PawOfTesla

ReelTale is a home for short vertical series, the one-to-two-minute episodes people binge on their phones, with one big difference: it’s open. Anyone 18 or older can publish, and when you’d rather steer a story than watch one, you can make your own with AI. The problem we kept running into is that short dramas are exploding, but the apps behind them are closed studios. They commission or license their shows, and viewers can watch but never make anything. Independent filmmakers, stop-motion animators and storytellers have nowhere built for this format. Text fiction solved this years ago: on web novel platforms anyone can publish, the first chapters are free, readers unlock the rest with coins, and writers get paid. ReelTale brings that model to short video. For viewers: you can start watching on reeltale.net without an account. Confirm you’re 18 or older and you’re in. The storefront has a weekly pick, featured shelves, rankings, genres, new arrivals and completed series. The first episodes of every series are free, and later ones unlock with coins. For creators: you publish a series of live-action or stop-motion episodes and earn from every unlock. Titles and descriptions are moderated before they go public. Stories you steer: write an opening, and the story comes back as a living comic, one scene at a time, with three choices for what happens next. You can tap a choice or say it out loud. Five Meta models build each scene: Muse Wonder plans the story, Muse Spark writes and safety-checks every scene and panel, Muse Image keeps characters consistent, SAM 3.1 frames each shot, and Muse Voice Transcribe turns your spoken choice into the one you meant. Every AI scene is labelled as AI-made. Under the hood: one codebase for web, iOS and Android (Expo), an API on Cloudflare Workers, and Postgres on Supabase as the source of truth for coins, unlocks, creator earnings and AI jobs. Every model call is budgeted before it runs and refunded automatically if it fails. Adults-only is enforced in the database, not just the UI, and there’s an EU illegal-content notice form. More than 850 automated tests cover it. Where it stands: the website is live at reeltale.net. No creators have uploaded real series yet, so the catalog you see is clearly labelled sample content, and there’s a sample AI story you can try without signing in. Next up: the first real creator series, the mobile apps in the stores, and creator payouts.