Your first video

This is the short path. It skips almost every setting, because the defaults are good and you can come back for them. By the end you’ll have a script you wrote, a take you recorded, and a video you can post.

What you need

An Editory account and a story. A webcam is nice but not required: you can use an AI voice instead, and the steps are otherwise identical.

The short path

1. Pick a shape

   Go to Videos. The create canvas offers two ways in, and for a first video the second is easier:

   • Start with what you have: four cards: Speaker-Led, Narrator + B-Roll, Visuals-Driven, Mix & Match
   • Start with a shape: a layout template, which already answers aspect ratio, b-roll cadence and where graphics go

   Pick a layout template. It turns a long wizard into five short steps, because every question the shape already answers disappears.

   The five layouts, and what each one decides

2. Write the script

   The flow opens on Script. You have five ways in: Paste a URL, Write or paste text, Upload a document, Describe it with a prompt, or Choose from your library.

   Pasting a URL is the fastest. Editory scrapes the article and pulls its photos, with the lead photo selected for you.

   There’s also a Write a script with Editory panel on this step, which drafts and revises one in conversation without leaving the flow.

   No article? Use a prompt

   Describe it with a prompt has no source article at all. You supply the brief (“announce our partnership with X, point people at their Instagram”) and Editory drafts from what you gave it.

3. Record

   The Record step opens the teleprompter with your script already loaded.

   Two things worth doing before you hit record:

   • Set the scroll speed to match how you actually talk. Too fast is the single most common reason a first take is unusable.
   • Use the eye-level guide to line the camera up with your eyes. It’s the difference between “talking to me” and “reading something”.

   No camera?

   Record on another device shows a QR code; your phone opens the teleprompter and records with the better camera. Or choose AI Voiceover and skip filming entirely; the script becomes narration over b-roll and graphics.

4. Add your visuals

   The Visuals step asks for anything you already have (clips, stills, the article’s photos) and picks a brand kit and a caption style.

   You can drop nothing here. Anything you don’t cover, Editory finds.

5. Let it build, then review

   Editory transcribes your take, plans the cutaways, fetches the footage, writes the captions and assembles the cut. A minute or two for a short video.

   You land on Review, which flags any shot where the script names something specific and no footage matched it. Accepting a replacement is one click. Skipping is fine; there’s already a generic shot in place.

6. Render and post

   Press Render final video. When it finishes you get the long-form cut plus any short clips, in the aspect ratios the layout asked for.

   Then download them, or publish straight to a connected Instagram account.

   Finish and publish

Going deeper: the full wizard

The layout-template flow is the short road. The full wizard at Videos → Start with what you have asks everything itself, across five steps:

Template → Script → Record → Customize → Finalize

Two of those rename themselves depending on what you’re making. Step 1 becomes Footage for Visuals-Driven, and step 2 becomes Voice when you choose an AI voiceover. Step 2 disappears entirely if you’re uploading a file rather than recording. That’s expected, not a bug.

Customize is where everything the layouts decided for you lives, as six collapsible cards:

Card	What’s under it
Format	Aspect ratios (9:16, 16:9, 1:1), clip count and length, frame rate, jump-cut strength
Branding	Brand kit, logos, intro/outro bumpers, colours, fonts, speaker picture-in-picture
Graphics	Whether to use your brand kit’s own designs, how many cards, the template library
B-Roll	Sourcing mode, how many cutaways, your own clips, stock providers, wide-photo fitting
Music & Sound	Background music and ducking, sound-effect types, voice enhancement
Captions	Nine quick styles, or a full custom editor

Every one of those is covered in its own page below.

What to do next

• Set up a brand kit: colours, fonts, logos and graphics, applied to every video from then on.
• Learn the editor: for when the cut is nearly right.
• Try Studio chat: describe the video instead of building it.
• Set up a Newsroom, if you want this to happen daily without you.