A Weekend in Rome, Narrated: How Four Photos Became a Film

The film on the PhotoCast front page is a real one. Four photos from a weekend in Rome — the Colosseum on a sunny morning, a couple laughing over a tiny souvenir, gelato pressed onto his forehead, a kiss at the Trevi Fountain — and a story read aloud over them. Nothing in it was edited by hand. Here is the path those photos took, which is the same path any album takes.

It starts with the album. A name, and one box for what the album is about: a weekend in Rome, the two of them, the gelato incident. You can type that or dictate it. Then the photos, up to 30 of them, in the order the story should tell them. A note on a photo is optional, and it's where the story learns the thing a picture can't show — that the souvenir cost two euros and became the joke of the trip.

Then the story, which is where the choices are:

• A style. Warm & personal for a weekend like this one. Playful if the gelato incident should lead. Documentary for a calmer telling. Sarcastic when the trip deserves it.
• A length. 15 or 30 seconds, about 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes, or Unlimited, which runs as long as the photos need, up to about ten minutes. Four photos are happy at about a minute.
• One host or two. One host tells it. Two hosts talk about the photos, which suits a couple's trip. There are three voices each, and you can hear all six of them on the front page before you start.

The story arrives as lines you can edit or delete, and writing another version — a different style, length or voice — is free. The current one stays until you decide the new one is better.

The video is the last step. Wide for a TV or laptop, Mobile for a phone, Instagram for a feed. Gentle zoom or held still, a soft fade or a straight cut, natural colour, a warm look, or black and white. Music from seven tracks, no music, or an MP3 of your own. Subtitles are on unless you switch them off. The opening of the film is the photos themselves, cut to the first lines, before the story settles on one picture at a time.

The preview is free, and it is the same film, so you watch it before you spend anything. The full video is what you download. A new account starts with 2 free minutes, which covers a film like this one, and you never pay more than the length you picked. Press play on the front page and you'll hear exactly what four photos and a handful of notes become.