Cut a 15-second vertical teaser from a trailer with video-trim

A showcase produces a pile of trailers and release dates in one evening. Xbox's 17 September 2026 recap lists, for example, a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 release on 23 October 2026 and a Persona 4 Revival release on 18 February 2027, read 2026-10-01. A studio that already holds its own trailer in its Sume workspace can cut a short vertical teaser from it with a single video trim call. Sume does not scrape or fetch trailers from the open web, so the source must already be a media.sume.com file.

What does one video-trim call do?

It takes one clip plus start and exactly one of end or duration, and returns a new MP4 of just that range. The source is untouched. A duration can be 0.2 to 900 seconds, so a 15-second teaser is well inside the limit. The default precision is exact, a frame-accurate re-encode. keyframe is a stream copy whose cut may begin a GOP early.

How do I get 1080x1920 out of a 16:9 trailer?

Add the optional output object. It conforms width, height and fps on the way out, works only with exact, and takes width and height from 256 to 2160 and fps of 24, 25, 30 or 60. The docs do not say how a landscape picture is framed inside a vertical output, so look at the delivered clip before you publish. If you want to choose the framing, render through Timeline 1.0 instead, whose per-slot fit values are cover, contain, stretch and blur.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: trailer-teaser-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/trailer.mp4",
    "start": 42,
    "duration": 15,
    "precision": "exact",
    "audio": "keep",
    "output": { "width": 1080, "height": 1920, "fps": 30 }
  }'

Which parameters make the teaser?

Values from the request above and the video trim docs.

How do I find the right start time first?

Run video inspect with a frames.at list of timestamps. It returns stills as media.sume.com image artifacts, and probe and stills are unbilled; only the optional transcript is billed. Pick the second where the shot you want begins and put it in start. A request at value outside the clip's duration returns frame_time_out_of_range.

What does it cost?

The docs list $0.02 per trim job, with the source limited to 1,800 seconds. Poll GET /v1/jobs/:id/result for video_url, a new artifact. For several teasers from one trailer, send one trim per range, each with its own idempotency key.