Kling 3.0 shot timing prompts: make seconds add up on Sume

How does Kling say to write a timed multi-shot prompt?

Write each shot on its own line with its length, and make the shot lengths add up to the clip length you chose. Kling's own narrative guide gives the pattern as "Shot 1, 4s: [description]. Shot 2, 6s: [description]." and says the total must equal the output length you pick.

The same page says Kling's Custom Multi Shot mode supports up to 6 distinct shots and a 3 to 15 second output, and it recommends cinematic wording such as "slow dolly push" or "shaky handheld" plus audio notes (dialogue, effects, music) in each shot. Allocating longer shots to reflective beats and shorter ones to urgency is the guide's pacing advice.

That is a description of Kling's own product surface. What matters for a Sume buyer is which parts of it reach the kling-3 model id.

What does Sume's kling-3 accept?

Sume lists kling-3 in its video catalog with text-to-video, image-to-video with first and last frame, optional audio, 720p or 1080p, aspect ratios 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, and whole-second durations from 4 to 15. The request has a prompt, a duration integer and the other fields in the video generation docs; there is no shot list, no per-shot duration field and no Kling-specific passthrough, because provider.options is rejected for every model in v1.

So the shot structure can only travel as text inside prompt. Whether Kling follows "Shot 2, 6s" literally for a given request is not something the Sume docs promise, and this post does not either. Treat the timed prompt as a strong hint and check the result.

What does a 10-second, two-shot request look like?

Pick the total first, then split it. A 10 second clip with a 4 second establishing shot and a 6 second payoff shot is a duration of 10 and a prompt whose two shot lengths sum to 10.

Send it to POST /v1/videos with a bare catalog id, no provider prefix. Replace the placeholder text with your own scene.

curl -X POST "https://api.sume.com/v1/videos" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: kling3-two-shot-001" \
  -d '{
    "model": "kling-3",
    "prompt": "Shot 1, 4s: wide shot of a bakery counter at dawn, slow dolly push. Shot 2, 6s: close-up of a hand dusting flour on a loaf, soft steady light.",
    "duration": 10,
    "resolution": "720p",
    "aspect_ratio": "16:9",
    "generate_audio": false
  }'

Which lengths break the rule?

Three limits catch people who copy the Kling guide straight across.

First, a 3 second clip is inside Kling's stated range but outside the Sume catalog row, which starts at 4 seconds. Second, a total above 15 is outside both. Third, the Sume Videos panel offers Kling 3.0 durations of 5, 6, 8, 10 and 15 seconds only, so a 7 or 9 second plan is an API-only length; see the panel versus API comparison.

• Do the arithmetic before you submit: the shot seconds in the prompt should equal duration.
• Stay at 4 to 15 whole seconds for kling-3; read supported_durations from GET /v1/videos/models instead of hard-coding.
• Send an Idempotency-Key so a retried submit returns the original job instead of a second charge.

What does Sume not do here?

Sume does not enforce or validate the shot lengths in your prompt; it only validates duration against the model row. It also does not stitch separate shots for you inside one job. If you need hard cuts at exact seconds, the reliable pattern is one clip per shot and an edit on the timeline, covered in Kling multi-prompt shots versus one clip per shot.

Billing follows the model row: the workspace balance is reserved on submit at the provider list rate times 1.25, and usage.cost on the finished job is the Sume billable amount. A longer clip reserves more, so confirm the total before you ask for the full 15 seconds.