Rhythm & Intuition
Insights on Narrative Film Editing, Remove Silence from Screen Studio Recordings, AI Workflow Tips, Life Calendar Alternatives, Cursive Experiments, and a Download Manager
Hey guys, here’s a few things that stood out from my previous week.
On Editing
Some weeks ago I watched A Summer’s Tale by Eric Rohmer, and it made an impression. It reminded me of Linklater’s Before Sunrise, both films just let characters talk and develop naturally. The interesting thing is, I’d already saved this masterclass on editing to my list without realizing it was taught by Mary Stephen, who edited a lot of Rohmer’s work.
I loved the lecture. It was refreshing and insightful to see how many of my own editing principles in filmmaking are so similar to hers. Things like leaving space for the viewer, treating documentaries like fiction, or fiction like documentaries. This class is truly full of tips for anyone interested in narrative work.
Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of great directors and editors can’t really explain how they work, since so much of it relies on intuition. But Mary nailed it. She talks about contrast, tension, rhythm shifts, and also covers film structure. There are some very useful tips in there, such as trying to find a prologue to discover the film, or trying to identify the internal rhythm of a scene to understand how that element inform the editing.
On Screen Studio
There are a lot of alternatives to Screen Studio out there. I’ve tested a lot and some are really good, but none quite fit my workflow. Especially when it comes to color grading, audio enhancement, shared links and pro quality export options. Screen Studio still stands out because of how it does things; you can usually spot it right away when someone’s using it. I think that feature-wise it may not be the top, and it seems to be evolving very slowly, but what it does offer it does very well. I use it all the time for the YT channel.
Another thing I really appreciate about Screen Studio is how it stores everything. The video/audio info and project data all get saved in JSON files, which makes it surprisingly easy to dig in and modify things directly. This kind of file transparency is rare, and it’s one of the reasons I still prefer Superwhisper for dictation above all the competition. When you can actually see and manipulate the underlying data, you can build tools around it or tweak things to fit your exact needs (like I did with Macrowhisper). For people who like tinkering with their setup, it can be a big deal.
This past week I was really happy to find that someone did just that with Screen Studio and built this tool for silence removal. There’s also an AI feature for removing bad takes. After a few tests I notice that the AI takes removal isn’t as good as I’d like, but it looks promising. I see so much more potential there. Silence removal is a time saver for sure.
On Claude Code
I’m a very basic user of Claude Code, and since I don’t even have a full Claude subscription I’m super careful with API tokens because using it this way gets expensive fast. But I’m always looking for workflow tips. This past week, I found this tweet thread from the creator of Claude Code that offered some really useful advice. For me, the most important tip was the very last one: creating a feedback loop where AI verifies its own work. Of course, this idea (and the rest) apply not just to Claude Code but to many other AI tasks too.
On Lock Screens
About two weeks ago, I shared about The Life Calender, a free web app that lets you create wallpapers for your screen to keep track of the passing time. I thought it was pretty neat! The original idea was to display the weeks of your life as a kind of “memento mori”, but now you get several other options, like displaying the days in a year or the days until an event.
A few days ago, I found another web app that’s super similar… I’m not sure who copied whom. This one offers a bit more customization for the life calendar, but it also has a nicer looking goal countdown. I wanted to mention this as an alternative. My lock screen currently displays my year grouped in months, but who knows, I might need this new countdown sometime.
On Cursive
I’ve got content coming up on Superwhisper, Macrowhisper, and Alter. I’m spending these days scripting and organizing ideas. In the middle of all this video planning work, I decided to shoot something personal. I sat down one day and filmed myself writing a letter to the channel in cursive. Nothing else. I’ve been thinking about where the channel’s headed, going deeper into a path I’m not exactly sure I actually want. Posting something random felt like a break from that. I should probably do it more often.
Now, the video didn’t perform on YouTube (I was expecting this), but the actual letter got some attention over on Reddit. It’s funny to see people debating whether my cursive is legible or if I should write with more vertical space.
On Download Managers
I recommended Motrix a long time ago, it’s a download manager. I don’t usually need this, but this past week, I had to download a bunch of files from the web. I was looking for alternatives when I remembered I’d already bookmarked this. I was surprised to see that it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years already, but the space seems pretty empty. JDownloader is the one other option everyone recommends, but it looks so very dated.
In any case, I wanted to mention this again because it worked great.
On Cinema
Broken Rage (2024). Kind of Mr. Bean as a gangster. Synopsis: A seemingly unremarkable man called “Mouse” is caught by the police. In exchange for his freedom, he goes undercover, infiltrates a drug ring, and arranges a fake deal, but an unexpected turn of events occurs.
All My Friends Hate Me (2022). This on keeps you in this constant state of not quite knowing what’s going on, because you’re locked into the main character’s perspective, a guy that’s just trying to be nice while everything around him keeps going wrong. The whole film has that “trying to joke and nobody gets it” energy, stretched to an almost unbearable level. Synopsis: A college reunion goes awry when Pete suspects his friends may be out to get him… As their weekend getaway grows more and more uncomfortable, should Pete be worried about his safety, or is it all in his head?
Naked (1993). Ok, this one is interesting because it’s a portrait of such a dislikable character, but it surprised me how good the film actually is. I guess the whole ugliness of everything is kind of the point. It becomes this rich, complex portrait not just of Johnny but of all these relationships and dynamics around him. Disturbing but masterful. Synopsis: An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
Winter in Sokcho (2025) I loved the cultural aspects in the background, and the way connection and distance is portrayed. Both main characters speak French, but they’re not really understanding each other. A film full of questions, loneliness, and uncertainty. Synopsis: In the snowy seaside town of Sokcho, 25-year-old Soo-Ha works at a guesthouse. She drifts between her mother’s fish stall and her boyfriend until a French artist’s arrival stirs questions about her identity. As winter deepens, Soo-Ha and the artist form an unspoken connection through food and art.
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