How do I film a script the Brain sends to my phone?

When a Brain writes a video script for you, for example a daily SEO news video, it can send the script to your phone as a link in its chat. In the Codus iPhone app the link shows as a card with the project's name and the length of the read. Tap Film this script and the front camera opens full screen with the script rolling at the top of the screen, just under the camera, so you read it while looking into the lens. Each take goes back into the video project on your computer.

The script is drawn over the camera picture. It is never part of the recording.

Before you start

• Codus 0.2.208 or later on your computer, signed in to Codus cloud with the same GitHub account as the phone.
• The latest Codus iPhone app from TestFlight. See Is there a Codus iPhone app?
• A video project with a script, or a Brain that will write one.

Ask the Brain for a script to film

Say what you want in plain words, for example "find today's SEO news, write me a script and send it to my phone to film". The Brain sets up the video project, writes the script and posts the link in its chat. For a project that already has a script, ask "send me the film link for" and the project's name.

The link always opens the project's current script, so it still works after the Brain writes a new version.

Film a take

1. Open the Brain's chat in the app and tap Film this script on the card.
2. The first time, tap Allow camera and microphone and allow both.
3. Set the pace with − and + beside the words-a-minute number, and the text size with the second − and +. The app remembers both for next time.
4. Tap the red button. After a 3, 2, 1 countdown the recording starts and the script starts rolling. Tap the words to pause or restart them, or drag them to go back or ahead.
5. Tap the red square to stop.

Send it

1. The take plays back. Tap Film it again if you want another go.
2. Leave Start editing when it arrives on to have Codus start the edit as soon as your computer has the take, or turn it off to look at the take first.
3. Tap Send to Codus.

To film the whole script again, film a new take and send it. It arrives next to the earlier one without replacing it, and the edit starts on the newest take. To reshoot only one section, turn off Start editing when it arrives before you tap Send to Codus, then tell the Brain which section the new take replaces, for example "take 2 replaces the What to do section of take 1, cut it in".

You can close the recorder while it sends. The top of your Brains list shows the progress, and a take that does not send stays on the phone with Try again until it does. To send a video you filmed with another camera app instead, tap the photos button next to the red button and choose it.

On a computer or another phone

The same link opens a web version of the recorder in any browser once you sign in to app.trycodus.com with the same GitHub account.

How do I know it worked?

The recorder says Sent. The take arrives in the video project on the computer where the project lives, as the next source file, the next time Codus is open there (normally within a minute). With Start editing when it arrives on, the project's editing team starts on it. From Codus 0.2.209 the team reports back in the chat of the Brain that sent you the link.

To watch a take again, look under Film this script in the Codus iPhone app: the takes from the last 30 days show as small thumbnails with their length, newest first. Tap one to watch it full screen and swipe sideways for the others. This works away from the computer. A take still sending plays from the phone; takes filmed in a computer browser are not shown on the phone.

Common problems

• The card says the script is no longer in Codus. The project or its script was deleted on the computer. Ask the Brain for a new link.
• The take has not arrived. Check that Codus is open and signed in on the computer where the project is, with the same GitHub account as the phone. A take filmed against a script goes only to that computer.
• The script stops partway and will not scroll any further. Long scripts at a large text size were cut off in earlier versions of the iPhone app. Close Codus on the phone completely and open it again to get the update, which shows the whole script.
• The editing team's report arrived in a different Brain. Before Codus 0.2.209 the report always went to your first Brain. Update Codus on the computer; after that it goes to the Brain that created the project, wrote its script or sent its film link.
• The camera picture stays black. Close the recorder and open it again. If it is still black, check that Codus is allowed to use the camera in the iPhone's Settings → Codus.