undefined | Better HN

0 pointsgandalfgeek5y ago0 comments

I have a small YT channel [1] and I used to spend 30-40 mins recording and then 2-4 hrs editing to get a final 10-15 min video.

Then I fully scripted my video editing using Python+MoviePy [2]. The time savings are sweet. I just feed it my raw video and get the finished video a few minutes later. It cuts out all the dead air as well as the parts I don't want (which I indicate in-video).

In general scripting video editing is faster and more scalable compared to mousing around and making tiny cuts in a graphical video editor.

[1]: http://youtube.com/c/VivekHaldar [2]: https://youtu.be/Bdoi7BDhrWc

0 comments

16 comments · 9 top-level

cosmodisk5y ago· 3 in thread

I personally know a few people who could very likely be your customer,so I second other commenter: do release it as a product.

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

Thanks for the kind words.

Script is open for anyone to use or adapt. Credit and link back would be nice :-)

https://gist.github.com/vivekhaldar/92368f35da2d8bb8f12734d8...

rolisz5y ago

I think they mean that you should make it into a standalone product that can be used by someone who doesn't know what Python or GitHub is. So if you are ever looking for a side hustle, you have a good candidate already.

1 more reply

_benj5y ago

While I completely relate to the sentiment and, I'd say, similar to the usual HN crowd find products to be a goal, I've personally lost complete interest and even develop resentment/hate toward personal projects the moment I tried to make them into a product.

I think the huge shift that happens from "this project is fun/useful for myself" to "I need to integrate payment/multi-user/backups/uptime/user requested features/random uses of the product that I never thought of" is wildly underestimated!

But, that's just me, after killing more than a few projects that I enjoyed by trying to make them products...

bradbatt5y ago· 2 in thread

"as well as the parts I don't want (which I indicate in-video)"

How do you indicate that in the video?

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

Well, https://youtu.be/Bdoi7BDhrWc explains that with a demo.

But tl;dr-- after a segment I want to keep, I switch my background to solid green; after a segment I want to drop, solid red. (Segment == clip between two solid red or green backgrounds)

jacobmischka5y ago

That's a really interesting and clever idea, well done.

kmstout5y ago· 1 in thread

As an oldies station DJ from back home would say, this is good stuff! The use of screen color as an in-band indicator for what segments to keep or toss is especially elegant.

One question: If you find yourself silent for some period that you want to keep (maybe while something happens on the screen), how do/would you inhibit the dead air filtering?

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

I've never thought about keeping silent parts in since that's just not my use case, but conceptually you could do that if you introduced a third marker (color other than red or green) to indicate "keep with silent parts".

pm5y ago· 1 in thread

Have you used a ffmpeg wrapper like ffmpeg-python for dealing with video? If so, how does it compare? I remember seeing MoviePy briefly in my research but found there wasn't a lot of documentation.

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

I believe MoviePy uses ffmpeg underneath. Have not used ffmpeg-python, but MoviePy has nice higher-level abstractions like clips (both audio and video), time functions, transitions etc that you can then compose pretty elegantly. See some of the examples on their site:

https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/gallery.html

dceddia5y ago

I had this same problem with making screencasts! Ended up building a Mac app [0] to do basically this, find the silence and chop it out.

I started off with a script too but realized I wanted more control over the timing, and the ability to manually designate some parts to keep/cut. Initially I only exported a cut list, so you could do the final tweaks in ScreenFlow or Final Cut or whatever. Now I’m slowly building out more in-app editing features and some other automations.

0: https://getrecut.com

tumidpandora5y ago

Nice! I built something similar with automating a movie making process by pulling gifs from Giphy, convert them to mp4 with ffmpeg, stitch, add a sound track, opening sequence and credits and produce a movie, all with just a keyword. Check out my code here

https://github.com/mohapsat/auto-giphy-movie

ajonit5y ago

Great idea! Develop this as a standalone solution. There is a huge market open for you.

blamazon5y ago

That is amazing. I have wanted such a thing for recording videos at work but had no idea how to articulate the idea that was so clearly laid out for me in this 4 minute video.

flexd5y ago

This is very cool!

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

16 comments · 9 top-level

cosmodisk5y ago· 3 in thread

I personally know a few people who could very likely be your customer,so I second other commenter: do release it as a product.

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

Thanks for the kind words.

Script is open for anyone to use or adapt. Credit and link back would be nice :-)

https://gist.github.com/vivekhaldar/92368f35da2d8bb8f12734d8...

rolisz5y ago

1 more reply

_benj5y ago

But, that's just me, after killing more than a few projects that I enjoyed by trying to make them products...

bradbatt5y ago· 2 in thread

"as well as the parts I don't want (which I indicate in-video)"

How do you indicate that in the video?

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

Well, https://youtu.be/Bdoi7BDhrWc explains that with a demo.

But tl;dr-- after a segment I want to keep, I switch my background to solid green; after a segment I want to drop, solid red. (Segment == clip between two solid red or green backgrounds)

jacobmischka5y ago

That's a really interesting and clever idea, well done.

kmstout5y ago· 1 in thread

As an oldies station DJ from back home would say, this is good stuff! The use of screen color as an in-band indicator for what segments to keep or toss is especially elegant.

One question: If you find yourself silent for some period that you want to keep (maybe while something happens on the screen), how do/would you inhibit the dead air filtering?

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

pm5y ago· 1 in thread

Have you used a ffmpeg wrapper like ffmpeg-python for dealing with video? If so, how does it compare? I remember seeing MoviePy briefly in my research but found there wasn't a lot of documentation.

gandalfgeekOP5y ago

https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/gallery.html

dceddia5y ago

I had this same problem with making screencasts! Ended up building a Mac app [0] to do basically this, find the silence and chop it out.

0: https://getrecut.com

tumidpandora5y ago

https://github.com/mohapsat/auto-giphy-movie

ajonit5y ago

Great idea! Develop this as a standalone solution. There is a huge market open for you.

blamazon5y ago

That is amazing. I have wanted such a thing for recording videos at work but had no idea how to articulate the idea that was so clearly laid out for me in this 4 minute video.

flexd5y ago

This is very cool!

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse