SIZZLE REEL PLANNER
Pick the clips
before you open the edit.
The argument it has to make, the shots that prove it, the order, and the running time. Selecting inside a timeline is the reason a two minute reel takes three days.
Free plan coming late 2026
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Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
What is a sizzle reel?
A sizzle reel is a short, fast-cut video assembled from existing footage to prove something to a specific person. A production company cuts one to sell a series to a commissioner. A brand cuts one to show what a campaign will feel like. An agency cuts one from past work to win a pitch. A festival or a conference cuts one to sell next year's edition. The material already exists in every case, which is what makes it different from every other kind of video: the work is not shooting, it is choosing.
That single fact is what most people get wrong about them. A sizzle reel is an argument, not a highlight compilation. Before any clip is selected there is a question to answer, which is what this reel has to make its viewer believe, and the honest version of that is usually narrower than people want it to be. That this director can handle intimacy. That this world is bigger than it sounds on the page. That we can shoot at scale. A reel proving four things proves none of them, and the temptation to include the beautiful shot that argues for nothing is what turns a ninety second reel into a two and a half minute one.
The second thing that makes sizzles painful is where the selection happens. Almost everyone opens an edit timeline and starts assembling, which means every decision about what the reel is for is being made while also managing a timeline, and the scrubbing is slow enough that comparing three candidate openings takes twenty minutes. That is how a two minute video costs three days. The selection is a thinking problem and a timeline is a bad thinking surface: you cannot see all the candidates at once, and you cannot see the argument at all.
Storyflow is an AI-native infinite canvas, and it is where the choosing happens. Write the argument at the top, lay every candidate clip out as a card underneath with a note on what it proves, and arrange the ones that survive into an order with a duration on each. The clips that argue for nothing are visible as cards with an empty note. When the order and the running time work, you open the edit knowing exactly what you are assembling.
HOW IT WORKS
From a pile of footage to a running order.
No timeline, no scrubbing. Cards, an argument, and a total.
01
Open a canvas
Sign up in seconds. No download. Your infinite planning canvas opens in the browser.
02
Write the argument first
One sentence on what this reel has to make its viewer believe. Everything below it is answerable to that, and it is the step almost everyone skips.
03
Lay out every candidate clip
A card per clip with a thumbnail and a note on what it proves. Cards with an empty note are the beautiful shots that argue for nothing, and they are what you cut.
04
Order it and check the total
Sequence the survivors with a duration on each and read the running time. Then open the edit knowing what you are assembling, or send a view-only link for approval first.
The argument, the clips, the order, the total.
Selection made on a surface built for choosing rather than for cutting.
AI proposes a structure from the pitch
Start from a shape
Describe what the reel is for and who is watching and the AI lays out a structure: the opening, what has to land in the first ten seconds, and the beats after it. Arguing with a proposal beats staring at footage.
See the AI storyboard generator →
Every candidate clip visible at once
Compare, do not scrub
Three candidate openings side by side as cards is a ten second decision. The same comparison inside a timeline is twenty minutes, and that difference repeated forty times is the whole cost.
Explore the footage organizer →
A note on each clip saying what it proves
Cut the shot that argues for nothing
The beautiful clip everyone wants to keep is usually the one whose note is empty. Making the note mandatory is the cheapest possible discipline and it settles most of the arguments.
See the film pitch deck board →
Durations and a running total
Know it is two minutes before the edit does
Put a length on each card and read the total. A reel that is ninety seconds on the plan and two minutes twenty in the timeline is the normal outcome, and it is discovered at the worst moment.
Try the animatic maker →Unlimited boards. No object cap.
Open a canvas, write the argument, and lay the clips out. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Unlimited planning boards with no cap on clips or images
Basic AI usage to generate reel structures from a brief
Starter templates for storyboards, shot lists, and pitch decks
Share view-only links with clients and commissioners, no account required
BUILT FOR SELECTION
The work is choosing, and a timeline is a bad place to choose.
The footage already exists. Everything that makes a sizzle good or bad happens before the first clip is dragged in.
One argument, narrowly stated
Decide what it has to prove
Name the viewer: A commissioner, a client, a festival programmer, and an investor want to believe different things. A reel that has not decided which one it is for ends up arguing weakly for all of them.
One claim, not four: That this director can handle intimacy. That this world is bigger than the page suggests. Narrow is what makes it persuasive, and the pressure in every review is to widen it.
The first ten seconds carry it: A viewer who watches a lot of these decides early. Whatever your strongest proof is, it does not belong at the ninety second mark where a build-up would put it.
What it deliberately omits: Writing down what this reel is not trying to prove is what lets you cut good material without it feeling like a loss.
Cards, thumbnails, and notes
See every candidate at the same time
A card per clip: Thumbnail, source, timecode, and what it proves. Enough to decide with, and much faster to compare than a bin of files or a timeline you have to scrub.
Group by what they prove: Cluster clips under the part of the argument they support. A cluster with nine clips and one with none tells you immediately where the reel is strong and where it is asserting something it cannot show.
Keep the rejects visible: The clips you cut stay on the canvas. When a commissioner asks whether you have anything showing a particular thing, the answer is on the board rather than in your memory of last Tuesday.
Video, stills, and reference together: Pull frames from YouTube or Vimeo for tone reference, pin the stills, and keep the pitch document on the same canvas as the reel that supports it.
AI that reads the whole board as context
Ask what the reel is not proving
Structure from a brief: Describe what the reel is for and the AI proposes an opening and a sequence of beats, which is a much better starting point than an empty timeline.
Find the unsupported claim: Ask which part of the argument has no clip behind it, or which clips are doing the same job. Both are the cuts that shorten a reel without weakening it.
It proposes, you decide: Storyflow structures and suggests. Whether a shot lands is a judgment about the material, and a model has not seen the footage the way you have.
Re-cut for a different viewer: The same footage often has to make a different argument to a different person. Ask what changes and the board holds both versions side by side.
Approval before the edit, not after
Agree the reel while changing it is cheap
View-only links for the client or director: Send the plan and get agreement on the argument and the clip order before an edit exists. Restructuring a board takes ten minutes and restructuring a cut takes a day.
Comments on the clip in question: Feedback lands on the card rather than as a list of timecodes in an email, which is the format that makes reel revisions slow.
The edit brief comes off the board: Whoever cuts it gets the order, the durations, the sources, and the argument in one place instead of a message saying make it feel more energetic.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Storyboard
Lay out your shots frame by frame with images and notes, then reorder them until the sequence reads like the finished cut.
HOW WE COMPARE
Storyflow vs Premiere Pro, Frame.io, and a shared folder.
These are for different stages: Premiere is where the reel is actually cut, Frame.io is where a cut gets reviewed, and a shared folder is where the footage lives. Here is where the planning stage sits.
Storyflow
Recommended
All candidate clips visible at once as cards
The argument written above the selection
Durations and a running total before the edit
AI proposes a structure from the brief
Cuts, renders, and exports video
Frame-accurate review of a finished cut
Premiere Pro
All candidate clips visible at once as cards
The argument written above the selection
Durations and a running total before the edit
AI proposes a structure from the brief
Cuts, renders, and exports video
Frame-accurate review of a finished cut
Frame.io
All candidate clips visible at once as cards
The argument written above the selection
Durations and a running total before the edit
AI proposes a structure from the brief
Cuts, renders, and exports video
Frame-accurate review of a finished cut
A shared folder
All candidate clips visible at once as cards
The argument written above the selection
Durations and a running total before the edit
AI proposes a structure from the brief
Cuts, renders, and exports video
Frame-accurate review of a finished cut
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Sizzle reel questions, answered.
What one is, how long it should be, and how to choose the clips.
A sizzle reel is a short, fast-cut video made from footage that already exists, assembled to prove one thing to one kind of viewer. Production companies cut them to sell a series to a commissioner, documentary teams cut them from early material to raise finance, agencies cut them from past work to win a pitch, and brands cut them to show what a campaign will feel like. The defining characteristic is that nothing is shot for it, which sounds like it should make the job easy and instead makes it a selection problem. Everything that determines whether the reel works, meaning what it argues and which clips prove it, is decided before the edit begins.
Decide what it proves, then cut it.
Open a canvas, write the argument, and lay the clips out. No download.