A 30-second product ad and a 5-minute documentary are not the same content scaled to different lengths. They have different pacing. Different transitions. Different audio treatment. Different shot composition. Different quality criteria. A hard cut every 2 seconds works for a TikTok clip; it is unwatchable in a documentary. A 15-second ambient hold is meditative in a film; it kills an ad.
Every AI video tool ignores this. Runway, Pika, and Kling Creator treat all video the same: paste a prompt, generate a clip. There is no concept of production type. No awareness that a music video and a product demo follow different production grammars.
Six production profiles, film, clip, ads, social, explainer, documentary, each tune the entire pipeline: casting depth, prompt enrichment, shot duration, transition style, audio treatment, and quality review criteria all change with the profile selection.
The Six Profiles
Film, The Art-House Director
Duration: 120-300 seconds | Default shots: 15 | Aspect ratio: 16:9
The film profile produces contemplative, visually rich narratives. Long shots. Slow dissolves. Atmospheric audio. This is the profile for short films, visual essays, and artistic expression.
Pipeline tuning:
- Transitions: 0.5-second crossfade dissolves between shots
- Audio: Dialogue-primary mix with Kling’s native audio generation enabled
- Pacing: Cinematic subtitle style, sequence markers between acts
- Fade: 4-second fade to black
- Model tier: Cinematic (highest visual fidelity)
- HITL mode: Enabled by default, the engine pauses at brief, casting, and generation checkpoints for human review
Cost range: $25-65 depending on duration.
Clip, The Viral Editor
Duration: 15-90 seconds | Default shots: 15 | Aspect ratio: 16:9 + 9:16 export
The clip profile is built for content that needs to grab attention. Fast cuts. Audio-reactive effects. Punch the viewer in the first 3 seconds.
Pipeline tuning:
- Audio analysis: BPM detection, onset extraction, the pipeline starts by understanding the music
- Transitions: 0.3-second crossfades, hard cuts on beat
- Audio: Music-primary mix, lyrics-style subtitle overlay
- Effects: Audio-reactive FX synced to beat onsets
- Fade: 3-second fade to black
- Social export: Automatic 9:16 vertical crop for TikTok/Reels
- Requires audio: Yes, the clip profile is music-driven
Cost range: $5-20.
Ads, The Commercial Producer
Duration: 15-30 seconds | Default shots: 8 | Aspect ratio: 16:9 + 9:16 + 1:1
The ads profile produces beat-driven commercial spots with CTA end cards. Built for marketing teams that need variants.
Pipeline tuning:
- Brief ingestion:
--briefflag loads a marketing brief, the engine extracts messaging, tone, and CTA - Variants:
--variants 3generates multiple image options per shot, reviewer auto-selects best - CTA overlay: FFmpeg generates an end card with CTA text, tagline, and urgency text on a branded background
- Transitions: 0.15-second cuts, precise, no wasted frames
- Export: Three formats, 16:9 (landscape), 9:16 (vertical), 1:1 (square)
- Brand safety: Safe zone enforcement ensures text stays within platform-safe areas
- End card: 3-second duration, appended as final segment
Cost range: $5-10.
Social, The Platform-Native Creator
Duration: 15-60 seconds | Default shots: 6 | Aspect ratio: 9:16
The social profile produces vertical-first content for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and LinkedIn video. Platform-native pacing with text overlays.
Pipeline tuning:
- Format: 9:16 vertical, the only profile that defaults to portrait orientation
- Captions: Word-by-word animated caption overlay (bold sans font, center position, 4 words max per line, 3px stroke for readability)
- Hook window: First 3 seconds flagged as critical, the reviewer evaluates thumb-stop potential
- Transitions: 0.1-second cuts, the fastest of any profile
- Audio: Requires audio input (trending sound, original music)
Cost range: $5-15.
Explainer, The Educator
Duration: 45-120 seconds | Default shots: 10 | Aspect ratio: 16:9
The explainer profile produces clear, sequential educational content. Logical progression with visual aids.
Pipeline tuning:
- Text overlay: Section headers, key point callouts, and progress indicators rendered via FFmpeg
- Pacing: Deliberate and sequential, each shot builds on the previous
- Audio: Voiceover-primary mix, designed for narration addition in post-production
- Transitions: Standard crossfades, chapter markers between sections
- Fade: 2-second fade to black
Cost range: $10-25.
Documentary, The Storyteller
Duration: 180-600 seconds | Default shots: 25 | Aspect ratio: 16:9
The documentary profile produces long-form narrative nonfiction. Patient pacing. Interview-plus-B-roll structure. The most complex and expensive profile.
Pipeline tuning:
- Ken Burns effect: Default enabled, slow zoom (1.0x to 1.3x) and pan on still images, eased in/out
- Lower thirds: Name/title overlays for interview-style segments
- Research integration: Collects files from a
research/directory and feeds them to the creative director - Transitions: 0.8-second dissolves, the slowest of any profile
- Audio: Voiceover-primary mix with chapter markers
- Fade: 5-second fade to black, lingering, contemplative
- Model tier: Cinematic (same as film)
- HITL mode: Enabled by default
- Requires script: Yes, documentaries need structured narratives
Cost range: $40-130.
How Profiles Reshape the Pipeline
The same blueprint, run with different profiles, produces structurally different output. Here is what changes:
| Parameter | Film | Clip | Ads | Social | Explainer | Documentary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default shots | 15 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 25 |
| Crossfade duration | 0.5s | 0.3s | 0.15s | 0.1s | standard | 0.8s |
| Default format | 16:9 | 16:9 | multi | 9:16 | 16:9 | 16:9 |
| Audio mix | dialogue | music | brand-safe | required | voiceover | voiceover |
| HITL by default | yes | no | no | no | no | yes |
| Model tier | cinematic | epic | epic | epic | epic | cinematic |
| Fade to black | 4s | 3s | , | , | 2s | 5s |
The pipeline steps themselves change. Clip profile runs audio_analysis → transcription → creative_brief → casting → shot_planning → visual_generation → assembly → audio_reactive_fx → final_export. Film profile runs meta_config → film_brief → casting → shot_planning → visual_generation → assembly → final_export. Ads profile adds cta_overlay and multi_format_export steps. Documentary adds research_integration and voiceover_assembly.
Different profiles, different pipelines. Not just different parameters applied to the same pipeline, structurally different execution sequences.
Choosing the Right Profile
The decision is usually obvious:
- Under 90 seconds, meant to be shared? →
clip - A paid advertisement with a CTA? →
ads - For a specific social platform? →
social - Educational, explaining a concept? →
explainer - Narrative nonfiction, over 3 minutes? →
documentary - Creative, artistic, contemplative? →
film
When it is not obvious, default to clip for short-form content and film for anything narrative. The profile is chosen at project creation:
telos new product-ad --profile ads
telos new festival-entry --profile film
telos new tutorial --profile explainerYou can always re-run with a different profile. The engine regenerates shots with the new profile’s parameters, casting results are cached, so switching profiles does not re-cast characters.
Telos profiles encode production domain knowledge, a clip profile produces 15-90 seconds of fast-paced content with 2-5 second shots and hard cuts, while a documentary profile produces 3-10 minutes of patient narrative with 8-20 second shots and ambient audio.
What Profiles Cannot Do
Profiles are not style guides. The profile controls production parameters, pacing, transitions, audio treatment, not visual style. “Corporate Brutalism” or “Neo-Noir” aesthetic choices belong in the blueprint’s aesthetic_dna block, not the profile.
Custom profiles do not exist yet. The six built-in profiles cover the most common production types, but niche formats (music videos, podcast visualizers, news segments) would benefit from dedicated profiles. The profile system is architecturally extensible, custom profile support is on the roadmap.
Profiles do not override blueprint intent. If your blueprint specifies 30 shots but you select the ads profile (default 8 shots), the blueprint’s shot count takes precedence. Profiles set defaults; blueprints override them.
Start with the profile that matches your content type:
pipx install telos-engine
telos new my-short-film --profile film
telos new tiktok-clip --profile clip
telos new product-spot --profile adsSame engine. Different production grammars. One command.