Fresh cut, 6 to 8 hours: a tree stand demo built from one phone take
Trees still take up water 6 to 8 hours after cutting, the NCTA says. Film one stand demo take and cut it into three steps for $0.06 in trims on Sume.
The National Christmas Tree Association says most species can go 6 to 8 hours after the trunk is cut and still take up water, which is why the fresh cut before the stand matters. A seller of stands, tree bags or tree trimmers can show the three steps in one phone take and cut it into separate clips. On Sume the three trims cost $0.06, and the captions are the larger spend at $0.20 per job.
The three steps the association describes
The care page gives a short sequence. It does not give a tree lifespan, so a demo should not either.
| Step | What the page says |
|---|---|
| 1. Fresh cut | remove about a 1/2-inch thick disk from the base of the trunk |
| 2. Into the stand | stand should provide 1 quart of water per inch of stem diameter |
| 3. Keep it watered | check daily that water stays above the base of the tree |
Film it in the order a customer does it
Set up on a bench with the tree trunk, a saw, the stand and a measuring cup. Film the three steps in one unbroken take of about 45 seconds, so there are no cuts to match. A single take also means nobody can say the demo skipped a step.
Make a note of the start and end second of each step as you film. For a 45-second take, a plausible layout is 0 to 12 seconds for the cut, 14 to 28 for the stand and 30 to 42 for the water check, but use the real times from your own take.
Cut the take into three clips
With the take already in your workspace as a media.sume.com clip, run one video trim job per step, with start and duration. Each trim is $0.02. The source is untouched, so you can come back for a fourth cut, such as a close-up of the cut disk, without re-filming.
Keep precision at the default exact. It re-encodes frame accurately and keeps audio unless you set audio to drop. For a demo with a saw, you may want to drop the audio and add a quiet bed instead.
Join them for an ad
For a single ad, place the three trims in Timeline 1.0 in order and set audio.mode to silence with the total length. Rendering a 36-second output bills one output minute, $0.10. Each slot needs a start that increases and a duration of at least 0.2 seconds.
Then add one caption job with cues on the joined file, so the three steps appear as numbered cards. A caption job is $0.20 for videos up to 60 seconds.
| Output | Jobs | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|
| Three separate step clips | 3 trims | $0.06 |
| Joined ad, silent, one render | 3 trims, 1 render | $0.16 |
| Joined ad with numbered caption cards | 3 trims, 1 render, 1 caption | $0.36 |
A note on claims
The association also advises keeping trees away from heaters and removing a tree after Christmas or when it is very dry. If your product is a stand, say what the stand holds and stop there. Do not promise a tree will last until a given day, and do not quote fire statistics unless you have read the source.
Sources
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