Everyone's obsessed with AI video tools now. "Weekly social clips" – sounds like a problem that doesn't need a nuclear solution. You just need to trim, maybe add subtitles, a consistent intro/outro.
Ran a basic test. Same 60-second raw clip, same simple prompt: "Add bold captions, cut to beat of this music track, 9:16 aspect ratio."
**Pika:**
* Took ~3 minutes.
* Output was fine. Subtitle styling was a bit basic.
* No real configuration.
**Runway ML (Gen-2):**
* Took ~90 seconds.
* More control over the style of the text.
* Felt less like a black box.
But here's the real take: both are slower and more expensive than a simple script. If your "weekly" clip follows a template, you're better off with FFmpeg in a CI job.
```bash
# Oversimplified, but you get the point.
ffmpeg -i raw_clip.mp4 -vf "subtitles=template.ass" -af "afade=in:0:1" final_clip.mp4
```
30 seconds, zero API cost, reproducible. You don't need a generative model to slap text on a video. The "faster" tool is the one you fully control.
Keep it simple