Frequently asked questions

Twenty-two questions creators ask most. Grouped by topic. If yours isn't here, drop a line to hello@cuethescene.com and I'll add it.

Getting started

Is CueTheScene open to the public?

Yes. Sign up at cuethescene.com and you're in. No waitlist, no invite codes.

Is there a free trial?

No. CueTheScene is paid-only, every signed-up account is a paying customer. Founding-member pricing (the first hundred subscribers get permanent discounts) is the closest thing to an early-access deal.

What platforms does CueTheScene support?

Web only today. The dashboard works on desktop and mobile browsers. There's no native app, no Electron build, no Chrome extension.

Is my content secure?

Briefs, scripts, voice settings, and the generated MP4s sit in Supabase Postgres (eu-west-2) and Cloudflare R2 with Row Level Security on every table. Nothing user-generated is shared with another tenant. The full security posture is in the privacy policy.

Billing and plans

How much does a video cost to make?

It depends on length and format. Documentaries and Listicles are 100 credits of fixed setup plus 50 credits per target minute. The four supported lengths cost 500 credits (8 min), 700 (12 min), 1,100 (20 min), and 1,600 (30 min). Shorts are flat-rate: 50 credits if auto-extracted from a long-form take, 100 credits if generated from a fresh brief. The brief form shows a live cost preview before you submit, and the dashboard shows your live credit balance at the top right.

Do unused credits roll over?

Yes, for thirty days past your renewal date. If you have unused credits when your monthly subscription renews, they stay spendable for one full following billing period. A renewal warning surfaces on the dashboard seven days before the rollover credits expire, so you can use them or top up before they're gone.

What's the difference between credits and pay-as-you-go?

Credits come with your subscription plan, allocated monthly. Pay-as-you-go is the overage path, if you burn your monthly allocation, the next jobs auto-bill at the metered rate. The auto-PAYG cap is configurable per account and visible in billing settings.

How do I cancel?

Settings → Billing → Cancel subscription. Your access continues to the end of the current billing period. Founding-member slots, once assigned, are yours forever even after cancel, re-subscribe and the founding-member price comes back.

Prompting and generation

Why did my generation fail immediately?

The brief validator caught something it thought would lead to a bad video. The common ones: hyper-specific visuals the footage sources can't deliver, a request for live news content (CueTheScene doesn't do live), or a command-prefix detection where the brief reads like a prompt-injection attempt. The validator's message names the category, read it, edit the brief, resubmit.

Why does my script sound robotic?

Three usual causes. The brief is too generic, "tell me about the moon landing" with no angle reads as Wikipedia voice. Or the voice picked isn't a good fit for the niche, the voice recommender's first-tier picks usually nail it. Or the niche's voice-delivery profile isn't dialled, drop a note to hello@cuethescene.com with the job ID and I'll dig in.

Can I force the AI to use a specific opening line?

Yes. Add to the brief: "Open with the line: '[your exact line here].' Do not paraphrase." The script generator treats this as a fixed beat. Outline regen with a hint will preserve it.

Why does my video have a "Low Footage Availability" warning?

The footage orchestrator's 70% scene-acceptance gate didn't clear, fewer than 70% of scenes have a vision-accepted candidate. The job pauses for review with three options: refine the brief and re-run, manually swap footage on the weak scenes, or accept the downgrade and proceed with the keyword-ranked fallbacks. The choice surfaces on the dashboard as a chooser panel.

Can I make compilation or reaction videos?

Not yet on the auto path. The Listicle format is the closest fit, a ranked-set structure with the pipeline assembling clips per item. Compilation as a first-class format is queued.

The video editor

Can I replace the footage the AI chose?

Yes. The candidate grid surfaces the orchestrator's full ranked list, and per-scene "Search more" runs an ad-hoc fresh search you can tier-filter.

Does re-rendering the video cost credits?

Re-rendering an existing timeline (no script changes, no new footage) doesn't cost credits. Regenerating a scene's script costs nominal credits because Claude is doing fresh work. Regenerating footage triggers vision evaluation, which costs nominal credits per scene. The dashboard surfaces the cost preview before you commit.

Can I get the narration text for my YouTube description?

Yes. The publish surface includes a "Copy script as plain text" affordance that gives you the narration with scene breaks stripped. The auto-generated description has the highlight quotes already extracted, but the full text is one click away.

My render is stuck, what do I do?

Reload the dashboard first; the live status pulls from Inngest and usually catches up within a few seconds. If it's been more than fifteen minutes in the same state, drop the job ID into an email to hello@cuethescene.com. Render-stage hangs are rare but they happen and the operator-side fix is usually a manual retry.

Voice and audio

Can I clone my own voice?

Yes, paste your ElevenLabs voice ID into the voice picker. The first time you do this you'll tick a consent checkbox confirming you own the voice rights and have read ElevenLabs' terms. The consent is recorded against your account.

Can I revoke my voice consent later?

Yes. Settings → Account → "Revoke ElevenLabs consent". Revoking blocks new imports but doesn't detach voices you've already imported, they stay usable on past videos and can still be selected for new ones.

The voice is cutting out / slurring in the preview

ElevenLabs synthesis is non-deterministic. About one scene in two hundred comes back with an audible artefact. The fix is to regenerate just that scene's voiceover from the editor, the same script with a fresh ElevenLabs call almost always lands clean.

Content policy

Are these videos safe to monetise on YouTube?

CueTheScene's pipeline is designed for monetisable output. Niches and formats that have known monetisation risk (extreme content, real-life violence reconstructions, certain comedy categories) are either rejected at the brief validator or generate with explicit disclosure-on-screen requirements. The Acceptable Use Policy has the full list.

Can I make videos in Spanish, French, or German?

Not yet at the auto path. The script generator is English-only at launch and the voice catalogue is English-bias. Multilingual support is queued.

Cheers,
Carl