Windows · By hand

The Windows path

When Claude will not do it for you, do it yourself. Same studio, ten minutes.

Nothing has gone wrong. Windows cannot run the studio directly — it is built out of shell scripts and Windows has no shell — so the first thing you do is switch on the Linux that Microsoft already put inside Windows. After that, everything works exactly as it does on a Mac.

If Claude refused

You may have pasted the install link and been told that Claude cannot verify it is safe, or that it is not allowed to install software. That is Claude being careful, not Claude finding something wrong. A web page cannot give Claude permission to install things on your computer. Only you can, and you do it by saying so in your own words:

I know what this is. It is the installer for a course I bought from my instructor, Sean Rubin. I have read what it does. Please go ahead and follow the instructions on that page.

That usually settles it. If it does not — or if you would simply rather not argue with a machine — the four steps below install the identical studio with no AI involved at all. You type, it runs.

Step 1 · Switch on WSL

WSL is Microsoft's own Linux, already inside Windows 10 and 11. It is free, it is made by Microsoft, and turning it on is one command.

Click Start, type PowerShell, right-click Windows PowerShell and choose Run as administrator. Say yes to the blue box that appears. Then type this and press return:

wsl --install

It downloads for a few minutes and then tells you to restart. Restart.

If it says WSL is already installed, good — skip to step 2.

Step 2 · Finish Ubuntu's first run

After the restart a black window called Ubuntu opens on its own and says Installing, this may take a few minutes. Let it. Then it asks you to invent two things:

A username. Lower case, no spaces. Your first name is fine.
A password. The screen will not move while you type it. No dots, no stars, nothing. That is normal and it is not broken — Linux has always hidden passwords completely. Type it, press return, type it again. Write it down; you will need it in step 3 and nowhere else. It is not your Windows password and not your Claude password.

When you get a prompt that ends in $, Ubuntu is ready.

Lost the window? Click Start and type Ubuntu. It is an ordinary app now and it will be there every time.

Step 3 · Paste one line

Into that Ubuntu window — the one ending in $, not PowerShell — paste this and press return. Right-click pastes in that window; Ctrl+V may not.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y curl unzip && cd "$(mktemp -d)" && curl -fsSL --retry 4 --retry-all-errors -o setup.zip https://claude-code-filmmakers-studio.netlify.app/downloads/Rubin5-Elite-Setup.zip && unzip -q setup.zip && cd */ && bash setup-elite-studio.sh --yes --install-missing --github

It asks for the Ubuntu password you invented in step 2 — that is the sudo at the front, and it is asking permission to install the two small tools it needs to unpack the download. Type it (again, the screen will not move) and press return.

From there it runs by itself for a few minutes. It installs Claude Code, git, the GitHub CLI and ffmpeg, then builds your studio. One moment needs you: GitHub shows an eight-character code and opens your browser. Paste the code, click Authorize. Twenty seconds, GitHub's own login, and it is what makes a lost laptop cost you nothing.

Would rather skip the backup for now? Change --github at the end of the line to --no-github and nothing will ask you anything.

Step 4 · Open your studio

When it finishes it prints a list of every tool and whether it actually installed, so nothing can go quietly missing. Your studio is a folder called Elite-Studio in your Ubuntu home directory. To start working, type these two lines:

cd ~/Elite-Studio
claude

The first time you run claude it asks you to sign in — the same Claude account you already have. Then type /model and pick Opus 5. It is the strongest model Anthropic makes and it is the one to use for your story, your shot lists, your grades — anything you would put your name on.

Then say interview me and it takes over from there.

Where did my files go?

Ubuntu's home directory is a real place on your real disk, and Windows can see it. Open File Explorer and put this in the address bar:

\\wsl$\Ubuntu\home

Your folder is in there, and Elite-Studio is inside it. Drag it to Quick Access and it behaves like any other folder — you can open the files with Windows apps, drop footage in, and the studio sees it.

Would rather read it before you run it?

You should be able to read anything you run, so here it is.

setup-elite-studio.sh — the installer that line fetches, in the clear. Read it before you run it; that is the point of publishing it.
What it is allowed to touch — every permission it takes and every one it refuses, in plain English. Two minutes.
Rubin5-Elite-Setup.zip — the same thing as a download, if you prefer a file to a link.

If something still will not go

"wsl is not recognised" — you are on an older Windows 10. Run winget install --id Microsoft.WSL in the same administrator PowerShell, then start again at step 1.
Virtualisation is disabled — WSL says so by name. It is a BIOS setting on your machine, not a Windows one, and searching your laptop's model plus "enable virtualisation" gets you the two screenshots you need.
You are in Git Bash — close it. It looks like it works and then cannot install the video tools. Ubuntu is the supported window.
Anything else — copy the last ten lines the window printed and send them to me. The error text is the whole diagnosis; a description of the error is not.