Blocks

The ordered pieces a script is made of.

A Prism script is an ordered list of numbered blocks. Each block is one section of the video.

You add, rewrite and reorder blocks. Prism builds the edit in the order you leave them.

What a block can hold

A block holds one of four things:

• Narration, read by the presenter
• A clip that stands on its own, with no narration
• A SOT — a speaker's own words, taken from your footage
• A branded opening or closing element

A narration block carries a PRESENTER badge in the script.

Numbering runs across the whole timeline, whatever a block holds. A soundbite sitting between two narration blocks is block 2.

Blocks and what Prism found in your footage

Blocks are the only unit you author. Scenes, moments, shots and SOTs are what Prism found inside a piece of footage when it analysed it — you choose from them rather than writing them, and none can be edited.

A SOT block is a pointer at a quote that already exists in an asset. Core concepts sets out how the two layers relate.

Editing a block

1. Click the block's text to turn it into an editable field
2. Type your changes
3. Click away from the block to save it

While one block is open, every other block dims to half opacity.

Adding a block

1. Hover the hairline between two blocks
2. Choose the + button that appears
3. In ADD BLOCK, choose the presenter badge

A narration block is inserted at that point, holding placeholder text. Click it and write over it.

Soundbites are not added this way. Choosing SOT in the same panel does not create a block; it tells you to drag one in instead. SOTs shows how.

Reordering blocks

Drag a block by any part of it to move it up or down the script.

Dragging starts after a few pixels of movement, so a plain click still reads as a click. A dashed placeholder shows where the block came from, and a purple bar shows where it will land.

You cannot drag while any block is being edited. Save or cancel the edit first.

Deleting a block

The delete control appears on a block while you are editing it.

It is not shown when the script is down to one block, because a script cannot be emptied. To replace a last remaining block, write over its text instead.

Footage for a block

Narration and footage blocks can each carry a Footage Suggestion — a description of the pictures that should run with them, plus references to specific clips.

Where a block has none, an Add footage link appears instead. Searching from there attaches the clip you pick as a reference on that block.

Results already used elsewhere in the script are badged, so you can see when you are about to repeat a shot.

FAQ