A "next time" teaser from the episode you haven't released yet

The teaser is built from real footage

A teaser made from a prompt promises something that may never get rendered. A teaser made from the next episode's finished takes promises exactly what the viewer will see. That is the rule here: the teaser maker only accepts takes that belong to the episode numbered one higher than the one you are cutting, and only takes whose render is complete.

Because of that rule, teasers tend to get made late in the week, after you have shot ahead. The workflow that works best is to render the first two or three takes of the following episode before cutting the current one, then build the teaser from those.

Eight seconds, natural speed

Unlike the recap, the teaser is not sped up. A tease wants a clean beat the viewer can read: a face turning, a door, a line of dialogue cut off. The eight-second budget is shared across your picks, each take contributing a slice from its opening. Two takes get four seconds each; four takes get two each. If you want a single long tease, pick one take and it will run the full eight seconds.

The result is stored as its own video, tagged with the takes it came from, and the episode remembers which teaser is current. Cut the episode and the teaser is appended after the final scene; cut it again later and the new cut uses whatever teaser is current then.

• Only finished takes from the following episode
• Eight-second cap, natural speed
• Replaced cleanly when you rebuild it
• Two credits, ffmpeg only

Teasers and the continuity ledger

A good tease hints at an open thread without resolving it. Before picking takes, glance at the ledger: the threads marked open are your candidates. Show the pager buzzing, not the name on the screen. Show the second folder being found, not what is inside it. The viewer should recognise the thread and want the answer.

Teasers also help you catch continuity mistakes early. If the following episode's take shows a character holding a prop they lost two episodes ago, you will notice it while picking, and you can fix the take before the episode is cut.

Where the teaser goes

Every episode cut is assembled in a fixed order: recap first (if there is one), then the finished takes in board order, then the teaser (if there is one). You can switch either bookend off for a particular cut, for instance when you are cutting a season finale that should not tease anything.

Teasers are private by default like everything else. Publish the episode cut and the teaser travels inside it; the standalone teaser clip stays private unless you publish it separately.