Getting the handheld look

Why it reads as filmed

UGC converts for one blunt reason: it does not look like an ad. Two things protect that. First, the render prompt actively turns down studio lighting, softboxes and ring lights, graded cinematic color, shallow beauty bokeh, voiceover-narrator delivery, and stock b-roll. Second, your Visual style choice decides how rough the clip goes.

Visual style

The Visual style control covers sixteen looks, with UGC raw phone-cam at one end and cinematic photoreal at the other. It opens on UGC raw, and that default is doing real work: the raw look is the format, not a downgrade. A polished studio clip here is like a printed flyer shoved under the door, while the raw phone look is a handwritten note, and the note is the one people actually open. Only step off UGC raw when you have a concrete reason, because a glossy register fights the very thing that makes UGC work.

Length and frame

Length is one continuous take. The ruler starts at the default and climbs to 30 seconds, the same ceiling as your cinematic video, because it renders the same way: one native take rather than short blocks cut together. Do not plan a 60-second multi-scene piece here.

Aspect ratio is 9:16, 16:9, or 1:1. Vertical 9:16 is the default and the right call for feed and stories. Reach for 16:9 only when the placement is landscape.

Captions

You can burn captions into the clip, and it is worth leaving them on. Most feeds autoplay with the sound off, so the words carry the message when nobody is listening.