Iterating on your movie
The first cut is the start of the conversation, not the end. Popcorn is built around iteration: you produce a draft, watch it, and tell Popp what to change.
The studio chat
Section titled “The studio chat”Once a movie has been kicked off, you land in the Movie Chat for that movie. On the left is the conversation, on the right is the live preview that updates as Popp produces shots, narration, and music.
While Popp is working, you’ll see status indicators:
- 🔄 Agent working… — Popp is in the middle of a turn.
- 🔧 A tool name (e.g. generate_video, generate_tts) — a specific tool is being called for the current step.
- ✅ — that step finished.
You don’t need to wait for everything to finish before sending the next message. Popp will queue follow-up requests and apply them once the current turn settles.
What kinds of edits work
Section titled “What kinds of edits work”Popp handles edits at any level — global tweaks, scene-level changes, or precise frame-level trims:
| Level | Example prompt |
|---|---|
| Whole movie | ”Make it more upbeat overall.” • “Switch the whole thing to vertical.” • “Re-render in higher quality.” |
| A scene | ”Make scene 2 more dramatic.” • “Change the lighting in scene 3 to golden hour.” |
| A shot | ”Re-generate the last shot — same composition, different lighting.” • “Slow the third clip down to half speed.” |
| A frame | ”Trim 16 frames off the start of the last shot.” • “Hold on the closing frame for one extra second.” |
| A character | ”Change @Milo’s outfit to a black t-shirt.” • “Replace @Luna with a younger character.” |
| Voice | ”Use a deeper voice for the narration.” • “Use my cloned @JaneVoice.” |
| Music | ”Swap the music for something more cinematic.” • “Lower the music in scene 2 so the dialogue cuts through.” |
| Captions / titles | ”Add captions in white with a black drop shadow.” • “Change the closing card to say ‘Order today’.” |
Approving, rejecting, regenerating
Section titled “Approving, rejecting, regenerating”There are no separate “approve” or “regenerate” buttons in the chat — you just say what you want:
- “Keep the first three shots, regenerate the last one.”
- “That’s perfect — render the final.”
- “Throw all of this out and start over with a new vibe.”
Popp interprets these as instructions on the movie state, applies them, and updates the preview.
Versions
Section titled “Versions”Whenever Popp produces a meaningfully different cut — a different render, a different style, a major shot regen — it saves it as a new version. You can switch between versions, compare them, and revert. See Versions & re-renders.
Tips for fast iteration
Section titled “Tips for fast iteration”- Work shot-by-shot. Iterating on one shot at a time is cheaper and faster than re-rendering the whole movie.
- Be specific about what to keep. “Re-do scene 2 only” is faster than “make it better”.
- Refer to elements by
@-name. Saying “swap@Lunafor a different host” is unambiguous. - Trust the agent on the small stuff. If a shot is almost right, it’s usually faster to ask Popp to nudge it than to dictate exact parameters.