# Start here

> How a TatortatsXD music video gets made, from a song to a finished cut: what you are making, the stages, the three points where a person decides, and the rules for spending.

From the TatortatsXD wiki: https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/start

Three films, one song, one face. Each film went through the same stages in the same order, and nothing that costs money ran before the owner said yes to the step before it.

## What you are making

A music video of **Send It**, a 2:03 pop track, with TatortatsXD as the lead. She is on screen in almost every shot. In some shots she sings to the lens, lip-synced to the song. In the others she acts the story or the camera moves through a still. Every image and every clip is AI-generated.

| Film | Shots | Sung | Acted or moving | Images made |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Send It](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/send-it) | 28 | 25 | 3 motion clips | 84 |
| [Gold Rush 2049](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/gold-rush-2049) | 26 | 7 | 19 stills in 2.5D motion | 116 |
| [La última moneda](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/la-ultima-moneda) | 33 | 7 | 25 acted clips, 1 still | 132 |

Pick the scale before anything else. A film that is all sung (Send It) needs a lip-sync take for nearly every shot. A film that is mostly stills (Gold Rush 2049) costs a fraction and still has her singing on the choruses. A film that tells a story (La última moneda) needs an acting clip for every shot where something happens.

## The stages

1. **Brief.** The owner's ask goes into `BRIEF.md` word for word, with the date. The wording carries the taste, so nobody summarises it.
2. **Song.** The master WAV from Suno. See [The song](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/song).
3. **Lyrics and analysis.** The lyrics as sung, then a beat map, word timings and the vocal stem.
4. **Lead.** Her identity text, fixed once and never paraphrased. See [The character](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/character).
5. **Storyboard.** One row per shot, cut on the beat. See [Storyboard](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/storyboard).
6. **Prompts and plates.** A prompt book for the images, read by the owner before any spend. One image picked per shot.
7. **Clips.** Locked clip prompts with a credit estimate, read by the owner again. Then submit, and measure the lip sync. See [Moving and singing](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/video).
8. **Edit and review.** The edit list, a review copy, and a safety and canon scan of every take the edit plays.
9. **Deliver.** The master, a flash check (3 flashes per second or fewer), a 9:16 cut, and an AI-generated label when it is posted.

## Where a person decides

| Gate | What the owner sees | What makes it stale |
|---|---|---|
| Board | The board sheet: every shot with its time, framing and action | Any change to the board |
| Prompts | The image prompt book; later, the locked clip prompts with the credit estimate | A changed prompt |
| v1 | The review copy and the scan verdict | A remade or recut take |

An approval covers the exact files it was given. Change one shot and that approval goes back to the owner. Send It's board was approved 15 times in one night, once after every change.

## Spending

- Every project has a cap, set with the owner. Send It's Higgsfield cap went from 1 to 80 to 772 credits, one step per owner OK. Gold Rush 2049's was 100, La última moneda's 400.
- Every paid call is estimated first. The real spend is read from the provider, never from the estimate.
- Higgsfield charged 1.5 credits per second of video. Gold Rush 2049's seven sung takes and one retake cost 87 credits. La última moneda's 32 clips were quoted at 231.
- If the owner flags quality, spending stops until the problem is fixed.

> Free first. Send It's first cut used only free stills and free motion clips. The owner asked for lip sync after seeing it, and the budget went up then, not before.

## Read next

- [The character](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/character): the text that keeps her the same.
- [Consistency](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/consistency): why that text works, and what breaks it.
- [What to build](https://www.tatortatsxd.fun/wiki/toolkit): the files and commands behind all of this.