# Scene

> The Scene node holds one scene of a Story → Video film, with its shots, camera, keyframes and clip. Review it, refine the shots and approve it.

Source: https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/scene

The **Scene** node holds one scene of a film made by [Story → Video](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/story-to-video). It contains the scene's shot list: each shot's camera, motion, keyframe prompt, length and video model. Once the scene is animated, it also holds the scene's video, its last frame and its audio track. The pipeline creates one Scene node for each scene at its Shot List stage.

- Found in: Video › Story & Script
- Output: video
- API type: `scene`

Scene nodes are part of Story → Video, which runs on Nodaro Cloud only.

## When to use it
- You review a Story → Video film scene by scene before it is animated.
- You want to change a shot: its camera, its motion, its dialogue or its keyframe.
- You want to check the keyframes and the animated shots, and fix continuity between them.
- You want to watch one scene of the film on its own.

## How Scene nodes are made

1. **A Scene Director plans each scene.** After you approve the locations, the pipeline plans every scene at the same time: the shots, their camera and motion, their lengths and the video model for each shot.
2. **A critic checks the plan.** The Shot List Critic checks each scene. When it finds a blocking problem, the Scene Director plans that scene again with the critic's feedback, up to two times.
3. **The scene appears.** Each scene becomes a Scene node on the canvas and a scene card in the pipeline panel. You approve each scene.
4. **Keyframes, then video.** The next stages make a keyframe for every shot, then animate the shots and join them into the scene's video, with dialogue, lip sync and sound.

A Scene node that the pipeline owns shows its state with its border: gray while it is running, amber when it waits for approval and blue once approved. See [Work with the canvas while it runs](https://nodaro.ai/docs/nodes/video/story-to-video#work-with-the-canvas-while-it-runs).

Workflow: Story → Video places one Scene node on the canvas for each scene of the film. The Scene nodes are not wired to it; the pipeline fills them from its plan.

## View modes

Choose a **View mode** for each Scene node in its settings panel:

| View | What it shows |
| --- | --- |
| **Storyboard** (default) | A grid with one keyframe per shot, the shot lengths and the camera shot types. |
| **Scripting** | The action and the dialogue of each shot. |
| **Video** | The finished scene video, with its video model. Before the scene is animated, it shows how many clips are rendered so far. |
| **Default** | A compact card with the title, the number of shots, the total length and the status. |

## Outputs
| Output | What it carries |
| --- | --- |
| **video** | The scene video, with every shot joined. |
| **last_frame** | The last frame of the scene, as an image. |
| **audio_track** | The scene's audio. |

The outputs are empty until the pipeline has animated the scene.

## Edit the shots

Select a Scene node to see its plan in the settings panel. While the scene waits for approval, you can edit the scene's description, its **Emotional beat** and each shot.

For each shot, the settings panel shows its length, camera and prompts, and how the shot gets its input:

- **Start from a keyframe.** The shot is animated from its own keyframe. This is the usual input.
- **Continue from the previous shot.** With **Continuity from previous**, the shot starts from the last frame of the shot before it.
- **Extend a shot.** With **Extends shot**, the shot continues the video of an earlier shot in the same scene instead of starting from a keyframe. It needs a VEO 3.1 or Seedance 2 video model. VEO continues frame for frame; Seedance continues believably but not frame for frame. It costs the same as a normal shot on that model.
- **Camera path.** Choose **Orbit**, **Dolly**, **Crane**, **Arc** or **Reveal**, with optional numbers under **Parameters (JSON)**, for example the degrees of an orbit. The move is added to the shot's prompt as a camera direction, so it works with every video model, at no extra cost.

The Shot List Critic checks these choices before animation, so an invalid one fails at planning time rather than during the render.

## Helpers

The **Helpers** in the settings panel refine a scene with AI. A helper runs only when you click it. It returns a suggestion, and you accept or reject it.

| Helper | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Audit Prompt** | Checks the shots for contradictions with the scene's description, emotional beat and format. |
| **Improve Prompt** | Rewrites a shot's action, motion or dialogue in wording that suits the video model. |
| **Generate Motion** | Writes a motion prompt for every shot that has none. |
| **Optimize for Model** | Rewrites all shots in the prompting style of the scene's current video model. |
| **Add B-Roll** | Proposes 1 to 4 insert shots, such as a reaction, a cutaway, an establishing shot or a transition. |
| **Bridge to Next** | Writes an image edit that turns the previous shot's last frame into a smooth transition. |
| **Anchor Style** | Plans and generates a master keyframe that locks the look of the whole scene. |
| **Audit Images** | Runs the image critic on every keyframe of the scene and lists the problems per shot. |
| **Fix Continuity** | Compares a shot's keyframe with the previous shot's last frame, and makes the keyframe again from that frame if continuity breaks. |
| **Validate Match Cut** | Rates how well a shot matches the next one, for shots planned as match cuts, and suggests adjustments. |

Each helper costs a small number of credits. The credits are reserved when you click and refunded if the helper fails.

## Critic results on the scene

The settings panel also shows what the critics found for this scene:

- **Video Critic.** For each animated shot, the verdict and a score out of 10, what the critic sees, and the suggested fix. When a shot fails after its automatic retry, **Skip** keeps the clip as it is and **Regenerate** animates it again.
- **Match Cut.** When a match cut breaks, the panel shows the two keyframes side by side with the critic's suggestions. Choose **Accept break**, or make the keyframe again until the break is gone.

## Tips
- **Review the storyboard before animation.** Changing a keyframe is much cheaper than animating a shot again.
- **Use Anchor Style for a consistent look.** One master keyframe per scene keeps light and color stable across its shots.
- **Fix continuity at the join.** Run **Fix Continuity** on a shot whose first frame does not follow the previous shot.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I add a Scene node myself?

Scene nodes are made and filled by a Story → Video run, one for each scene of the film. The node does not run on its own, so a Scene node you add by hand stays empty.

### How do I change the shots of a scene?

Select the Scene node while the scene waits for approval and edit its shots in the settings panel, or use a helper such as Improve Prompt or Add B-Roll. To have the whole scene planned again, reject it with feedback in the pipeline panel.

### Do the Scene helpers cost credits?

Yes, a small number of credits for each click. The credits are reserved when you click a helper and refunded if the helper fails. Helpers never run on their own.

### What do the Scene view modes show?

Storyboard, the default, shows a keyframe for every shot with its length and shot type. Scripting shows each shot's action and dialogue, Video plays the finished scene, and Default shows a compact card with the title, the number of shots, the length and the status.