Event recap from 200 phone clips: Timeline's 200 slots, $0.50 render

A 5-minute recap of 200 attendee clips is a single Timeline render on Sume, billed at $0.10 per output minute, so $0.50. Timeline takes 1 to 200 video slots per render and an output length of 1 to 1800 seconds.

No AI video model is needed for this one. It is assembly only, so the bill is the render.

The fit

Two hundred slots in five minutes is 1.5 seconds each, which is right for a fast montage. Per slot, source_in and duration choose the part of each file to use, so you do not pay $0.02 per clip to trim first.

Practical steps

Phone clips arrive in mixed orientations. The slot fit option handles it: cover (the default) crops to fill, contain letterboxes, and blur fills the bars with a blurred copy of the clip. For a vertical recap with a few landscape clips, blur looks better than cover, which cuts the sides.

Every URL must already be hosted by Sume. Import each file first with POST /v1/media-imports. Add a music file as the audio.url, or set audio.mode to silence. A soundtrack bed with ducking needs a real spine, not silence.

Errors to expect

Timing is the usual failure. invalid_segment_timing means slot starts do not increase, and segment_overlap means slots overlap beyond the crossfade. video[0].start must be 0, and coverage can stop at most 0.5 seconds before the end of the audio.

Generate the slot list in code from a sorted file list and a fixed duration, instead of typing 200 start times by hand.

Limits

More than 12 slots render in chunks (strategy auto), which is why a 200-slot job takes longer than a short one. Submit it asynchronously, poll /v1/jobs/:id/status, and fetch /result.

Sume does not pick the best moments from 200 clips. You choose the order and the in-points. Check each person you show has agreed to appear before publishing, which is a matter for the organiser, not the render.

Rates are the Sume card on 2026-10-07; see Timeline for the live request fields.