30-second Wan hero plus two 15-second cutdowns: trim, not regenerate

A 30-second hero and two 15-second cutdowns cost $3.79 on Sume if you trim the cutdowns from the hero, and $7.50 if you generate them again. Wan 3.0 at 720p is $3.75 for 30 seconds; each video-trim job is $0.02. The trim route saves $3.71.

The two routes

Alibaba Cloud lists Wan 3.0 at $0.10 per output second at 720p (read 2026-10-07), and Wan accepts 2 to 30 seconds per job. Sume bills list times 1.25, so 30 seconds is $3.75. Video trim cuts a range from a hosted clip.

When a trim is not enough

A trimmed cutdown is a piece of the hero: same footage, same subject, same voice. That is the point for a cutdown, and the weakness for a test. If you want three different hooks, three separate clips give you three separate takes at $5.625, less than the hero route when you only need the short versions.

The hero route buys one long clip and a set of pieces. At $3.79 for the hero and two pieces, each piece costs $1.2633 on average.

• Trim leaves the source unchanged and returns a new clip.
• Choose cut points where the action is complete, since a cutdown has no new footage.
• Add captions and music afterwards with the caption and timeline jobs.

Checking the cut points

Trim takes a half-open range, start inclusive and end exclusive, of one hosted clip. For a 30-second hero, cutdowns of [0, 15) and [15, 30) cover the whole clip with no overlap. If you want the two cutdowns to open on a strong frame, pick starts at action beats instead, and accept a gap.

Cost of getting it wrong

A bad cut costs $0.02 to redo, because the hero is not regenerated. That is the main reason to trim: you can try five cut points for $0.10, where trying five new generations of 15 seconds costs $9.375.

Scaling to ten products

For ten products, ten 30-second heroes with two trimmed cutdowns each cost $37.90. Ten heroes with two regenerated cutdowns each cost $75.00. The gap of $37.10 is the cost of making the cutdowns look different from the hero, and only you can say whether that is worth it.

A trimmed cutdown has the same voice and the same shots as the hero. A regenerated one can change them. If the platform penalizes repeats, regenerate; if you want consistency, trim.

Order of work

Generate the hero first and review it in full before you trim. Only then decide the cut points, run the two trims, and send each cutdown to captions and the render. Doing the trims last keeps the earlier choices cheap to change, since a change to the hero means every trim is redone, at $0.04 for the pair.

Check before you cut

Run the cutdown through the finishing line you plan to use. Two 15-second cutdowns with captions add $0.40 and two renders $0.20. See finishing 100 holiday ads and two 30-second jobs or four 15-second jobs for related plans.