Time the beats

Drag the playhead. This is a 60-second film for a made-up product called Relay, timed to the measured medians. Every frame in the preview is drawn from the time alone.

A launch film's structure is not a matter of taste. Across 47 measured films, the same moments land in the same places. Each section is a beat: a stretch of the film with one job.

The first two seconds

Put a readable word on screen by 0.2 to 0.7 seconds. Skale's films median 0.2 s; the acclaimed films 0.68 s, and six of them show a word on frame zero. The first scene change, the first seam, lands by about 2 seconds.

That opening is the hook. In the acclaimed films it is usually the product already working (five films), a claim or question (seven), or the brand mark (three).

When to say the name

This is the beat people get wrong most. There are three measured modes. Pick one and commit.

Five of the six late-name films come from brands the audience already knew. Holding an unknown product's name back for 70 % of the film means most viewers leave without hearing it.

The music agrees with the name. The low end (the bass) lands on the first reveal: in 12 of 18 Skale music films and 10 of 18 acclaimed ones.

The body: show, or prove

Problem-first films tend to prove: 9 of Skale's 13 carry a proof beat, usually a counter rolling up to one number. Product-first films tend to show the product working instead.

Five acclaimed films land a payoff just before the endcard: the finished result or the user's reaction, 0.1 to 1.2 seconds before the cut. Cursor 2.0's hot reload lands 1.2 s before; Notion Mail ends on Send.

The endcard

The endcard is the closing frame: the mark, the name, maybe a URL. It runs longer than people expect.

• Length: 4.4 s (Skale) to 6.3 s (acclaimed).
• Final hold: about 2 seconds where nothing changes, so it can be read and screenshotted.
• A URL only with a verb, and only when there is somewhere to go. "Try it at relay.dev", not a bare address. Only about half of Skale's endcards carry a URL at all.
• Build the mark from a primitive or the film's own objects. Five acclaimed films grow it from a single dot; Claude Cowork blooms its mark out of the button the user just clicked.
• Bookend: repeat the opening move at the end (7 of 29 Skale, 10 of 18 acclaimed).

A series is a template

Replit shipped three films in a month on one kit: red keywords, a cream canvas, named cursors, the same lockup hold. To make the next film in a series, write the new product into the slots and keep every frame number, ease and cut.

Storyboard this launch film (register: <name it>) with timestamps:
- a readable word by 0.7 s, the first seam by about 2 s
- the name in ONE mode: early (by 11 % of runtime), at the end of the
problem act (about 29 %), or late (~70 %, only for a known brand)
- the music's low end on the first reveal
- a payoff just before the endcard
- an endcard of 4.4-6.3 s that holds still for the last ~2 s;
a URL only with a verb ("Try it at ...")
Show the name time as a percentage of the runtime.