App promo video
An app promo has seconds to make someone want the app — the plan choreographs real hands, real situations and pixel-clean UI into one motion.
What this is about
Two layers, one film. An app promo interleaves lifestyle moments — a person in a situation the app solves — with the interface itself, captured clean from the device or rebuilt in motion graphics. Planning means deciding per beat which layer leads, and keeping them in sync: the hand gesture on camera must match the screen state inserted later. This is selling, not proving — the software demo's territory is the evaluator, the promo's is the impulse. App store preview slots add hard external specs for lengths and formats. Productions are small: a day of live action plus focused UI capture and compositing.
The format determines scope, crew and timeline — before the first location has been scouted.
What runs differently here
Where this differs from the general case:
- Hand choreography is scripted against screen states: every tap filmed on set corresponds to a UI moment captured separately, and mismatches are visible
- The app build used for capture is pinned and seeded — demo content, no notifications, full battery icon, a status bar that will not embarrass the edit
- Store preview slots impose their own length and format rules, so those versions are planned as first-class deliverables, not leftovers
- Situational scenes carry the promise: casting and locations show the moment the app improves, which is what people actually buy
What the plan has to deliver
A production plan is useful to this role when it provides the following:
- A beat sheet marking for every moment whether lifestyle, device-in-hand or full-screen UI leads
- A capture spec for the app build: seeded content, pinned version, device models and system language
- A deliverables list including store preview formats alongside the campaign cuts
Common pitfalls
What most often goes wrong in practice:
- Shooting hands on a dummy screen with no plan for which UI state gets composited in
- Capturing UI from a development build with debug banners and placeholder text
- Discovering store preview rules after the edit, when lengths and first frames are already locked
With TillyGen
TillyGen keeps both layers of the app promo in one plan: the beat sheet links live-action setups to their UI states, and store formats sit in the deliverables from day one.
Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.
Frequently asked
How many shooting days does an app promo need?
Usually one live-action day for the situational scenes, plus separate UI capture that runs without a film crew. The compositing afterwards often takes longer than the shoot.
Real screen on set or composited later?
Composited, in most cases: live screens flicker, reflect and lock you to one UI state. A tracked blank screen keeps every variant open — but only if the choreography was planned against the real flow.
How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?
A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.
Can the results be exported?
Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.