How to get cinematic results with Veo 3

How to get cinematic results with Veo 3

AI video has seriously levelled up with the release of Google’s new Veo 3 video generator developed by DeepMind! It’s one of the most powerful AI tools out there right now, capable of creating cinematic, high-resolution video clips with impressive camera movement, lighting, and realism. And the best part? You can start experimenting with it today through Envato Elements’ own AI video tool, VideoGen, which has just been upgraded to run on Veo 3.

Whether you’re a filmmaker, designer, or just curious about AI video, this is a great place to start creating with more intention and impact.

Jump to content in this section:

• What makes a video feel cinematic?
• How to write effective prompts in Veo 3
• How to use VideoGen
• How to replicate different film styles and genres
• Cinematic results take a director’s mindset

1. What makes a video feel cinematic?

When we think of a cinematic moment, it’s never just about sharp visuals or expensive gear, it’s about the emotion, the atmosphere, and the way a shot tells a story. Even with AI, that same visual storytelling magic still applies.

These are the key ingredients I focus on when I want my Veo 3 clips to feel like they belong on the big screen:

Depth of field adds focus and drama

One of the easiest ways to make a shot feel cinematic is by playing with depth of field, which is basically how much of the scene is in focus.

• Shallow depth of field (where the subject is sharp but the background is blurry) creates a more intimate, emotional look.
• Deep focus (everything is sharp from foreground to background) gives a sense of scale and clarity, great for sci-fi or landscape shots.

Prompt tip: Try using phrases like “shallow depth of field” or “bokeh background” for softer, cinematic focus.

Framing and composition guide the viewer’s eye

A strong composition makes your scene feel intentional and powerful. Here are some classic techniques I like to prompt for:

• Rule of thirds: Place the subject off-center to create balance and interest.
• Leading lines: Roads, hallways, or shadows that draw the eye toward your subject.
• Symmetry: Creates a bold, clean look (think Wes Anderson-style framing).
• Close-ups vs. wide shots: Use close-ups for emotional moments and wide shots to set the scene.

Lighting sets the emotional tone

Lighting is one of my favourite ways to shape mood. Even subtle changes in light can make a massive difference in how a scene feels.

• Low-key lighting = moody, dramatic, and shadow-filled (great for noir or thrillers).
• High-key lighting = bright, clean, often cheerful (perfect for comedies or product ads).
• Golden hour = warm, romantic, and nostalgic.
• Backlighting = silhouettes and atmosphere.

Prompt tip: try “soft cinematic lighting” or “backlit silhouette in sunset haze” to instantly change the vibe.

2. How to write effective prompts in Veo 3

Prompting with Veo 3 feels a lot like directing your own scene (just with text instead of a crew). Once you start thinking like a filmmaker, you’ll find it way easier to get the results you want. Let's start with a basic prompt structure that I like to use and then break it down:

[Subject] + [action] + [setting] + [lighting] + [camera direction] + [mood/genre] + [audio]

Subject: Who or what is the focus?

Start with the star of your scene. This could be a person, a group, an object, or even an animal or environment. Be specific when it matters (age, style, clothing, emotion) it all helps shape the visual. Here are a few examples:

A rusty old robot

A woman in a flowing red dress

A hooded man in his 40s

Action: What’s happening?

Next, give your subject something to do. Motion adds life and cinematic energy, even in subtle ways. Use clear, simple verbs like walks, runs, turns and gazes. Here are a few examples:

walks slowly through the fog

turns to face the camera

stands perfectly still

Setting: Where is this taking place?

Your setting is your stage. Think about location, time of day, and what’s in the environment. This helps ground the scene and gives the AI something to build from. Here are a few examples:

in a neon-lit alleyway at night

on a windy cliff by the ocean

a foggy meadow at dawn

Lighting: How is the scene lit?

Lighting plays a huge role in mood. It’s one of the quickest ways to make a scene feel cinematic, emotional, or dramatic. Veo 3 responds really well to clear lighting direction. Here are a few examples:

soft golden hour lighting

soft cinematic lighting

sunlight through dusty windows

Prompt tip: You can also add mood words like “dreamlike,” “tense,” or “gritty” to shape the emotional tone of the clip.

Camera direction: How is it filmed?

This is where you get to “direct the shot.” You can describe the lens type, movement, angle, or position of the camera. It gives your prompt a dynamic feel, and makes the result feel intentional. Here are a few examples:

slow dolly-in from a low angle	wide angle establishing shot
handheld tracking shot from behind	overhead drone shot circling the subject

Mood/Genre: What’s the vibe?

Finally, layer in tone. This helps guide everything from the lighting to the pacing to the color grading. You can describe the feeling, or name a genre or reference film. Here are a few examples:

tense and atmospheric	dark and ominous
dreamy and nostalgic	isolated and surreal

Audio: What should the viewer hear?

This is the newest and most exciting thing about Veo 3! VideoGen now supports audio generation, so you can prompt for background music and ambient sounds. Make sure to toggle Audio "on". Here's some tips for prompting audio:

• Be clear about the type of sound (music, ambient noise etc.)
• Use genre or instrument cues to shape the style
• Include adjectives to influence mood or tempo

Here are some examples of what you can use to prompt for audio:

soft piano music playing in the background	distant thunder and rain falling gently
ambient city sounds with footsteps echoing	birds chirping and wind rustling through trees

Bringing it all together

Here’s how it looks when you put it all together:

1. "A young woman in a flowing red dress"
2. "walks slowly"
3. "across a foggy meadow at dawn,"
4. "soft cinematic lighting,"
5. "the camera tracks her from behind in a wide shot,"
6. "dreamy and melancholic atmosphere"
7. "gentle piano music plays in the background with birds chirping in the distance"

This kind of structure keeps the prompt focused and helps avoid that “AI randomness” we’ve all seen before. Once you get the hang of it, it really does feel like you're directing with words.

3. How to use VideoGen

Now that you know how to craft the perfect prompt, it’s time to bring it to life. VideoGen makes it super easy to turn your ideas into high quality food video content. No editing software needed, no production setup required.

Step 1: Access VideoGen

First things first, head over to Envato VideoGen and sign in with your Envato Elements account. You’ll land on a clean, simple dashboard where you can start a new video.

Step 2: Aspect ratio and audio

Select the aspect ratio you want your final video to be and make sure that the audio toggle is switched "on" if you want your final video to have sound (note that only 16:9 is available with audio).

Step 3: Generate or upload your first frame

Click the plus icon (+) to create a preview image for your video’s first frame. You can:

1. Generate an AI image based on your prompt
2. Or upload your own image if you already have something in mind

This image sets the tone and helps guide how the AI builds the rest of the video (note that this feature is not available with audio).

Step 4: Write your prompt

Here’s where your prompt comes in. Add a detailed description of the scene you want to create in the prompt box.

Step 5: Generate video

Click the “Generate” and let VideoGen do the heavy lifting. Once that's done, simply download your video!

4. How to replicate different film styles and genres

One of the best things about working with Veo 3 is that it doesn’t just generate video, it responds to style. If you prompt it with intention, you can create something that feels like it was pulled from a noir classic, a sci-fi epic, or even a dreamy indie drama. And yes, mentioning the genre in your prompt absolutely helps guide the result.

Film noir: Moody, shadowy, and full of mystery

When I think of noir, I picture dramatic lighting, high contrast, and characters half-hidden in shadow. Veo 3 nails this if you use the right prompts.

Prompt strategy: Use dark, urban settings + night-time lighting + low-key lighting + mysterious subjects. Include the word “noir” or “in the style of a noir thriller” to guide tone and color palette.

Prompt example:

A mysterious man in a trench coat walks down a dark alley at night, low-key lighting with long shadows, backlit by a flickering neon sign, camera follows from behind, tense noir atmosphere.

Sci-fi epic: Clean, expansive, and futuristic

Sci-fi epics are visually bold. Think sweeping landscapes, sterile architecture, deep space, or high-tech dystopias. Use wide shots, dramatic skies, and cold, surreal lighting.

Prompt strategy: Set your scene on another planet or in a futuristic city + use technical-sounding descriptors like "holographic," "synthetic," or "neon glow." Include “sci-fi epic” or “inspired by Blade Runner or Dune.”

Prompt example:

A lone astronaut walks across a vast alien desert under a huge purple sky, cold ambient lighting, wide-angle drone shot from above, in the style of a sci-fi epic like Dune.

Indie drama: Raw, emotional, and personal

Indie dramas often feel handmade. They lean into natural light, handheld movement, and emotionally quiet scenes. The style is understated, but deeply human.

Prompt strategy: Use real-world, relatable locations + natural lighting cues (golden hour, overcast, window light) + focus on small gestures. Add “indie drama” or “coming-of-age film” to shape tone and pacing.

Prompt example:

A teenage girl sits on a fire escape in the early morning, sipping tea as traffic hums below, natural window light, handheld camera slowly zooms in, soft nostalgic tone in the style of an indie drama.

Action thriller: Movement, tension, and grit

Think fast cuts, gritty city scenes, and lots of dynamic motion. These scenes are often set at night with intense lighting and chase-style camera angles.

Prompt strategy: Use fast-paced verbs (“runs,” “jumps,” “escapes”) + high-stakes environments (dark streets, rooftops, industrial zones) + urgent camera direction. Add “action thriller” to encourage drama and contrast.

Prompt example:

A masked figure sprints across a rooftop at night, harsh neon light from signs below, the camera follows quickly in a shaky handheld shot, high contrast lighting, in the style of an action thriller

Romance: Soft light, close emotion, and subtle storytelling

Romance isn’t just hearts and flowers, it’s about capturing emotion, longing, connection. These scenes are often grounded in reality but softened with light, color, and close, thoughtful framing.

Prompt strategy: Use real, intimate settings (bedrooms, cafés, parks at dusk) + soft or golden lighting + slow or still movement. Mention “romantic film” or “romantic drama” for emotional tone.

Prompt example:

A young couple sits across from each other in a small café at sunset, soft golden light pouring in through the windows, the camera slowly zooms in on their faces as they smile, warm romantic drama tone

Fantasy: Enchanted worlds and magical detail

Fantasy is full of imagination, lush forests, glowing lights, mythical creatures, castles in the mist. The key here is otherworldliness and visual richness.

Prompt strategy: Use nature-heavy or surreal settings (enchanted forests, floating islands) + magical details (fireflies, glowing crystals) + dreamlike lighting. Add genre terms like “fantasy adventure,” or “high fantasy.”

Prompt example:

A warrior stands at the edge of an enchanted forest glowing with floating lights, soft twilight haze in the background, the camera slowly orbits around her, high fantasy tone inspired by The Lord of the Rings

Cinematic results take a director’s mindset

The more I use Veo 3 with VideoGen, the more I realise that great results don’t come from complex prompts. They come from thinking like a filmmaker! When you approach your scene with intention, consider your lighting, camera, mood, and now audio, you start creating with purpose instead of just generating clips.

So treat every prompt like you’re directing a scene. Picture it in your head, feel the pacing, hear the sound. The tools are powerful, but it’s your creative choices that make it cinematic.

10 editing questions beginners always ask (answered by a pro)

10 editing questions beginners always ask (answered by a pro)

The ten questions in question

Check out the video version below, or read on for the questions and answers!

Jump straight to questions:

• 1: What editing software should I use?
• 2: How do I make my edits look more professional?
• 3: How long should my video be?
• 4: How do I cut faster without losing important stuff?
• 5: What's the best way to edit TikTok/Youtube shorts?
• 6: How do I add text or captions that look good?
• 7: How do I choose music without getting copyright strikes?
• 8: How do I fix bad audio?
• 9: How do I make my cuts feel smooth instead of choppy?
• 10: Easy tricks to make my videos more engaging?

1: What editing software should I use?

The number one question I get asked and what I see in various places across the internet that new editors are lurking is what software should they be using?! The answer is incredibly simple: Whatever you have access to and you feel most comfortable in. The software is a tool for the job, not the job.

If you have no idea where to start and you’re coming in completely fresh then check out DaVinci Resolve, it’s by far the best free option you have. It might take a minute or two to get up and running in it but if you’re serious about editing then learning in a program like Resolve is going to be key to a long fruitful career in the craft. It’s totally fine to start off in something like CapCut, however you will grow out of it if you get serious about editing, and then you’ll have to find something like resolve to move up to and that means learning two programs instead of one.

So start in something professional, learn the basic tools and the basic workflow of editing and go from there. If you have access to adobe through work or have the cash to splash on a subscription and want to work across after effects, Photoshop etc then jump into premiere pro. There’s lots to be said about staying in one ecosystem. That’s not to say you can’t work between Davinci Resolve and after effects for example, that’s pretty much exactly what I do.

Where did I start? Premiere Pro, CS6 when I was 14 and before YouTube existed. I brute forced my way through learning the basics in a program that was not geared to beginners but it meant that by the time I roughly knew what I was doing, that I knew my way around a professional piece of software. So when I entered the workforce, I could already tick the box of X number of years experience in Premiere.

Try the free version of DaVinci Resolve if you’re starting from nothing.

Moving on.

2: How do I make my edits look more professional?

I’m going to answer a visual question by suggesting that you focus on audio. If you’re controlling the audio ie shooting video and recording audio yourself then you want to make sure you’re getting that audio right!

People will forgive a piece of content that looks like it’s been shot on a potato so long as they can hear the audio and can follow the story.

If you shoot it on an Arri Alexa LF with some dope anamorphic lenses and a veteran gaffer but record the dialogue on the scratch mics of the camera then it’ll basically be unwatchable. And if you’re not controlling the recording and are just purely in the edit, then knowing your way around the audio editing and polishing tools is super valuable. We’ll actually get to that a little later on in this video.

• On the audio front, make sure the audio is the best you can make it and the visuals will fall into place.
• On the visual front, confident cuts. Know when to give things some breathing room, know when to let your characters linger on screen, but also know when to cut them off and move on.

Ultimately editing is a set of tools employed to help tell the story so to be a great editor, be one with the story and know your audience. You can use as many fancy transitions as you want but if it's not in service of the story, well, what’s the point?

3: How long should my video be?

How long should your video be? How long is a piece of string?

For real though, the video should be as long as the story needs it to be. If we’re talking long form, in the sense of YouTube, then that story could be 3 minutes, 8 minutes, 22 minutes, an hour. It doesn’t matter how long it is. Does the run time give you the space to tell the story the way you want to tell it and in the most efficient and effective way for your audience to understand it?

Of course there is some best practice when it comes to apps like TikTok and Instagram in terms of hard limits on short form content but for the majority of online content I’m always of the opinion that the video should be as long as the story needs to be and not a moment longer. If you watch your final cut through, as you should be doing, and find your attention waning for even a moment - then it’s too long. Make the cut. If you’re bored of a part of your video then so too will your audience be. On that…

4: How do I cut faster without losing important stuff? How do you know what to cut?

Well that intuition comes with time. If you haven’t already, go and check out my Beginners Guide to Video Editing course. In that I take you through my approach for importing your rushes, making selects then crafting a story from those selects. You’ll see that this is essentially a process of watching everything you have, then cutting it down, then watching that cut, then cutting it down some more, then watching it again, cutting it again and basically you rinse and repeat that process until you’re done.

Like I said in the last segment: if you’re bored at any time during a review of your cut then get rid of that bit of the video. Also really think about what is important for the story and for the platform.

It’s important to go back and watch your old work, with your current brain, and see what was working and what wasn’t. You might be surprised at how much you’ve grown in a short amount of time.

5: What's the best way to edit TikTok/Youtube shorts?

Jumping off of the “how do you know what to cut” question: when it comes to short form content, honestly, cut 90% of what you think needs to be in the video.

You’ve got roughly 2 seconds to hook someone into your concept, vs maybe about 20 seconds on YouTube. If it’s not important, get rid of it. Even if it sort of breaks the story….short form content is not really about telling stories in the traditional sense anymore. They’re snippets, segments, shots vs scenes. They don’t need wider context. They don’t need introductions. Start at the point and go from there. Don’t start at the beginning and get to the point.

6: How do I add text or captions that look good?

Well looking good is subjective, but adding text and captions is super easy. Pretty much any professional editing software these days will have at least some form of basic text editing and animation feature set - not to mention what you can achieve in After Effects with a proper motion graphics approach.

But a great way to start out in creating high quality motion graphics for your videos is to begin with templates from Envato. There’s millions of super high quality templates, we’re talking like studio quality created by motion design professionals, and they’re ready for download right now. You can bring them into your projects, customize them to your needs and then bam, you’ve got yourself a full set of motion graphics to complement your high quality, super punchy edit that you’ve created!

• 

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And in general, a rule of thumb for motion graphics work in video is to make sure it’s readable. You want to aim for high contrast, legibility in the fonts that you choose, making sure the duration of the text on screen is adequate and so on. And if you are animating them on, ease your keyframes! That’s the quickest way to go from low to pro quality.

7: How do I choose music without getting copyright strikes?

I honestly didn’t put this one in just to spruik Envato, choosing the right music for your project is super important. We talked about sound right at the beginning of this video and how important it is to have high quality audio. Music is part of that. 

I’d love to just put commercial music in a lot of my work but for obvious copyright reasons we can’t do that. If you’re working on a narrative short film or something along those lines and it’s important for the character to be listening to a specific well known song then you can of course look into licensing those tracks but depending on what it is and who owns it, that could end up costing you a fortune. For most corporate and commercial, and even just for fun personal channel work that you see on YouTube, they’ll be using music from stock sites like Envato.

The way it works is that you download the track from Envato which comes with a license and then once you put that video up on YouTube the content ID system will either pick it up or not, and if not that’s fine you just go about your business and keep the license handy somewhere in case you need it. And if it does pick it up then that’s also no big deal, you’ll get a note in YouTube studio that you need to address the copyright claim and you simply add your license details to the claim and all is well.

A really great feature with Envato’s music is the new sounds like search. So remember before when I said maybe a character in your short film really needs to listen to a specific sort of music, well if for whatever reason you’re not able to license that track, you can bring it into the sounds like search in Envato and the system will pull up a bunch of stock tracks that have the same vibe, which you can then of course license through the platform!

8: How do I fix bad audio?

So I mentioned Resolve being a great place to start your editing journey and their AI audio tools are things that I use every day now in my professional work. Things like AI noise reduction to clear up noisy filming locations as well as the new AI audio assistant function which basically takes your whole timeline - dialogue, music, SFX, the whole shebang, and does a professional audio mix on it. It’s pretty remarkable.

There are of course a whole bunch of other traditional and emerging professional audio tools in these programs, all which have their specific uses. But basically if you can, try to get your audio recorded as cleanly as possible on set and if you can’t, then dive into the tools to help you clean it up in post.

9: How do I make my cuts feel smooth instead of choppy?

This is an interesting one because for the most part, I feel like editing styles are getting choppier these days.

But if smooth transitions is what you’re going for then for sure fall back on something that was drilled into me in film school editing classes: cut on the action.

So cutting on the action is basically exactly as it says on the tin; if you’re cutting from one shot to the next and they both involve some movement, make your cut point in the middle of that movement. You’ll see this in countless feature films now that you know to look out for it but it’s also employed on commercials, corporate work and here on YouTube. 

If you’re working on talking heads type content, like me talking to camera here, make sure you cut out the awkward pauses before someone starts to speak. We all joke about the millennial pause, and being hard in the millennial camp I get it, but as the editor you can help us poor millennials and cut out the pause - please!

10: What are some easy tricks to make my videos more engaging?

And finally we come to the end of this list with a question about easy tricks and I hope that if you’re still paying attention that you’ll realise that there is no one or two or three easy tricks when it comes to editing. It’s an amalgam of techniques - both technical and creative - that come together over time.

The easy trick is to follow the advice in this post, honestly:

• Cut out the faff in your videos.
• Don’t employ flashing editing tricks just for the sake of it, make sure that it’s servicing your story.
• Know your audience and the platform your work will be on and cut to the platform in terms of best practices.
• Make sure your audio is crystal clear.
• Get some help from places like Envato to really polish up your work, quickly.
• And honestly, the number one tip is just practice. Keep slugging away. Edit things, show your friends, publish them, read the comments, watch your old stuff, make notes and learn by doing.
• And also pick apart the content that you enjoy watching. If you like it, ask yourself why? What was it about that video, the editing, the motion graphics, the information, the story. What was it that hooked you? And how do you replicate that?

That’s a wrap!

I hope this little Q&A has been helpful, let me know down in the comments section of the video if you agree, if you disagree, and if you have any more questions. We can keep the convo going on down there.

Until next time, happy cutting!