Developer builds ReelCraft Python tool to auto-edit short videos using Gemini and ffmpeg

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A developer created ReelCraft, a Python CLI tool that automates the creation of vertical short videos from a folder of photos and video clips. The project began after a misunderstanding about Gemini Omni Flash, which turned out to be a single-video effects model rather than a multi-asset understanding tool. Instead, the pipeline uses Gemini 3.7 Flash to analyze each media file individually, then aggregates the results to generate an edit decision list in a YAML file for human review. Once confirmed, ffmpeg handles the actual cutting and cropping, Lyria 3 generates background music, and subtitles are automatically burned into the final 9:16 video. The developer documented several silent failures in both ffmpeg and Gemini that only became apparent upon playing the finished output.

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