PorchLight Beta Portal
Welcome. You're one of the first.
This page is everything you need to get started — what Joe does, how to complete your first campaign, what to expect, and how to tell us when something's wrong. No account details are on this page — use the ones sent to you directly.
What Joe does
Joe reads your lyrics the way a real director would, then plans and blocks the shoot in four approved stages.
1. Interpretation
What the song actually means — themes, symbols, what's metaphor versus literal. Read it, approve it, or regenerate if it missed the mark.
2. Producer
The visual strategy: how many images you need, what gets reused, performance versus something more cinematic. Critic Joe reviews the plan first.
3. Motion
A real shot list — pose, camera, transition, and the lyric line each shot covers.
4. Render
Everything assembles into one preview video — crossfades, subtitles, your audio — playable right in the browser.
Your first campaign
Start to finish, in order.
- Start a Campaign from the home screen. Name it, paste your lyrics, add a one-line brief (mood, palette, genre).
- Upload your audio before running Interpretation if you can — Joe listens to the actual recording's tempo and energy, not just the words.
- Run Interpret Song. Read what comes back and ask: did Joe get it? Approve, or regenerate — it's free to try again.
- Run Plan Production. Same thing: read, approve, or regenerate.
- Import 3–10 photos — real photos of you, your instruments, meaningful places or objects.
- Run Build Shot List, approve it.
- Hit Render Preview. Pick Fast for your first look. Watch it right in the browser, download it, or re-render.
Expected render times
| Quality | Typical time, 3–4 min song |
|---|---|
| Fast | Under a minute |
| Balanced | A few minutes |
| Cinematic | Longest, best per-shot quality |
PorchLight shows you an estimate for your specific song before you commit — rendering also happens in the background, so you don't have to sit and wait.
Current limitations — read this first
- No self-service signup. Your account was created for you — if you need it recreated or reset, just ask.
- Uploaded files aren't validated for content, only file type by name. If you upload the wrong file, you'll see a broken thumbnail rather than an error — just re-upload the right one.
- Only one render at a time per campaign. A second render request while one's running returns a clear message asking you to wait — that's intentional.
- No "undo" for approving a stage. Regenerating replaces what was there, so save anything you loved before regenerating.
- The render preview is a preview — meant to show the direction, not necessarily a final broadcast-quality export.
Send feedback
Fill this out after you've made at least one full campaign — takes about 5 minutes. Honest answers only.
Thank you — this is exactly what we need.
Your feedback was sent. If you flagged something urgent, we'll follow up directly.
Report a bug directly
For anything urgent, or if something blocked you mid-campaign, don't wait for the feedback form.
In the app
Tap Feedback in the top bar — it copies diagnostic info (browser, page, app version) that helps track down what happened. Paste that alongside your message when you reach out.
The single most useful sentence you can send
"I expected ___ to happen, and instead ___ happened." That one sentence is worth more than a long description.
Thank you for being one of the first ten. Go make something.
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