For ffmpeg
A terminal command you run yourself. 13 entries.
Editing & montage 3
Analyse once: sidecar files beside the sources, shooting time from the container
The storage rule that makes a long film possible a month later: each clip's shots, frame scores, beats and speech live in a file beside it, and shooting time comes from the container metadata.
A contact sheet of every cutaway with its line under it
The one-page check that catches off-topic cutaways before anyone watches: every cutaway frame in a grid, its sentence under it. Measured once: 12 of 54 automatic cutaways were off topic.
Voice as one continuous track, pictures on top, and the one-frame length check
The assembly rule for talking films: cut the audio from the same pieces as the picture, snapped to frames, then verify film length equals voice length. Drift over one frame is a bug, not a quirk.
Captions & text 3
Burned subtitles for 9:16: position, lines, characters, colour, as parameters
Settings for subtitles burned into vertical video for muted feeds: above the platform UI, two lines, about 32 characters each, white with a dark outline. Starting values, checked on a phone.
Accessible on-screen text: contrast, the bottom 20 percent, no flashing
A checklist for text that everyone can read, including people watching muted, on a small screen, in sunlight, or with photosensitivity. Eight checks, each with the parameter to test against.
Burn subtitles with ffmpeg: the command with size, outline and margin
One ffmpeg command that burns an SRT into a 9:16 video with white text, a dark outline and the block held above the platform UI, plus the check that your ffmpeg build can run it at all.
B-roll 1
Music & sound 5
Live music in frame: one continuous audio span, picture cuts on top
When a band or a busker is in the shot, keep one unbroken stretch of that clip's audio under the whole scene and cut only the picture; cut the audio per shot and the beat restarts.
Level every chapter to -16 LUFS with ffmpeg loudnorm
One ffmpeg line that brings a file to -16 LUFS integrated and -1.5 dBTP true peak without touching the video, the two-pass version for exact results, and the timestamp trap on upload.
Score with a hole, not ducking, where something plays live
Cut the score to silence under live music, a laugh or a knock instead of ducking it; ducking is audible, a hole is not. The rule, the measured levels and the ffmpeg line.
Strip other people's music before upload with Demucs and ffmpeg
Car radio, shop speakers and festival stages trigger Content ID. Split the soundtrack into stems, find the music on drums plus bass, keep the voice, replace the music, rebuild audio only.
Voice cleanup checklist: room tone, de-ess, noise gate, in that order
Six passes that turn a phone or lav recording into a usable voice track, each with the ffmpeg filter and a starting parameter to adjust by ear, in the order that keeps the gate off word endings.