remake-reel

Remaking a reference edit

Given a video the user likes, FableCut extracts what is measurable about the edit — where the cuts land, where the beats are, how energy moves — and hands it back as a blueprint. The structure is deterministic; the creative mapping onto new footage is yours.

Get the blueprint

fablecut_analyze_reference {path:"C:\\…\\ref.mp4"}

Needs ffmpeg on PATH. It returns shot boundaries (cuts, shots[] with a per-shot energy 0–100), music beats[] and bpm, a loudness energy curve, and drop — the biggest musical rise. It also extracts the reference's music track into the project and registers it as media, so the rebuild can sit on the same song.

If obvious cuts were missed, lower threshold; if camera motion is being read as cuts, raise it.

Rebuild

1. Match the canvas: copy the reference's width/height/fps onto the project. Write beats into markers so the user can see the grid and the UI snaps drags to it.
2. Music on A1, in: 0, running the full reference duration.
3. One clip per shots[] entry on V1 at the same start and duration. Match footage to each shot's energy — calm material under ~40, motion over ~70 — and choose each clip's in so something actually happens inside the window.
4. Land the hero shot on drop. The standard garnish is a speed ramp settling into it, an adjust layer with shake + rgbSplit for one impact frame, or a whip transition on the way in.
5. Pace to taste: shots under ~0.6 s read as beat-flashes. avgShotLen tells you the reference's overall rhythm.

Full recipe, including the exact keyframe shapes for speed ramps and impact layers: fablecut_docs {section:"Remake a reference video"} and fablecut_docs {section:"Recipes"}.

Be honest about what this does

The blueprint captures structure — timing, pacing, where the energy sits. It does not capture look, subject, or performance. Tell the user that a rebuild matches the rhythm of the reference and that the grade, footage, and titles are separate choices, rather than implying the result will look like the original.