Backdrops: photo and video

The backdrop is everything behind the lower third — your "footage". It's read locally by your browser and drawn straight to the canvas; it is never uploaded anywhere.

Photo backdrops (free)

Any plan can use a photo. To keep a still image from looking still, the renderer applies a slow Ken Burns push-in — the gentle zoom every newsroom uses on file photos. Combined with the moving ticker and typing headline, even a static photo reads as live coverage.

Tips:

• Candid beats posed. News footage is never flattering. A mid-sentence, mid-bite or mid-blink photo of your subject sells the story.
• Leave headroom. The lower third covers roughly the bottom third of the frame — keep faces in the upper two-thirds.
• Higher resolution is better. The push-in zooms into your image; a sharp photo stays sharp at 1080p.

Video-clip backdrops (Pro)

Pro lets you use a real video clip as the backdrop — actual "footage of the incident". The clip plays behind the lower third for the full 8 seconds.

• Clips up to 80MB are supported; common formats (MP4, WebM, MOV) work.
• Longer clips are trimmed to the video's 8-second duration — pick your best 8 seconds.
• Vertical clips fit 9:16 exports naturally; for 16:9, landscape footage avoids cropping.

Which should you use?

A photo with the push-in is plenty for most jokes — the format's urgency comes from the graphics and sound. Reach for a video clip when the motion is the story: the actual moment the dish was dropped, the dog mid-crime, the goal being scored.