Guides / Sequence planning

Budget screen time without guessing the total

Use durations and cumulative starts to make trade-offs visible.

Takeboard treats each duration as the amount of screen time you expect that shot to occupy in an edit. It sums those durations in sequence order. It does not include a transition overlap, title animation or gap unless you represent that time in a card.

A worked example

Six cards lasting 6, 9, 7, 10, 8 and 5 seconds make a 45-second sequence. Their start times are 00:00, 00:06, 00:15, 00:22, 00:32 and 00:40. If the second card grows by three seconds, every later start moves by three seconds and the total becomes 48 seconds.

Use a target as a comparison

A target of 45 seconds does not force the cards to fit. The summary reports how far under or over the plan is. Adjust a duration, remove a repeated idea or deliberately change the target. The tool cannot decide which moment deserves more time.

Read the clock carefully

The display uses minutes and seconds, not timecode frames. This is an early planning estimate, not a frame-accurate editing timeline. The timed-card rehearsal advances in real time using the browser clock; device sleep or background throttling can skip visible cards. Use a video editor to confirm the final cut and delivery duration.