Office Hours: Instagram Goes Feature-Length

​Machine Cinema Office Hours

​Join us for Machine Cinema Office Hours, our weekly community meetup to talk about what's happening across AI, filmmaking, and the creative industries, and what it means for the work we're making.

​Each week, we compare notes on tools and workflows, discuss current topics, and share what we're trying, learning, or getting stuck on. Bring a question, a discovery, or something you'd like the community's take on.

​This week, we're digging into the biggest platform shift since the Reel itself. Instagram has announced it is testing Features, long-form horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long, alongside a dedicated hub for Series and Lives inside the Reels tab. One Feature can be cut into up to eight Reels, each linking back to the full video, so the clip becomes the trailer and the feature becomes the destination, all inside the same app.

​The strategy underneath it is a land grab. Total watch time has hit a ceiling, roughly 26 hours a week in the US and not growing, so every platform now grows by taking time from another one. Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are converging on the same shape: short clips for discovery, series for habit, long-form for depth. If a feature can premiere inside Instagram, does the standalone short become a trailer for itself? Does episodic become the default way to release AI work? And if one platform owns the whole journey, from the first clip to the finished film, who owns the audience at the end of it?

​Come learn and share your experiences and thoughts on what this changes for the work: how we shoot, how we cut, how we release, and where we build the audiences that are actually ours.

​Our community is a mix of filmmakers, artists, producers, builders, and curious newcomers. Whether you're just getting started or deep into a project, you're welcome here. We're all figuring things out together.

​Bring your curiosity. Join the conversation.