# Stage > Block a shot by hand, with a place, a cast, props and a camera, then sketch it free and render that frame. *Picture: The Stage bench with Night Ferry's first shot, the quay: its filmed take picked and playing, the deckhand in a yellow oilskin and the narrator in a red scarf walking on the wet quay at night with the lit ferry behind them; the shot's plan and the cut-outs on the left, the camera, the look and the renders on the right, and the shot's two takes under it* Stage is for blocking a shot by hand before anything is rendered. You build a set, stand the cast in it, move the camera, and only then make the frame. On an empty bench: **Block a shot**, **Start from a picture…** or **Open the sample**. Or ask in the chat ("What is the shot?"). **Robin can do this too.** From the chat, Robin sets a room or outdoors and the weather, adds a cut-out or a prop, places and poses the cast, picks the lens and the frame, sets where something ends, and sketches the move. A render or a 3D place is put to you with its price first. ## The place Make a place from one picture with **Start from a picture…**, free on your Mac. **Place** sets it as a **Room** or **Outdoors**. The picture is laid back on the ground and the far scene, so the camera can travel through it. **Weather** adds **Rain** or **Snow**. Pick day, dusk or night. In Night Ferry's demo, the quay's own lamps light whoever stands in it. **Make it a 3D place** turns the place into a 3D place from the one picture, on your own key, priced first. ## The cast and props The project's cast stand in the set as figures you can pose. Real people can stand in it as cut-outs: **+ Cut-out from a picture…** under In the set. Press **+ Place in the set** to add someone, or **+ Prop** for a thing, then set **Facing**, **Size** and **Depth**. Drag a dot on a hand, a foot or the head to pose a figure by hand, or press 1–5 to stand, sit, wave, point or walk. **Set where it ends** gives a figure or a prop the place it moves to while the camera moves. **Stand still** takes that back. ## The camera Orbit, dolly and height, a 24, 35, 50 or 85 mm lens, and a 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1 frame. A move runs 3, 5 or 8 seconds from a start to an end keyframe. **Set view** and **Camera view** switch between looking at the set and through the camera. **New shot** starts another; the bar steps through them. ## Sketch, then render Nothing is spent until you press. [Film: An 11-second loop, no sound: the keeper is picked in the dock hall, End is pressed and the keeper moved to where the move ends, then Sketch is pressed and an untextured sketch of the shot lands as take 1](https://getrobin.app/video/howto-stage.mp4) - **Sketch** and **Sketch the move** make a still or a short video of the shot, free on your Mac, before anything is rendered. - **Render a still** draws the frame from the cast's own pictures. - **Render a video** follows the sketch of the move, so people go where you set them, beside the camera's own path. **Make the film** puts every shot onto a Film timeline at its time, as its kept take: free, on your Mac. **Render every shot as video** renders the rest together, priced first. See [Film](https://getrobin.app/docs/film.md). Renders are paid on your own key and show their price first. With no key, a render says **Needs your own key**, and pressing it says to add one in Settings › Connectors. Robin offers a render; it never starts one on its own. Above the limit you set in Settings, a render waits for your yes. While a render is made, its card says where it is (sent, waiting in the provider's queue, being made, brought back) and its price, pending until it lands; **Cancel** says first whether it will still be billed. A render that fails says whether it was billed, with **Redo** and **Report this problem**. See [Your keys and what things cost](https://getrobin.app/docs/keys-and-costs.md#when-a-make-goes-wrong). Every render is a take: **Keep**, **Not this one**, or **Before** to compare, then **Back to the set**. [Film: A 5-second loop, no sound: Night Ferry's filmed take of the quay, the demo's real render of shot 1: the deckhand in a yellow oilskin and the narrator in a red scarf walk toward the camera on the wet cobbles in the rain, the lit ferry and the harbour lights behind them](https://getrobin.app/video/stage-night-ferry-take.mp4) ## Keys | Key | What it does | | --- | --- | | V | Set view or camera view | | G | Thirds guide | | Tab | The next thing in the set | | 1–5 | Stand, sit, wave, point, walk | | Arrows | Nudge (with ⇧, farther) | | [ ] | Turn | | L A | Lens, frame | | Home End | Start and end keyframe | | Space | Play the move | | S | Free sketch | | R | Render… | | C M T | Change it, Move…, takes | | P X B | Keep, not this one, before | | H Esc | Hide, let go | | ⌘L | Ask | | ? | Help |