A topic refused here costs nothing.
2. Research — a dossier of the topic, with its sources.
3. Fact check — an independent check of the dossier's facts.
4. Script — the film in acts, each with its setting and its beats, checked against the film's rules and repaired where it breaks them.
5. Script review — a reviewer reads the script before anything is built, for what loses viewers: a consequence told instead of shown, a camera that parks, an act with no event, a climax that is not the most dramatic part — and what the channel's earlier films taught. The script is revised once.
6. The outline — the plan, act by act.
7. On the GPU box — the film takes a whole GPU machine. Several act artists build their acts side by side with the channel's film template; a director joins them into one film — its continuity and its score — and it is rendered at 1080p.
8. Review — the gates measure the film; then a reviewer judges every act and the whole film.
9. Rounds — up to two improvement rounds are included: only the acts under the floor are rebuilt, re-rendered and reviewed again, and an act that comes back worse keeps its previous version.
10. Deliver — the film, its preview, thumbnail, captions, teaser and posting pack.

The film's page shows where it is, live. The work is saved as it goes, so a GPU box lost half-way is replaced and the film carries on from where it was, never from the start.

The outline review#

If you chose Review the outline before production, the film stops after planning and you are emailed: "The outline of … is ready". On its Watch tab, The outline shows the plan; add Notes for the film if you like, then press Approve — start production. Its price is already held: nothing more is held. You are reminded after three and six days; an outline not approved within seven days is cancelled, and only what the planning used is charged, up to a small maximum the page states.

The floor#

A film passes when every gate passes and the reviewers score the whole film and every act at least 8 out of 10, for quality and for entertainment, with the facts and the platforms' policies clear. What the gates measure:

When the film is ready#

Watch is the film's page for what it needs now. A ready film shows:

• the preview (720p) and its Chapters, which are already in the YouTube description;
• its grades — Whole film, Entertainment, Facts and Policy;
• Posting: Approve to post — approving posts nothing by itself; you schedule each platform on Publish;
• Download the film (1080p) — the master, about 740 MB;
• Share for review — a private link for a client to watch and approve or ask for changes (Pro and above); see Review links;
• Improve acts… — a paid round on any act, even of a ready film.

It is charged its quoted price once, at that moment: the line under its title then reads "N credits · charged" and the day.

When the film is held#

A film that does not reach the floor after its included rounds is held — not charged. Its page says why, in plain words — for example "Act 3 entertainment 7/10" — and offers a watermarked 720p review copy ("Review copy — not for publishing"): no download, no posting, no review link. There are three ways out, each with its price and a confirm:

A film held for a policy reason cannot be released or improved: discard it — that is free.

Rework: the Quality tab#

Quality shows the film against the floor — the whole film and every act, with its score, its entertainment and what the reviewer said (blocking points and fixes).

• Improvements offered — every act under the floor is ticked already when the film is held; tick any act to rework it. The price — a price per act plus one for the round — and the time are shown as you tick, and the button asks once more before anything is held. Your plan allows a number of paid rounds per film; the tab says how many are left.
• Notes-only pass — the director acts on the film's notes, with no act rebuilt, for a fixed price. Add a note first.
• Notes — for one act or the whole film, up to 1,000 characters each and 20 a film. The next round hands each note to its act's artist, or to the director.
• Rounds — every round the film has had: the acts, before and after, which were kept and which reverted, and the credits.

A round never makes a film worse: each act keeps the better of its two versions.

Posting a film#

A film posts only once it is approved and scheduled, platform by platform, on its Publish tab:

For each platform, choose the Date and Time (in the channel's time zone) and press Schedule, or Post now instead. A time must be at least an hour ahead (10 minutes for Instagram) and within six months. A post then shows its state — scheduled, uploading, uploaded, published, failed — with Unschedule and Retry. If a platform's answer was lost, the post may be live: look at the channel first, then tick I checked the channel — it is not there and press Retry — I checked the channel, so it is never posted twice.

Captions and the playlist need YouTube's "manage" permission. If the channel's connection lacks it, the Publish tab says so — reconnect YouTube to allow them; until then they are skipped and the film itself still goes out.

The texts and the posting audit#

The texts for each platform open below its schedule: YouTube's title, description (with its chapters), tags, privacy, category and playlist; Facebook's title and description; Instagram's caption, its hashtags (up to five) and the teaser's start and end (1 to 90 seconds). Each field counts against the platform's limit. A post's texts are fixed once it is scheduled: unschedule it to change them.

The pack is written from the film's own records and checked before it is offered: a number or a name the film does not have, a title the channel's shorts already used, stuffed tags or chapters off the timeline are refused. The posting audit then scores it out of 100, by pillar:

Every check to fix is listed in words. After you edit the texts, the pack is audited again. The packaging lab on the same tab tests titles and thumbnails.

A channel's long-form defaults#

Long-form → Channels lists every channel with its readiness, its connections and — for a channel that can make films — its Long-form defaults:

Press Save the defaults. A film you scheduled yourself is never moved by the cadence; a released held film is never posted without an approval.

A film template for a channel with its own kit#

A channel whose kit was built for it needs a film template first. On Long-form → Channels, its card offers Build its film template: an agent ports the film layer — the sequencer, a demo film, the film checker and the artists' manual — to the channel's kit and tests it on a GPU, usually in one to three hours, once. The channel's other GPU work waits until it is done. It is held and charged like a kit build, for what it really uses, and not charged at all if it does not pass its checks; the card then says why, and Build it again retries.

The other tabs#

A film's own tabs are Watch, Quality, Publish and Details — the topic, the research summary with its sources, the outline act by act, and The account: the quote it started on, everything charged, the rounds, the model work and the GPU time.

Credits and plans#

• The price is fixed by the length and shown under each length on New film — it is the same on every plan. The pricing page's "What things cost" table lists the 6, 8 and 10-minute prices. The quote is the contract: nothing above it is ever charged for the film itself.
• It is held when the film starts and charged once, when the film reaches the floor.
• A held film is free. Releasing it costs its quoted price; discarding it costs nothing.
• Paid rounds: a price per act plus one per round, and a fixed price for a notes-only pass — each shown before it is held.
• Cancel — before it starts, nothing is charged; in production, what it used so far at your plan's rate, at most its price. A ready film cannot be cancelled.
• Failures: on our side, nothing is charged — Try again resumes from the last checkpoint, keeping the research and the script, and holds the price again (up to three tries). A film stopped by something on your side pays what it used, at most a tenth of its price.
• Spending caps apply to every start, round and retry.
• Plans: films on Creator and above; review links for films and posting without an approval on Pro and above. Each plan sets how many films may be in production and waiting at once, how many may start in any 30 days, and how many paid rounds a film may have. See Pricing.

Limits and good to know#

• Capacity: a film that could not start within a day is refused before anything is held — try again later.
• New workspaces can start two films in the seven days after their first payment.
• A quick check: if several recent films of a workspace were held or stopped, our team looks at the next one before it starts; and a payment our card processor flagged makes long-form wait up to 48 hours. Nothing is charged while a film waits.
• 24 hours: a film's production, resumes included, never runs past a day; past it, it fails on our side, free.
• Lessons: what each film's reviews found is kept for the channel's next films, and the next script review reads it.
• A film's topic is the channel's from then on: its shorts never make it again.
• Product channels can make a film of their product once its model is approved — see Product videos.

Troubleshooting#

• "This channel has no film template…" Start a channel from a proven format, or build the channel's film template on Long-form → Channels.
• "Your plan's films in production and waiting are all taken." Wait for one to finish, or upgrade.
• "The price changed since this page was opened." Review the new quote and confirm again.
• "Films are at capacity right now." It would not start within a day; nothing was held. Try again later.
• "It has been tried again 3 times." Write to support@storeswiki.com and we will look at it.

Related#

• Channels and kits — the kit a film is built with
• Compilations — shorts back to back, the other long video
• Review links for clients — outline and film review links
• YouTube and Facebook and Instagram — the accounts films post to
• Packaging lab — titles and thumbnails, tested