My Films

Free · Self-paced · Works on a phone

Book to Screen

Turn your book, or just an idea, into a short film you can post.

Book to Screen is a free course that takes you from a book, or only an idea, to a finished short film you can post. You don’t need any film experience, and very little computer experience.

Free first script

Start with a script of your own.

Type your idea, or paste a page of your book. BookWriter writes a short script from it, free, and it becomes your first film. One per account.

What kind
How long

Or start the course now
  • 48 lessons
  • 11 modules
  • Every lesson free
  • No sign-up to read

A new era for film

It’s no longer about who is the richest or the most powerful. It’s about who is the most creative.

That levels the playing field. Wherever you are in the world, if you’ve been blessed with the gift of creativity, you can make a masterpiece film.

A still from Relationship Goals, Episode 1A still from BESTSELLER, Episode 3: Still For SaleA still from Deon The Ghost: The Weekend Special
Stills from films we’ve made. Watch them on the Movies page.

Two ways in, one course

“I have a book.”

You start from a chapter you already wrote. If your book is in BookWriter, it’s already loaded.

Start from your book

“I have an idea.”

You start from a few sentences. Module 2 helps you grow them into a story first.

Start from your idea

Both ways meet at Module 3 and finish the same way.

Open to everyone

  • Every lesson is free and public. Read without signing up, start any time and go at your own speed.
  • You build your film inside the lessons, and it saves as you type. With a free account, it’s on every device.
  • Every lesson is one task, with one button to do it. New words are explained, and all of them are in the glossary.

What you’ll have at the end

  1. A one-page story for your film
  2. One short screenplay scene
  3. A casting sheet for each character, and a shot plan
  4. The text to paste into Google Flow for every shot
  5. A finished short film, 30 to 60 seconds, sized for phones
  6. A plan to post it and use it to sell your book

You write each part inside the lessons. It all collects in My Films, ready to download.

The course, module by module

11 modules and 48 lessons, then a capstone. No schedule and no deadlines. The cost line is what that step costs you; the table below prices every way to make the film.

  1. What an AI film is, and isn’tA choice of which kind of film you’ll make first, and how long it will be.4 lessonsCost: Free
  2. Your story, from your book or your ideaA one-page story: who, where, what they want, what goes wrong, and the last thing we see.6 lessonsCost: Free
  3. Writing it for the screenOne screenplay scene, read out loud and timed.6 lessonsCost: Free
  4. Planning the picturesA casting sheet for each character, and a shot plan: every shot in order, who is in it and what they do.5 lessonsCost: Free
  5. Voices and dialogueA voice chosen for each character, and every line checked by ear.3 lessonsCost: Free to learn; a voice service is from $6 a month
  6. Sound and musicA music plan for your film.2 lessonsCost: Free to learn; a music service is from $8 a month
  7. EditingA clear idea of what an edit is.1 lessonCost: Free
  8. Making your film, step by stepYour film, built from your script and shot plan.8 lessonsCost: $4.99 to $19.99 for one month of Google Flow
  9. Costs, time and fixing what goes wrongA fix list and a priced plan for your next film.5 lessonsCost: Free
  10. Rights, real people and labeling AIA filled-in rights checklist for your film.3 lessonsCost: Free
  11. Sharing it and selling your bookA posted film, with a caption, a link to your book and a plan for replying to comments.5 lessonsCost: Free; ads are optional
  12. Capstone: your first filmA finished film, posted.The month of services you used

What each path costs, per finished minute

Your first one-minute film costs $4.99 to $19.99 for one month of Google Flow, about $44 with separate services, or $399 as a done-for-you AI trailer.

A finished minute is one minute of the film you get back. “Per finished minute” is the price divided by the longest film the package makes. A shorter film in the same package costs more per minute: a 60-second trailer is $399 a minute.

Done for you: the BookWriter team makes the film

  • AI Trailer

    What you get
    A trailer that sells your book
    Length
    Up to 90 sec
    Price
    $399
    Per finished minute
    $266

  • AI Skit

    What you get
    One scene from your book, acted out
    Length
    Up to 3 min
    Price
    $399
    Per finished minute
    $133

  • Episode

    What you get
    The opening of your book as a short episode
    Length
    Up to 5 min
    Price
    $499
    Per finished minute
    $99.80

  • Full Movie

    What you get
    Your whole book as a finished feature film, edited shot by shot
    Length
    Up to 80 min
    Price
    $5,000
    Per finished minute
    $62.50
See the done-for-you films

All-in-one studios: what the course uses

One studio plan replaces most of the separate services. For a 1-minute talking film, the cheapest plan that covers it runs from $4.99 a month (Google Flow) to $59 (Higgsfield).

  • Google Flow (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    AI Plus, using the free daily credits on 6 or more days; AI Pro without them
    Per month
    $4.99; $19.99
    Per finished minute
    $11.48 on Plus, $9.20 on Pro
    Talking shots
    Yes: the voice and lips come with the shot
    Still needed
    An editor to put music under the dialogue. Flow Music’s Starter plan comes with AI Plus
    Commercial use
    Not stated by plan. Google says it won’t claim ownership

  • Krea (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    Basic
    Per month
    $9
    Per finished minute
    $7.23
    Talking shots
    Lip-sync models
    Still needed
    Voice, music and an editor
    Commercial use
    Yes, from Basic

  • Magnific (formerly Freepik) (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    Premium; Premium+ for music rights
    Per month
    $20; $45
    Per finished minute
    $16.20
    Talking shots
    Talking characters
    Still needed
    Nothing: it has voice, music and an editor
    Commercial use
    Yes, from Premium; generated music from Premium+

  • OpenArt (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    Plus
    Per month
    $34
    Per finished minute
    $17.00
    Talking shots
    Yes, with lip sync
    Still needed
    Nothing: voice, music, lip sync and an editor are built in
    Commercial use
    Yes, from Plus

  • LTX Studio (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    Standard
    Per month
    $35
    Per finished minute
    Not published
    Talking shots
    Yes
    Still needed
    Music
    Commercial use
    Yes, from Standard

  • Higgsfield (opens in a new tab)

    Plan that covers it
    Plus
    Per month
    $59
    Per finished minute
    $35.40
    Talking shots
    Yes, with lip sync
    Still needed
    Music and an editor
    Commercial use
    Yes; its pages differ on whether Starter counts

“Per finished minute” uses the 3-to-1 rate: 3 minutes made for every minute kept.

  • Google Flow and Flow Music are for people 18 or older (Google (opens in a new tab)).
  • Google’s pages disagree on whether Flow’s 50 free daily credits work without a paid plan. Free making can also be blocked from about 2 to 5 PM UTC.
  • Google’s terms say Google won’t claim ownership of what you make, but don’t say outright that you may use it to make money. Read Google’s terms (opens in a new tab) before you use a film in an ad.
  • Flow can return two videos per request, and each one costs credits. Set it to one.
  • A studio’s real per-second costs for lip sync, voice and music show only after signing in. The figures above are for the video.
  • Google Flow’s per-minute figures here differ by a few cents from the video services table below, because each table counts Flow’s credits a little differently.

Separate services

With a separate service for each job, one 1-minute film costs about $44 a month, or $64 to $73 if characters talk on camera. Once you are paying, each extra finished minute uses about $11 to $17 of credits.

Beginners make about 3 minutes of footage for every 1 minute they keep, because many takes come out wrong. “Per finished minute” below uses that rate.

Show every separate service and its price

Video services (cheapest plan that allows commercial use)

Everything else

The cheapest full set for one film a month: Google AI Pro $19.99, Midjourney Basic $10, ElevenLabs Starter $6, Suno Pro $8 and DaVinci Resolve free, for $43.99 a month.

Separate services are the fallback when a studio can’t do one job well, such as a particular voice.

For the same 60-second film: doing it yourself costs $4.99 to $19.99 the first month in Google Flow, or about $44 with separate services, plus your time. A done-for-you AI trailer is $399.

Also good to know

  • Most entry plans can’t make 3 minutes of footage in a month: Runway Standard makes 52 seconds, Google AI Plus 80 and Kling Standard 110.
  • Udio has turned off downloads, so it can’t be used for a film soundtrack right now (Udio (opens in a new tab)).
  • Free plans mostly don’t allow commercial use or add a watermark.
  • None of these numbers count your time.

Prices were checked on each studio’s and service’s own pricing page on , with first-month deals left out.

Start with lesson one

Get your free script at the top of this page, then start Lesson 1. One lesson at a time, at your own speed.

Start the courseGet your free script first