The thing a meter actually counts
The output unit is what a figure is attached to: a second of delivered video, a whole clip, a second of machine time, or a month of access. Four units appear here and only the first is comparable without a further number. As of 2026-09-12.
| Unit | What it prices | What it still needs |
|---|---|---|
| A second of delivered video | The duration of the file returned | Nothing |
| A whole clip | One generation, at a named length or any length | The clip length the work uses |
| A second of machine time | Hardware occupancy | How much output a second of occupancy produces |
| A month of access | A period, with or without a quota | A consumption rate and a utilisation figure |
Inclusion rule. The units published figures are attached to across the channels tracked here. A unit no channel uses is not listed. Order. From the unit needing no further figure to the unit needing two.
1Naming the unit is rarer than it should be
Most pages leave the unit to be inferred from a column header, and inferring it wrongly is how a comparison ends up dividing a clip price by a duration nobody published. One page in this register states its own unit explicitly, and it is the exception.
2A mixed page needs an assumption to be readable
Where a single table contains both per-second and per-clip figures, something has to reconcile them, and that something is an assumed clip length. Printing the assumption makes it correctable; omitting it makes the table look internally consistent while ranking rows against a length nobody chose.
3The unit is a category marker
Seconds means shot-level production, clips means demos and short pieces, minutes means long-form deliverables, and machine time means a wide catalogue priced by one meter. A shortlist is usually drawn from one of those groups rather than across them.
4Only one unit belongs in a rate column
This register converts a credit figure to money where the credit price is published, and converts nothing else. A clip price divided by an assumed length, or a machine second multiplied by an assumed throughput, would look like a rate and carry none of its own doubt.
5Naming the unit is what makes a page quotable
A figure whose unit has to be inferred from a column header can be quoted wrongly by anyone, including the seller's own sales material. One page in this register states its own unit in a sentence, and that sentence is why its per-clip row can be read correctly.
For a register the practical rule is to record the unit as a field rather than a note. A row carrying its own unit cannot be merged into the wrong column later, and merging is where most second-hand price data goes wrong.
6Pages these figures were read from
A definition entry: what the term means, and the figures vendors put in public about it, each figure read on 2026-09-12. Related: Clip ceiling, Wholesale floor.
7What the seconds buy
Price aside, what goes into the seconds behind “Output unit” is described in SceneMixer's guides:
A one-line skeleton: a shot marker and a few seconds, like [Shot 1] 3s: .
SceneMixer, Inserting and Deleting Segments — “What does the edit box open with on a blank segment?” (read 2026-10-13)
Episode 1 opens on the conflict within 5 seconds, establishes the lead's situation and what she wants, and ends on an identity hook.
SceneMixer, Vertical Short Drama Script Format (2026): Episode Length, Word Counts, Hook Structure and AI-Generation Constraints — “What has to happen in the first three episodes?” (read 2026-10-13)