Core concepts
Outputs, blocks, projects, and how they fit together.
Prism organises work into projects. Each project contains a media library and one or more outputs.
Each output is one video. It moves from a script to a video edit, built from an ordered timeline of blocks.
Projects
A project is the unit of work. It is where you gather material for a story and where the videos you cut from it live.
Inside every project is its Project Library. That is the media bin for that project — the footage, audio and images available to it. It is a library of media inside one project, not a library of projects.
Outputs
An output is one video. A project can hold several: a broadcast cut and a vertical social cut are two outputs in the same project.
An output moves through stages, and the workspace follows it. Script comes first, then Video Editor, then Distribution. Later stages stay locked until the output reaches them, so you cannot open the editor before there is a script to edit.
Blocks
A block is one piece of the story. An output's timeline is an ordered list of them, numbered from 1.
A block holds one of four things:
- Narration you have written
- A shot with no speech of its own
- A SOT — a speaker's own words, taken from your material
- A branded opening or closing element
Blocks are what you author. You add them, reorder them and rewrite them in the Writers Room.
What Prism finds in your footage
When you bring media into Prism, it is analysed. That analysis produces scenes, moments, shots and SOTs.
These are not things you write. They are what Prism found, and you choose from them. A SOT block in your script points at a SOT that already exists in a piece of footage.
The distinction matters. Blocks are yours and you edit them. Scenes, moments and shots belong to the footage and you select them.
Styles, presets and brand
Four things control how an output looks and sounds. They are easy to confuse, so it is worth learning the difference once.
| Object | Controls |
|---|---|
| Script style | How the script is written |
| Video style | How the edit is cut and dressed |
| Brand kit | Your logos, colours, fonts and music |
| Preset | A saved brief: presenter, both styles and format |
A guide is reference material for the writer. There are two kinds: a pronunciation guide, which tells Prism how to say a name, and a style guide, which tells it how to write. Guides attach to a script style.
Credits
Every plan includes a monthly allowance of credits. They are spent by the minutes of media you bring in and the minutes of video Prism builds — Credits has the detail.
You will see three figures. In the account is what you have been granted and not yet spent. On hold is reserved by work in progress. Available to spend is what is left to start something new.
A hold is not a charge. When a job finishes, the real cost is taken and the rest is released.