What is pod?

pod is a tiny AI film studio that lives on your own computer. You describe the film you want in plain language, and a crew of specialized AIs writes it, casts it, shoots it and edits it into a finished short film.

You don't need to know anything about software, prompts, or "AI models" to use pod. You need one thing: a picture in your head of the film you want. A 30-second teaser for your thriller. Episode 2 of the telugu vertical series a client handed you as a PDF. Two robots falling in love at a bus stop. You tell pod, in your own words, in any language, and pod makes the film.

The crew

Think of pod as a small studio behind a front desk. When you hand over an idea, it doesn't go to one AI trying to do everything. It moves through a crew, each member doing the one job it's specialized for:

• The head writer turns your idea or script into a structured episode script.
• The casting director picks the right generation engines for your film's style, and shows you the price before anything renders.
• The character designer creates canonical design sheets and reference images, so your lead has the same face in shot 1 and shot 40.
• The storyboard artist divides the script into shots of 8 to 15 seconds each, with camera and transitions.
• The cinematographer writes the precise visual instructions for every shot.
• The continuity supervisor checks every scene and cut boundary, so rooms don't mirror-flip between shots.
• The footage critics inspect images and clips frame by frame and flag what's off.
• The editor & sound cuts it all together, lays the voices and mix, and delivers the final MP4.

You sit in the director's chair. Everything the crew makes comes back to you for review, and your notes, in plain words, are what they act on.

What you can make

The default is a ~2-minute episode in widescreen, but pod handles the whole spread of short-form film work:

• From a one-line idea. "Two robots fall in love at a bus stop" is a complete brief.
• From a full screenplay. Hand pod a PDF, .txt or .md file. Multi-episode screenplays work too: "produce episode 2 of the basti pdf" and pod slices out exactly that episode. Finished screenplays are adapted scene-for-scene, dialogue kept verbatim in its original language, and pod never invents lines.
• Teasers and trailers. pod protects endings when you tell it to ("tease it, never reveal the ending"), and characters speak in their own voices rather than a narrator, unless you ask for one.
• Vertical reels. 9:16 for shorts and reels, 1:1 square, or classic 16:9 wide. A "90-second telugu teaser, vertical, moody" is one sentence to pod.
• Whole series. Episode 1's approved faces, places and look become the series canon; your lead keeps the exact same face from episode 1 through episode 30. See series.
• Ideas you haven't had yet. explore mode brainstorms 4–5 distinct concepts with looks and formats; pick one and pod produces it.

You can also bring your own material: reference images for a character, finished clips, audio for voice-over or music. pod folds all of it into the production. See using your own media.

You direct every step

Today pod runs in one mode: full control. Pod stops at every gate (the script, the cast and look, the shot plan, the keyframes, each scene's clips, the final cut), shows its work, and waits for you. You are the quality control, and no AI loop judges your film or spends a credit behind your back.

Two hands-off modes are temporarily benched while we make them worthy of real productions: assisted steer, where AI critics pre-check every image and clip, and autopilot, where pod runs the shoot itself and stops only at the cost gate. Typing auto at a gate politely declines for now. They're returning, and the modes page covers how they'll work. Speak real cinematography if you want ("shot-03: over-the-shoulder, 85mm, golden hour") and the crew translates it precisely. The full vocabulary is in camera language.

The promise

• Nothing renders until you say go. Before a production starts, pod asks what it needs once, lists what it would assume for anything left open, and waits for your explicit OK. Saying no costs nothing.
• The price is always shown before money moves. The cost gate presents the exact credit estimate before any footage renders. Every clip is drafted cheap at 480p first; the expensive master render happens once per shot. Edits are free recuts; re-shoots always ask first with a price. Details in money & credits.
• Your films live on your computer. Everything, from scripts and character sheets to footage and the finished film, saves to an episodes folder on your machine. That's the only copy; pod's makers never store your footage or scripts. (Do back it up.)

What it looks like

❯ make a 30-second teaser for my thriller, telugu, moody
Here's what I'll run — Enter to go, e to edit, n to never mind:
  produce "my thriller teaser" --duration 30 --language telugu --teaser
  (pod turns your plain words into the exact command and shows it first)

From there the crew gets to work, and pod brings each stage back to you for review. Press Enter to approve, or just say what to change: "make the ending happier", "give Meena a red saree", "cut the first 3 seconds".

Where to next

And if you're not one director but a studio, with several people, several client accounts, and customers who need to see cuts and sign off on them, that part is built: seats, projects, a publish gate and a record of every approval. Start at studio seats & roles.