Amazon has enhanced its AI video model, Nova Reel, introducing the capability to produce videos up to two minutes long. Announced in December 2024, Nova Reel marked Amazon’s initial entry into the generative video market, competing with models from OpenAI, Google, and others as the market grows increasingly competitive.
The updated version, Nova Reel 1.1, can create “multi-shot” videos with a “consistent style” across various shots, as explained by AWS developer advocate Elizabeth Fuentes in a blog post. Users can input a prompt up to 4,000 characters to generate a video composed of six-second segments, totaling up to two minutes.
Additionally, Nova Reel 1.1 features a new mode called “Multishot Manual.” This mode allows the model to utilize an image in conjunction with a prompt to enhance control over a video’s shot composition. Fuentes noted that with a 1280 x 720-resolution image and a prompt limited to 512 characters, Multishot Manual can produce videos comprising up to 20 shots.
Nova Reel is accessible exclusively through AWS platforms and services, including Bedrock, Amazon’s AI development suite. Customers must request access to utilize the model. As with many generative AI systems, there are ongoing concerns about the ethicality of Reel’s development methods.
These video-generating models are trained on a large collection of videos to recognize patterns, enabling them to create new clips. Some companies train these models on copyrighted content without securing permission from the content’s owners or creators. When models reproduce copyrighted material, this may expose users to potential intellectual property lawsuits.
Amazon has not disclosed the sources of Reel’s training data and has not provided an explicit opt-out mechanism for creators whose videos may be part of the datasets. Nonetheless, the company has committed to protecting AWS customers accused of copyright infringement for media generated by its models, in line with its indemnification policy.
Correction at 4:57 p.m. Pacific: A previous version of this article inaccurately suggested that developers must request special access from Amazon to utilize Nova Reel. Although developers do need to request access, AWS automatically approves these requests. This error is regretted.
