jack archbold
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The Kitchen Fitter

wip

Two years of unedited kitchen-install footage, cut by scripts instead of by hand

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for
My own YouTube channel. A cabinetmaker fits, I film.
started
25 July 2026
in
Raw clips from three or four cameras, filmed in 2023
out
Long-form videos and vertical shorts
published
None of the new edits yet

The Kitchen Fitter is a YouTube channel of kitchen installs: a cabinetmaker fits, and in 2023 I filmed him with three or four cameras at once, all day on each job. Then I never edited most of it. This project turns that backlog into finished videos with scripts rather than an editing timeline, so a re-cut is a change of settings, not a re-edit.

  • Catalogues the footage from the files themselves. Camera model, filming time and location all come from each clip’s metadata, never from a folder name.
  • Puts every camera on one clock. Each camera brand stamps time its own way, and the pipeline proves which convention each file uses before it trusts it.
  • Cuts multi-camera timelapse by choosing the stretches worth showing and switching between angles of the same moment.
  • Writes the format down. Each build adds rules to a written house format, so the next video starts from what the last one taught.

Two long-form videos and a vertical short are built so far. None of the new edits are published yet.

Stack

Claude Code
Writes the scripts and runs them.
Python
Builds the catalogue, picks the stretches worth showing and plans each cut.
ffmpeg
Reads each clip's metadata, then does every cut, speed-up, mix and render. No editing program.
NumPy
Matches the sound between cameras to line up their clocks, and scores how much is happening in each stretch.
Whisper
Listens for talking in the site audio, so a cut can steer around conversation.

Build log

  1. The busiest stretches turned out to be people moving about, not cabinets going in. Re-cut the short around the moments something gets installed. Two long-form videos and a short are built. None are published.

  2. A second long-form video, from a job that was already cut by hand in 2023, so the two edits can be compared. The scripts became a shared library plus settings for each job.

  3. The first long-form video is built end to end. On the way, the cut between cameras sounded out of sync. One camera's clock was out against the others, and matching the room noise between them found the gap.

  4. Changed the format. No more squeezing the whole day in fast. Pick the stretches worth showing and run them slow enough that the real tool sound plays in sync.

  5. Catalogued all 282 videos from their own metadata, and found the cameras couldn't agree what day it was. Then tidied the drive from a plan file, with a rollback script beside it.  Read →

  6. Started. A first vertical short cut from the raw clips with ffmpeg alone, no editing program. It was silent.

Writing