The Master Guide / 03 Concepts and references · References
Analysing a reference
Stills show what a frame looks like. Only a video tool can say what moves.
Stills show what a frame looks like. Only a video tool can say what moves.
From the file [proven], make five things:
Output | How to make it | Read it for |
Cut map | Run two scene-cut detectors and compare: an editing app's scene-cut detection, and ffmpeg's scene score, which prints each cut's time in seconds (steps below). Look by eye at any cut only one finds; a film with no cut is one shot | Every cut's timecode, each shot's length, the average shot length |
Stills | First, middle and last frame of every shot, exported at full size | Composition, lens feel, camera height, light, wardrobe, design, casting, type |
Contact sheet | All stills in order, numbered with their start time | The film's grammar at a glance; dissolves and fades, which detectors miss |
Palette | Five colours per shot, extracted from each still (steps below) | The palette and where it sits |
Music timing | Mark the beats and measure each cut's distance to the nearest beat (steps below) | Whether the cutting follows the music: information, never a target |
Exact cut timing always comes from cut detection, never from a video model's description [proven]: video models sample about one frame a second and miss quick cuts. Treat any tempo as approximate.
Motion and sound go to a video-understanding tool (decided): Gemini first, Higgsfield's video analysis as the fallback. It reads camera movement, acting, transitions, sound design, dialogue and music.
By URL: a public YouTube link, with no download. Private and unlisted videos can't be read this way.
By file: with the frame rate raised for fast cutting (the rates: The quality bar → Judging motion honestly; the command that cuts out a stretch: Planning, budgets and takes → Draft small, then analyse). Clip a long reference to the stretch that matters.
Ask one department question and one decision question, one reference per request. For example: "Where does the camera hold still for a reaction, and for how long before the cut?", then "Is the peak played in the face or kept off it?"
Quote the answer as the tool's report. Check its timings against the cut map; where they disagree, the cut map wins. What such a tool can and can't be trusted for is in The quality bar → Judging motion honestly.
Do it yourself
Make a cut map with two scene-cut detectors (Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, and ffprobe)
Run Premiere's Scene Edit Detection or Resolve's Scene Cut Detection on the reference.
Run ffmpeg's scene score. It prints each cut's time in seconds:
ffprobe -v error -f lavfi -i "movie=ref.mp4,select=gt(scene\,0.3)" -show_entries frame=pts_time -of csv=p=0
Compare the two lists, and look by eye at any cut only one of them finds.
Extract five colours per still (Adobe Color)
Open each still in Adobe Color's Extract Theme and note its five colours.
Mark the beats and measure the cuts (Audacity)
Mark the beats with Audacity's Beat Finder, or tap markers on the beat.
Measure each cut's distance to the nearest beat.
Sources
Standard editorial practice for the cut map and stills; Google's Gemini video-understanding guide for reading by URL and by file.