Newsletter issue to a vertical recap video for Christmas week

Christmas Day 2026 is Friday, December 25, per the OPM federal holiday schedule (read 2026-10-03), so the last newsletter issue before it will land in inboxes people open on their phones between errands. A 30-second vertical recap of that issue is a way to reach readers who skim: take the three strongest items, write one sentence each, render each sentence as an avatar clip of 4 to 60 seconds with burned-in captions, and join the three clips with Timeline. The words are yours; Sume only produces the picture and voice.

The only outside fact is the holiday date. Everything about the avatar and Timeline routes comes from Sume's avatar video and Timeline docs.

From three stories to three clips

Do not summarize the issue; pick from it. A recap that tries to cover five things covers none.

Render one clip, keep the avatar

Reuse the same avatar for every issue so the recap feels like a recurring segment. The route needs either a script or a list of video inputs, and a script is the simpler path.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/avatar-1.0/talking-video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: issue-recap-clip-1" \
  -d '{
    "avatar_handle": "my_presenter",
    "aspect_ratio": "9:16",
    "quality": "plus",
    "script": "This week, three things worth your time. First, our lead story is up, and it is about a change in how small teams ship video.",
    "captions": {
      "enabled": true,
      "style": "slam",
      "language": "auto"
    }
  }'

Join and publish

Timeline places the three clips as ordered slots with a short fade. Import the clips to media.sume.com first, then run the plan call to check duration, then render. Link the finished MP4 from the issue's web version; many email clients do not play embedded video, so a thumbnail that links out is the safe pattern.

Keep the script close to the issue's own text. If the recap says something the newsletter does not, the newsletter has to change, not the video.

Limits

An avatar is a presenter, so do not use it to speak as a named real person unless they consented. Check every spoken number against the issue before rendering, and mention sponsors in the recap the same way the issue does.