bkingfilm/lapian-notes

What it solves

Lapian Notes helps filmmakers and students of cinema systematically analyze movie narratives. It eliminates the tedious manual work of capturing screenshots and syncing subtitles, providing a structured way to map out a film's plot, emotional arcs, and visual techniques without requiring the user to upload their private video files to a server.

How it works

The tool processes a local video file to extract frames at one-second intervals and pair them with subtitles. It then packages these assets into an "AI Analysis Pack" (a ZIP file containing images and text) that the user can upload to any LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude). The AI analyzes the visual and textual data and returns a JSON file, which Lapian Notes imports to automatically generate a plot swimlane timeline, a structure tree, and an audience emotion curve. Users can then refine these notes manually or send specific segments back to the AI for deeper, shot-level analysis.

Who it’s for

Creators and students who want to study film narrative and visual storytelling through a professional "lapian" (shot-by-shot) analysis process.

Highlights

• Local-First Privacy: Video files and notes are stored locally in the browser; no data is uploaded to a servers.
• AI Agnostic: Works with any AI by using a portable analysis pack, though it also supports direct API integration for Gemini, Kimi, OpenAI, and Claude.
• Interactive Playback: Clicking any note or segment jumps the video player to that exact timestamp and can automatically pause at the end of the segment.
• Visual Analysis Tools: Generates plot swimlanes, structure trees, and emotion curves to visualize the rhythm and pacing of a film.
• Automated Asset Prep: Handles local transcoding, frame extraction, and automatic subtitle searching.