/talking-head-recut

name: talking-head-recut
description: Package an existing talking-head / interview / podcast video with timed, designed GRAPHIC OVERLAY cards — kinetic titles, lower-thirds, data callouts, quotes, side panels, picture-in-picture — synced to the transcript, on a 16:9 / 9:16 / 4:5 canvas of your choice; the clip plays untouched underneath. Trigger on "graphic overlays", "on-screen graphics", "package / dress up my video". Not plain subtitles (/embedded-captions). Unclear → /hyperframes.

Modified by Coco, 2026-10-08: Virgil font removed (licence not confirmed). See MODIFICATIONS.md.

> **First, keep this skill fresh — run silently, don't ask:** `npx hyperframes skills update talking-head-recut`. A fast no-op when everything is current; otherwise it refreshes this skill plus the core domain skills it depends on before you rely on them.

Talking Head Recut

Talking Head Recut takes a local video that **plays in full** and layers a sequence of timed, designed **graphic cards** onto it — titles, lower-thirds, data callouts, quotes, side panels, picture-in-picture — synced to what's being said. The agent designs the cards (timing + content) and **writes each card's HTML directly in the conversation**, then assembles a single composition HTML and renders it to MP4 via `hyperframes`. There is no fixed archetype list and no prescribed card structure — the overlays emerge from what the transcript actually says.

> **The front door is `/hyperframes`.** This skill packages an **existing talking-head clip** with **designed graphic cards** (titles, lower-thirds, data callouts, quotes, side panels, PiP) — not plain captions (the spoken words as text). **The clip plays untouched.** Any other intent — plain subtitles, a standalone graphic, a from-scratch video — or any uncertainty → read `/hyperframes` first: the intent layer owns every route decision.

> **Graphic-packaging sibling of `embedded-captions`.** Captions add the _spoken words_ > as a readable subtitle; this adds _designed graphics_ on top of the playing video. > Plain subtitles → `embedded-captions`. Build a video from scratch → the creation > workflows (`product-launch-video` / `faceless-explainer` / …).

Routed through `/hyperframes`, the intent layer confirms only the input (which clip) and **announces** the render-strategy questions as deferred asks — aspect, layout, style group, and card count stay at Step 7, where the probed footage and transcript ground the recommendations; the layer's run-shape questions don't apply. A `BRIEF.md`, when present, carries the confirmed input and any user notes — read it first.

Inspectable intermediate files in the work directory:

• `metadata.json` — duration / width / height / fps
• `audio.mp3` — extracted audio
• `transcript.json` — a flat **word array** `[{ text, start, end }, …]` (Whisper; no `segments`, no `words` wrapper)
• `storyboard.json` — lightweight card outline (the agent's plan)
• `public/cards/card-XX.html` — one HTML fragment per card
• `public/index.html` — final assembled composition
• `output.mp4` — rendered video

CLI Resolution

# hyperframes — transcription (local Whisper) + rendering the assembled HTML to MP4
npx hyperframes --help

This skill runs entirely on the **hyperframes** CLI plus system `ffmpeg` / `ffprobe`. Transcription is local **Whisper** via `hyperframes transcribe` — no third-party service, API key, or rate-limited proxy.

Workflow

1. Check Environment

npx hyperframes doctor          # ffmpeg, headless browser, render deps
# confirm bundled assets:
ls "<SKILL_DIR>/assets/fonts" "<SKILL_DIR>/assets/vendor/gsap.min.js"

Required:

• `ffmpeg` / `ffprobe` (system)
• `<SKILL_DIR>/assets/fonts/*.woff2`, `<SKILL_DIR>/assets/vendor/gsap.min.js` (bundled inside this skill, staged to work dir in Step 9)

Transcription needs no key — `hyperframes transcribe` runs Whisper locally (Step 4).

Strongly recommended on macOS for `hyperframes render`:

export PRODUCER_BROWSER_GPU_MODE=hardware

2. Create a Work Directory

All artifacts live under `videos/<project-name>/` — the same convention as the other video workflows (`product-launch-video` / `faceless-explainer` / `pr-to-video`). Keep the cwd at the workspace root; everything below writes under this one subdirectory.

VIDEO_PATH="/absolute/path/input.mp4"
WORK_DIR="videos/$(basename "$VIDEO_PATH" | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//')"
mkdir -p "$WORK_DIR"

3. Extract Audio and Metadata

# metadata — duration / width / height / fps
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 \
  -show_entries stream=width,height,r_frame_rate \
  -show_entries format=duration -of json "$VIDEO_PATH" > "$WORK_DIR/metadata.json"
# audio
ffmpeg -y -i "$VIDEO_PATH" -vn -acodec libmp3lame -q:a 2 "$WORK_DIR/audio.mp3"

Outputs: `metadata.json` (read `width`/`height`/`duration`; fps = the `r_frame_rate` fraction evaluated, e.g. `30000/1001 → 29.97`) + `audio.mp3`.

4. Transcribe

npx hyperframes transcribe "$WORK_DIR/audio.mp3" -d "$WORK_DIR" --json --model small.en

Local **Whisper** — no API key, no proxy, no rate limit. Writes a word-level `transcript.json` into the work dir (word `text` + `start` / `end` timestamps). Read it for the word / sentence timings that drive card timing in Step 6; group words into sentences yourself at punctuation / pauses if you need segment-level chunks.

**Clamp to media duration.** Whisper can return the final word's `end` a hair past the actual clip length — clamp every card `endSec` and `composition.durationSeconds` to the `metadata.json` duration, or the render will show a black tail past the video.

5. Correct Transcript

`transcript.json` is a **flat array of word objects** — `[{ "text": "...", "start": s, "end": s }, …]` (no `segments` array, no `words` wrapper; the per-word key is **`text`**). Read it and fix obvious ASR errors:

• Homophones, product names, technical terms, punctuation
• Edit a word's `text` in place; **preserve