Playback for scene study

Learn scenes from any YouTube video

Break it down. Repeat lines. Study your choices.

Works with movies, TV shows, audition scenes and more.

  1. 1

    Paste a video

    Drop a YouTube link: a movie, a TV show or an audition scene.

  2. 2

    Choose the scene

    Set the start and end of the moment you want to study.

  3. 3

    Practice your way

    Loop it, slow it down, read the lines, and run the scene until it feels natural.

See it in action

Try the tools on a real scene.

Interactive demo

La La Land, the audition scene · Movieclips

Mark the scene

Start

0:30.0

End

0:42.0

0:20.01:00.01:40.0

Make your version View source

Whiteboard · for members

Mark up the scene

A whiteboard on lined paper: type or paste your lines, highlight them, note the beats and the choices beside them. Keep it private, or share it with your class or scene partner.

Open a whiteboard

Keyboard shortcuts

Control playback without leaving the keyboard.

JKL
Back, pause, forward
,.
Move in small steps
Shift
Slow motion while held
O
Turn looping on or off
See all shortcuts
Space
Play or pause
←→
Back or forward 1 second
,.
Previous or next frame
JKL
Shuttle back / stop / forward
O
Loop the moment on or off
[]
Set loop IN / OUT
\
Back to the whole moment
P
Practice: passes, your-turn gap, count-in
T
Tap the tempo (Music practice)
Shift
Hold to slow to 0.25×
M
Mirror the picture left to right
F
Theater mode
Esc
Close panel / Exit theater / Reset loop
?
Show or hide this list
Page Down
Play / Pause
Page Up
Restart loop

On any Playback, press ? for this list. Frame steps assume 30 frames a second, because YouTube does not share the real rate.

Questions

Can I see the timing frame by frame?
Comedy lives in the pause and editing lives in the frame. Step through a cut one frame at a time, or hold Shift to watch a reaction at quarter speed, then let go and see it at tempo again.
Can I compare two performances?
Compare puts up to four moments side by side and drives them together: two actors on the same monologue, the original and the remake, a live version against the studio one. Flip between their audio with one key.
Can I use it to teach a class or a cast?
A Playback link opens on the exact beat with your note attached, so a class or a cast starts from the same frame instead of from 'around the two minute mark'.
Is it OK to use someone else's YouTube video?
Playback never downloads, copies or re-hosts a video. The video plays from YouTube's own player, on YouTube's terms, with YouTube's own ads. What Playback saves is a pointer: the video's ID, a start and end time, a speed, and your words. If the owner removes the video from YouTube, it stops playing here too.