Recast a 28-second two-shot ad: $10.50 at 768p, $15.75 at 1080p

A 28-second ad built from two 14-second shots can be recast in one job for $10.50 at 768p or $15.75 at 1080p on Sume. It fits both limits: the whole video is under the 30-second ceiling and neither shot is longer than 15 seconds.

Price at 28 seconds

Sume lists H3 Max Recast at $0.30 per second at 768p and $0.45 at 1080p, bills list times 1.25, and rounds up to the next cent.

Two shots, one job

The shot rule is easy to misread as a 15-second cap on the video. It is not. The catalog says the source runs 5 to 30 seconds, with no single shot longer than 15 seconds. A 28-second ad with one cut at the 14-second mark has two shots of 14 seconds and passes. The same 28 seconds filmed as a single take does not.

That makes a hard cut the thing to look for. Open the ad in your editor and note where the picture jumps. If the longest stretch between cuts is 15 seconds or less, submit it as one clip.

Close to the 30-second ceiling

At 28 seconds you have 2 seconds of headroom under the maximum. A 29.3-second export rounds up to 30 seconds and bills $11.25 at 768p. A 30.4-second export rounds up to 31, which is outside the window, so trim a few frames first with video trim.

• Round the inspected length up to whole seconds.
• Do not exceed 30 seconds after rounding.
• Each shot is 15 seconds or shorter.
• Use a 768p pass first when the ad is still being approved.

Where the money goes

Per second, 1080p costs $0.5625 against $0.375 at 768p, 50 percent more. On a 28-second ad that is a difference of $5.25.

Planning a long swap

Treat a 28-second swap as the most expensive single run in a campaign. A reject here costs $10.50 at 768p, so do the cheap checks first. Before the full run, trim the hardest 5 seconds, the part with the most head movement or the closest crop, and recast that with video trim and a 5-second job at $1.88. If the face holds up there, the other 23 seconds will usually be easier. Then run the full 28 seconds at 768p and only move to 1080p after sign-off. In total that is $12.38 for the test and draft, and $28.13 with the final.

If the ad is part of a campaign with several lengths, remember that the same 28 seconds cost $10.50 now but a trimmed 15-second cut costs $5.63. When the longer version is only a director's cut for one channel, recast the short version first and decide later whether the long one is worth the extra $4.87.