Narrative Engine

Raw footage in.
A finished film out.

Give it a folder of video and a folder of music. It finds the best moments, builds the story and cuts a finished film. No editing, no timeline, no prompts.

Mac · Apple silicon Expected size · 305.4 MB
Mac · Intel Expected size · 305.6 MB
Windows Expected size · 389.2 MB
Linux Expected size · 424.9 MB

Free test version for macOS, Windows 10 or 11 and Linux (64-bit), about 400 MB. On a Mac, choose Apple silicon for M1 or newer, or Intel for an Intel processor.

Troubleshooting

The download

  • The app does not start, or Windows says “Failed to load Python DLL”. The download may have been cut off or extraction may be incomplete. Compare the file size with the expected size below its download button; a browser may say it is done even when the file is too small. Delete an undersized file and retry. If it happens again, try another browser or network, then extract the whole folder before opening the app.
  • The download does not start or says access denied. The download service is sometimes unavailable for a while. Try again later.

The first start

  • Windows: “Windows protected your PC”. The app is not signed with a publisher certificate yet. Press More info, then Run anyway. If your antivirus removes or blocks a file, restore it from the protection history and allow the folder, then extract again into a short folder such as C:\NE.
  • macOS: the app is blocked. The app is not yet signed with an Apple developer certificate. Open it once, then go to System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down and press Open Anyway. On older versions, right-click the app and choose Open. macOS may also ask to let the app use your Movies folder and the folders you choose. Allow it.
  • Linux: extract the archive (tar xzf NarrativeEngine-linux-x64.tar.gz), then run ./Narrative\ Engine/Narrative\ Engine in a terminal, or double-click Narrative Engine in your file manager and choose Run. If it does not start, make it executable: chmod +x "Narrative Engine/Narrative Engine".

Supported systems

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (Windows on ARM is not supported yet).
  • macOS: two downloads, one for Apple silicon (M1 or newer) and one for Intel. The app is built on a current macOS; older versions are untested.
  • Linux, 64-bit, from 2022 or newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 36), with a desktop session.

Your files

  • Video it reads: MP4, MOV, M4V, AVI, MKV, WebM, MTS, M2TS, 3GP, WMV, MPG, MPEG, FLV. Photos it reads: JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF.
  • Not supported yet: HEIC and HEIF photos (the iPhone default) and RAW photos. They are skipped and the app tells you how many. To include iPhone photos, set Settings › Camera › Formats to Most Compatible, or export them as JPEG.
  • A long recording takes a long time. Two hours of video can take an hour or more. Leave the computer plugged in and the app open. If the status says “Still working”, it is busy with a large file.
  • Where is my film? Each run gets its own folder inside Videos\Narrative Engine (Movies on a Mac), named after your video folder and the time. The film is film.mp4; app.log next to it tells what happened.
  • The window is gone. Look for it in the taskbar, or the Dock on a Mac.

What it does

Narrative Engine turns hours of raw recordings into one finished video. It processes everything you give it on your own computer: scenes, motion and sound levels. It selects the moments worth keeping, puts them in order and cuts them to your music.

A two hour event can become a fifteen minute film. Where there is singing or a performance, the original sound is kept. Everywhere else the music carries the film.

Your video, photos and sound never leave your computer, and nobody ever sees them. No account needed.

Using it

  1. Open the app and press Browse video to choose the folder with your recordings. Subfolders are included.
  2. Press Browse music to choose a folder with music, then press Run.
  3. Wait while the bar fills. A long recording takes a while, so leave the computer plugged in. Every run gets its own folder in your Movies folder (Videos on Windows and Linux), inside a folder named Narrative Engine, so you can choose other folders and run again.