Changelog
Ship the changelog as a clip
Thirty seconds of the feature actually working, recorded in the time it takes to write the paragraph about it.
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Nearly every changelog entry would be better as fifteen seconds of the feature working. Almost none of them are, because the video costs more than the paragraph and the paragraph ships today.
The cost is not the recording. It is everything after it: importing, placing zooms, framing a camera, trimming, exporting, and doing all of it again next release.
Short enough to be worth it
Prequel removes the part in the middle. Record the feature once; the editor opens on the take with the zooms already placed from where you clicked and typed, the camera framed, a background applied and the cursor cleaned up.
For a fifteen-second clip that is very close to done. Trim the top and tail on the timeline and export.
Consistency without a template
The thing that makes a run of changelog clips look like a series is that they share a treatment. Normally that means a project file you remember to reuse.
Here the treatment is settings on the take — background, padding, corner radius, border, shadow, the camera's shape and size and corner. They are not decisions you re-make in an editor each time, so a clip from this release matches one from three releases ago without any effort spent on matching it.
Wherever the changelog goes
The same clip is usually wanted in the release notes, in a post and sometimes vertically for social. Frame presets cover 16:9, 4K, 9:16, square, 4:5 and the named social sizes, and because framing is stored in proportions rather than pixels the vertical export re-frames the take instead of cropping it.
Export is one MP4 at up to 4K, rendered on your Mac. No upload, no queue, and nothing to wait for on the day you are shipping.
- Record your screen and cameraPick a display, a window or an area you drag out, with your camera, microphone and system audio each on their own track.
- Zooms and layout are applied automaticallyPrequel reads where you clicked and typed, then places the zooms, frames your camera and sets a background behind it.
- Edit, export and shareMove a zoom, trim a clip or fix a caption, then export one MP4 at up to 4K or send a link that plays anywhere.
Zoom and pan
Zooms that follow the action
Prequel automatically zooms in when you click or type, then softens the rest of the window so viewers know where to look. Every zoom is added to the timeline, so you can move, retime or delete it at any time.
Layouts
Switch layouts clip by clip
Choose from fourteen layouts for the same take: camera in the corner, beside the screen, split with it or hidden entirely. Use one layout for the whole video, or change it clip by clip.
Subtitles
Subtitles you can edit like text
Prequel transcribes every word on your Mac when the editor opens. Fix captions by typing in the transcript, choose a subtitle style or delete a sentence to remove it from the video.
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thisisthecheckoutweshippedlastweek
Thanks so much for jumping on this call
Iwanttoshowyousomethingcool
[pause here]
we’ve been building for the past few months
Teleprompter
A teleprompter that follows your voice
Prequel hangs your script from the notch, just under the camera, and follows your voice — the word you're saying lights up as you say it. Wander off script and it waits for you; skip ahead or fall behind and it catches up within a couple of words.
Instant edit
Start with the edit already done
Prequel records where you click and type, then opens the editor with zooms already placed, a framed camera and a polished background. Spend less time building the first cut and more time fine-tuning.
- Zooms placedOn every click and every burst of typing
- Camera framedShaped, sized and set in a corner
- Background appliedPadding, radius, border and shadow
- Audio balancedMicrophone and system on separate gains
- Cursor cleaned upSmoothed, resized, hidden when it idles
The editor
Everything you would have done by hand
It opens by itself when you stop recording, on the take you just made. Nothing to import, nothing to line up.
Guide attention automatically
Prequel zooms into the part of the screen that matters: the cursor, a region you draw, or whatever you are typing into. Set the level, the speed and how much the rest of the frame blurs.
Look present without taking over the video
Your camera stays framed and out of the way: circle, squircle, rounded, wide or portrait, in any corner and any size. It is never burned into the recording, so none of it is decided while you record.
Make recordings look designed
Add a background, padding and a shadow without editing any of it by hand. Your own wallpaper by default, seven bundled presets, gradients and solids.
Cut the parts nobody needs to see
Trim the pauses yourself, slice by slice, with a waveform under every clip. Layout, background and audio can all change mid-take.
Keep the pointer out of the way
Fifteen pointer styles, resized so the cursor survives a zoom. Smoothed while it travels, and hidden after a few seconds of stillness.
Export the frame you approved
The preview and the exporter draw the same plan, so the file matches what you signed off in the editor.
Quality
Videos stay sharp at 4K
Capture and export run on your Mac's own media engine. 1080p at 60 fps records without dropping frames, and 4K is a setting you pick.
- Resolution
- Up to 4K
- Frame rate
- Up to 120 fps
- Codecs
- H.264 · HEVC
- Encoding
- Hardware, VideoToolbox
- Compositing
- Metal
- Output
- Constant frame rate MP4
Formats
Export in any frame
Turn one recording into different formats without manually reframing every element. Switch from landscape to vertical and the layout stays intact.
- Landscape 16:9
- 4K
- Vertical 9:16
- Square 1:1
- Portrait 4:5
- YouTube
- Shorts
- TikTok
- Reels
- X
Record demos worth sharing
Free for 7 days. No watermark on anything you export.
No credit card required
Curious about the internals? Read the blog
FAQ
Zooms, exports and the rest
Is this quick enough to do on every release?
That is the point of the automatic pass. There is nothing to set up before you record and nothing to import afterwards — the editor opens on the take with the zooms placed, so a thirty-second clip is a recording and a trim.
How long should a changelog video be?
Fifteen to thirty seconds, showing the feature working rather than explaining it. Anything longer is a demo, which is a different video with a different job.
Can I export a changelog clip as a GIF?
Yes. GIF is one of the export formats, which is what you want when the clip is going in a release note or a pull request and should play without anyone pressing anything. It carries no audio; export the MP4 as well if there is narration worth keeping.
Can I keep every clip looking the same?
Background, padding, radius, border, shadow and the camera framing are settings rather than decisions you make in an editor each time, so a clip from this release matches one from three releases ago.
Can I make the clip vertical for social?
Switch the frame preset and export again. The framing is stored in proportions rather than pixels, so a clip that reads well in 16:9 still reads well in 9:16 rather than losing half of itself.
Do I need to be on camera for a changelog clip?
No. The webcam is optional, and because it is recorded as its own track you can leave it out of a clip even if it was on while you recorded.
What do I need installed to record one?
Prequel and the Screen Recording permission, on an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 or later. There is no capture driver and nothing running in the background between recordings.