five title looks, a build-up, and skip title

the short version

on series, every episode can now open like a show and close like one. pick one of five title looks once, and every episode gets a title with its own name on it, a short build-up with music, your logo drawn in the same look, the episode exactly as you recorded it, and an outro that says what comes next.

the looks are shutter, explainer, broadcast, brushstroke and kinetic type, or the plain card if you would rather keep it simple. each one is drawn in your own logo, your own colours and your own typeface, so it looks like your series and not like a template.

why an opening matters for a diary

a serial lives on recognition. someone who saw episode 12 should know episode 40 is the same series before you say a word. the episode number does some of that work. a title that looks the same every time does the rest.

but an opening is also where a series can start feeling produced in the wrong way: a hook ripped from the middle, a sting on every cut, graphics over your face. none of that is here. the opening plays before the episode, the outro after it, and nothing ever sits over you while you talk.

pick a look once

go to account, series, polish, and open title and outro. you will see the five looks playing in your brand, and the one you pick plays large underneath, portrait and landscape side by side. a switch under it shows the title and the outro. beside the branded intro, end of the build-up is its own choice of the same five, the animation that brings your logo in.

• shutter: panels close on your logo, then open.
• explainer: paper, a highlighter and a stamp.
• broadcast: bands sweep in like a news open.
• brushstroke: your colour painted across the frame.
• kinetic type: your name slams in, word by word.

you pick it once for the whole series. there is no per-episode design, on purpose. a founder who redesigns every month has a weaker brand than one who never touches it.

the order an episode plays in

• the title: the episode's own name, large, with the episode number, the series and the date under it. music behind it, and none of your voice under it.
• the build-up: your own intro, if you started the episode by setting it up, or a moment of four to sixteen seconds copied from later in the episode, with music building under it.
• the end of the build-up: your logo, brought in by the animation you picked for it, the shutter unless you chose another. with no logo of your own it is underway's mark.
• the episode, exactly as you recorded it, in the order you said it.
• the outro: your series, the next episode's number, where to follow, and made with underway.

the build-up is the one place a line from later is heard early, and it is a copy, not a move. the moment still plays in its place in the episode, in order. the diary is untouched. and when the title or the build-up opens an episode, previously on is left off, so an episode never opens three times.

switch it per episode, on the cut

every episode's page has a section on the cut, under the file, called how it opens and closes. one switch each for build-up, title and outro. switch one off for that episode alone, then press render it again and the file is made with the change.

music under the build-up opens the track picker right there. it is one track for every episode's build-up, so changing it on one episode changes it for the series. the preview on the cut plays the title and the outro, so you see the opening before you spend a render on it.

once the file is made, the build-up says what it chose and why: your own intro, from the start to the second it ends, or a moment taken from later, quoted, with the point where it plays again.

skip title

the people who watch every episode do not need the opening every time. so while the title plays, the player shows skip title: in your vault, on your public episode page and on the phone. while a moment copied from later is still to come, it says skip intro. your own intro is never skipped, because it is the episode.

chapters, while we were at it

any episode two minutes or longer now gets chapters, found from what you said. on the cut they split the bar under the player into segments, with a sliding row of the chapters by name. on your public page they sit under the video with links to each one, and they go to youtube with the episode.

older episodes

nothing already made changes by itself. a finished file is never re-made on the clock. when you want an older episode to open with your look, open it and press render it again. episodes already posted stay as they were posted, which is the argument for picking a look early rather than at episode 40.

faqs

start a series and film episode zero for free. start free.