Food bank volunteer call for Thanksgiving: a 15-second clip, $0.41

To recruit volunteers for a Thanksgiving turkey drive, make a 15-second silent clip: three Ideogram 4.5 cards that say what, when and where, a music bed, and a Sume Timeline 1.0 render with audio.mode: "silence" so no narration track is needed. Total at list rates read on 2026-10-04 is about $0.41, and a silent clip works in feeds where sound is off.

Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, so a drive needs its volunteer call out in October. The clip is a single reusable asset for the organization's social page, a flyer QR link and the volunteer email.

What do the three cards say?

Card one: the ask, such as "Pack boxes, feed neighbors". Card two: the date and shift, such as "Sat Nov 21, 9 to noon". Card three: where to sign up, such as "Sign up at the front desk". Quote each line in the prompt and read the output letter by letter. Keep numbers on cards you can regenerate for $0.06 at list, rather than in anything baked into a longer video.

What does it cost?

Ideogram 4.5 is $0.06 at medium before Sume's margin (Image API). Music is a flat $0.125 per generation (Music Router). Timeline is $0.10 per output minute, rounded up, so a 15-second render reserves $0.10 (API pricing).

How do I render without a voice?

Set the spine to audio.mode: "silence" with a duration, add three five-second slots, and put the music in soundtrack. Spend nothing while you iterate: /v1/timeline-1.0/plan is unbilled.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/timeline-1.0/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: turkey-drive-001" \
  -d '{
    "audio": { "mode": "silence", "duration_seconds": 15 },
    "video": [
      { "source_url": "CARD_ASK",   "start": 0,  "duration": 5 },
      { "source_url": "CARD_WHEN",  "start": 5,  "duration": 5,
        "transition": { "type": "fade", "duration": 0.5 } },
      { "source_url": "CARD_WHERE", "start": 10, "duration": 5,
        "transition": { "type": "fade", "duration": 0.5 } }
    ],
    "soundtrack": { "url": "MUSIC_URL", "fade_out_seconds": 2 }
  }'

How should the music read?

Ask for warm, unhurried and instrumental: an acoustic guitar and a soft hand drum at a steady tempo. Put exclusions in the positive prompt, because the Music Router rejects a non-empty negative_prompt. Poll GET /v1/jobs/{id}/status for the music job and for the render, and never resubmit a paid request because your own client timed out; check the job first.