Shot detection

Detect Shots scans a clip for its cuts and turns every shot into a marker you can loop, edit, export, and convert. It works the same in RM Player, the full app, and on a canvas video node.

Shot detection runs through your own ffmpeg (see Installing ffmpeg). If none is configured, the dialog points you at Settings ▸ Playback.

Detect the shots

Click the Shots button (the film-strip icon by the transport). A progress dialog scans the clip in one pass and catches both fast cuts and fades. Results appear as a light-blue shot lane on the timeline, in alternating shades. Detected shots live in their own category next to your takes. Re-running detection replaces the old shot set; your takes are never touched.

The Shots dropdown has live Sensitivity and Min-shot length sliders. Raise the sensitivity if a fast-cut montage comes back as one long shot.

Use it when: a client sends a cut with no EDL.

Play and loop shots

Click a shot on the ribbon to seek it. Playback loops strictly inside that shot, frame-accurate at both ends.

Double-click a shot band (the thin stripe on the timeline) to play that shot on loop.

Shot cards also appear in the notes view, sorted by timeline position. Click one to play and loop that shot.

Edit the cuts

Enter Edit mode from the shots menu:

• Drag a cut handle to move the cut. The selected handle shows its frame number in a chip.
• Click a handle and press Delete/Backspace to remove that cut and merge the two shots.
• Split shot at playhead (shots menu) adds a cut manually.
• Enter or Esc saves and exits.

Use it when: the detector merged a whip-pan into the next shot.

The take/shot ribbon

Takes and shots share a resizable ribbon under the timeline:

• Ribbon size (shots or takes menu, or the eye button’s right-click menu) scales the band from 1x to 10x, default 4x.
• The eye button (left of the volume control) hides the ribbon and animates it back. The band auto-collapses when empty. Size and visibility persist.
• Right-click the ribbon to delete the take under the cursor, clear all takes (with confirmation), convert a clicked shot into a take, or open Edit Shots. The same menu switches which lane the ribbon displays, takes or shots.
• Right-click the viewer for Takes, Shots, and Views submenus. Show Shots or Loop Takes un-hides a hidden ribbon and re-enables the eye button.

Use it when: you hid the ribbon and want the shot lane back.

Expand a clip into shot nodes

On a canvas video node, the clip menu’s Expand menu has Takes and Shots submenus that fan the clip out into child nodes. Up to six children lay out as a vertical column; beyond that, a near-square grid. Wires join every child to the parent clip and follow it when you move it.

Use it when: a 40-shot promo needs a note per cut.

Turn shots into deliverables

• Convert shots to takes promotes detected cuts into real, named takes.
• Export a shot as MP4 or GIF from the right-click menu in shot mode.
• Moodboard ▸ From detected shots (canvas video node) lays out the middle frame of every shot as a grid.

Use it when: building a shot-by-shot lookbook.