A true story Made with Hey Archi

One morning. Three messages. A wedding film that moves people.

Archi watched every moment of a rainy farm wedding, wrote a song about the day and built the film in FilmCraft as a real project you can keep editing. All it took was three messages in Claude, the AI already on the computer.

Watch the film → Get started
3 messages typed~45 minutes$0.45 for an original songEvery video file stayed on the computerDelivered as an editable FilmCraft project
A father walks his daughter, in her wedding dress, across a green field toward the ceremony
& · “Blue Umbrella” · 3:03 · 1080p
Read the lyrics (the film's transcript)

It rained through the whole ceremony. 62 videos and 7 photos from a DJI Osmo, about 1.7 hours, sat in The Archive, already watched. Every moment had a written description, a searchable picture, a usability score and word-timed speech. Then three messages.

The whole conversation

This is all the human typed.

You
Look at the descriptions in the videos for 's wedding, pull the themes from the video, compose a song that fits the mood of the day with matching lyrics.
searchdescribetranscriptget_moment
✦ Claude + Archi
Here's “Blue Umbrella”, a warm acoustic folk song in seven parts, about three minutes, written from what happened that day. Composing it costs about $0.45. Shall I?
You
yes
compose_musicmusic_jobmusic_map
✦ Claude + Archi
Done, in about 20 seconds, and saved to your Archive with its part timings. One honest note: it came out more energetic than I asked for. I can redo any part.
You
Based on this song, edit an amazing, poignant and emotional edit of 's wedding … use all the features of [Archi] (motion, titles, brand kit) … make a video that moves us.
best_windowedit_listFilmCraftrender_from_templaterender_motion_graphiclook_reportreview_editreview_video
✦ Claude + Archi
Built in FilmCraft: 39 shots cut to the song's phrases, six motion graphics in the Ivory Vows brand kit, graded, mixed and reviewed. I fixed what the review found. The film is 3:03 at −14.0 LUFS, and the project is open in FilmCraft if you want to change anything.

Your messages are word for word, except [Archi], the new name. Claude's replies are shortened.

Message one

It listened to the day before it wrote a note.

Archi searched the whole day: the aisle walk, the vows, the kiss, the toasts, the first dance, guests under umbrellas, the worship. It read the descriptions and transcripts and pulled out what made this wedding unlike any other.

☂The rain that didn't stop anything ☂A father and bride under a blue umbrella ❦The green field and the old tree ◐Bridesmaids in a rainbow of dresses ♪A worship song about God's faithfulness “The brothers' toasts, full of stories ✦Rain giving way to string lights

CHORUS · WORDS FROM THE CEREMONY“He's been faithful all our lives, now we're walking hand in hand”

The chorus line came from the ceremony itself. Archi laid the song out in seven parts with a sound for each, so the edit could follow it: rain and fingerpicked guitar, then piano, then strings, then a full-band lift.

It didn't hide the result. Archi's analysis showed the song came out livelier than requested, and it said so and offered to redo parts.
Blue Umbrella · the plan sent to compose3:00
Intro0:10soft rain ambience, fingerpicked acoustic guitar
Verse 10:30acoustic guitar, soft intimate vocal
Chorus0:25piano enters, light percussion, warm
Verse 20:30guitar and piano, soft strings enter
Chorus0:25fuller arrangement, strings and piano, steady drums
Bridge0:25pulls back, intimate piano, tender vocal
Final chorus0:35full band lift, big warm drums, soaring strings, gentle ending
Message three

From footage to film, step by step.

Archi does the tedious 90% and shows its work. You stay the director.

  1. Mapped the music

    What Archi did

    Found 28 four-bar phrases, the energy surges and the quiet drops. It saw the beat grid wasn't reliable for this song, so it chose phrase-flow pacing: cuts on phrase boundaries and longer holds, not beat-chopping.

    Archi's tools
    music_mapmusic_job

  2. Storyboarded to the lyrics

    What Archi did

    Matched each line of the song to the real moment it describes, and set the blue umbrella walk as the hero shot so it lands on the song's first big surge. See the pairs ↓

    Archi's tools
    searchtranscriptdescribe

  3. Chose and checked every shot by eye

    What Archi did

    Looked at keyframes and checked the cleanest stretch of every shot, avoiding shake, whip pans and people walking in front of the lens. 39 shots made the cut from 1,063 moments.

    Archi's tools
    viewbest_windowget_moment
    A grid of twelve frames from the film: the monogram card, grey sky, umbrellas over white chairs, flowers, the walk across the field, the wedding party under the tree, the first dance and the father–daughter dance
    12 of the 33 frames on the final review's contact sheet.

  4. Built the edit in FilmCraft, as a real timeline

    What Archi did

    Turned the storyboard into a frame-accurate edit list with cuts snapped to the song's bars and phrases, imported the media, and laid all 39 shots and the song on a native FilmCraft timeline. See the timeline ↓

    Archi's tools
    edit_listFilmCraft

  5. Mixed the audio like an editor would

    What Archi did
    • Natural sound kept low under the song
    • Raised for the kiss cheer, the “Mr. and Mrs.” introduction and the send-off
    • The DJ's songs muted so they don't fight the score
    • Speeches ducked so the lyrics stay clear
    Archi's tools
    audio_reportFilmCraft

  6. Designed titles and motion in the brand kit

    What Archi did

    Used the Ivory Vows kit: a Didot-style serif, script names, champagne gold, slow and graceful motion. Six graphics, rendered as transparent overlays on the tracks above the picture.

    Archi's tools
    brand_kitlist_motion_templatesrender_from_templaterender_motion_graphic
    Monogram card: initials in a fine gold ring on ivory paper, names in script and the date
    Monogram RevealOpener, from the Motion Library. The ring draws itself and the initials rise out of a blur. It closes the film too.
    Location tag in spaced capitals with the date in italic
    Location tagA custom HyperFrames graphic written for this film, over the rain clouds.
    A toast quote in white serif italic with the word faithfulness highlighted in gold
    Kinetic QuoteBuilds the toast word by word, with “faithfulness” in gold, tying it to the chorus.
    A diagonal band of warm light across a dark frame
    Light SweepCrosses the frame on the cut from the reception tent to the sunset dance.
    Soft gold out-of-focus lights on black
    Floating BokehSoft drifting lights over the final chorus, at reduced opacity.
    Grey rain clouds with a small location tag in the top left
    On screenThe location tag over the real sky at 0:13.

  7. Graded the whole film

    What Archi did

    One gentle, consistent warm grade on all 38 picture clips, plus small fixes: it toned down an over-saturated flower close-up and lifted a dark night dance shot.

    Archi's tools
    look_reportFilmCraft · Lumetri

  8. Reviewed its own work

    What Archi did

    Exported a draft and checked a frame per shot, both sides of every cut and the loudness over time. It found three problems and fixed all of them, then explained which remaining flags were intentional (the quiet song intro, the colour change as day turns to night).

    fixed · four one-frame black gaps between clipsfixed · a 10-frame flash from a camera jolt (slipped the shot)fixed · audio peaking at −0.7 dBFS (loudness-normalised export)
    Archi's tools
    review_editreview_video
    Pairs of frames showing both sides of four cuts: sky to umbrellas, wide shot to flowers, field to wedding party, and two angles of the vows
    Four of the cuts on the seam sheet, both sides of each.
    Loudness graph of the final film: quiet intro, a steady level through the middle and a lift in the last minute
    The final film's loudness over 3:03, with the −14 LUFS target line.

  9. Delivered

    What Archi did

    Exported the final film, 3:03 at 1080p, at −14.0 LUFS integrated and −1.5 dBTP, the standard for online video. The final review found no black frames, no flash frames and no clipping.

    Archi's tools
    review_video
Lyrics ↔ picture

The words and the pictures land together.

Every line was written from the footage, so every line has its shot.

VERSE 1 · 0:13“Grey clouds rolling slow across the valley”

The actual grey sky over the umbrellas, with the location tag fading up.

Heavy grey rain clouds over the treetops
VERSE 1 · 0:28 · THE HERO SHOT“Your father took your hand beneath a blue umbrella”

The real walk down the aisle, set to land on the song's first big surge.

A bride and her father walk down a grassy aisle past guests holding umbrellas, a blue umbrella above them
Guests' faces are blurred on this page.
VERSE 2 · 0:40“Bridesmaids in a rainbow, red and green and blue”

The bridesmaid line-up under the old tree.

Bridesmaids in many coloured dresses and groomsmen in tan suits stand in lines under a large tree
VERSE 2 · 1:28“Then the whole field cheered when ‘you may kiss her’ came true”

The kiss and the cheer, with the natural sound raised so you hear the field.

The couple kiss under the tree between the bridesmaids and groomsmen
FINAL CHORUS · 2:27“Now the rain's turned to lights”

The sunset first dance on the wet patio under string lights, right after the Light Sweep.

The couple's first dance on a wet patio under string lights with an orange sunset behind
FINAL CHORUS · 2:39“He's been faithful all our lives”

The father–daughter dance, then the married couples' dance.

The bride dances with her father on the patio as evening falls
By the numbers
1,063moments watched
9,675words, each one timed
39shots chosen
28musical phrases mapped
6motion graphics
38clips graded
6issues caught and fixed
−14LUFS delivery
~45minutes, start to finish
$0.45the only cost: the song

Most of the 45 minutes was the computer exporting. Face recognition, turned on by an admin for this folder, had the bride confirmed in 69 moments.

What's new

Things that weren't possible a year ago.

No single piece here is magic. Search, transcription, beat detection, music generation, motion graphics and an editor all exist. The new thing is one conversation chaining them together, each step informed by the last.

Archi can watch your footage

It searched 1.7 hours by what's seen and what's said, in seconds, and knew which takes were shaky.

Music written for your footage

Not stock music fitted to it. The lyrics came from what happened that day, and the song's parts were planned so the edit could follow them.

The words and the pictures land together

“Blue umbrella” is sung over the blue umbrella. “You may kiss her” lands on the kiss.

One conversation, many pro tools

Search, transcription, face recognition, music, beat analysis, editing, motion design, colour, mixing and review. No exporting and re-importing between apps.

The output is a real project

A native FilmCraft timeline with editable titles, clips and audio levels. Change a shot yourself, or tell Archi what to change next. Nothing is baked in.

It checks its own work like a pro editor

Contact sheets, a check of both sides of every cut and loudness measurement, with the fixes made before you see it.

Your brand, every time

Brand kits and a growing Motion Library of reusable templates, so the next film looks just as good in a fraction of the time.

Works with Claude today, on an open standard

Archi plugs into Claude Desktop and Claude Code, and this film was made with Claude. It's built on an open standard, so it isn't tied to one company.

Still yours

It's a real project, not a render. Keep going.

Archi didn't hand back a video file. It built the film in FilmCraft, and the project is still open: every cut, title, level and grade, editable. Refine it by hand, keep asking Archi, or both.

The Blue Umbrella project open in FilmCraft: the whole film on the timeline, the sunset first dance in the program monitor, and the clip's Lumetri Color grade in Effect Controls 1 2 3 4 5 6
  1. The grade is a Lumetri Color effect on each clip, not baked into the picture.
  2. The sunset first dance at 2:27, under the Floating Bokeh overlay.
  3. Every motion graphic is its own clip on Video 2 and 3: move it, trim it or re-render it.
  4. 39 picture clips on Video 1, each one trimmable, swappable and slippable.
  5. Natural sound on Audio 1, with its own level on every clip.
  6. The song on Audio 2, ready to swap for a new version.

The real FilmCraft window, with the project open. One crowd thumbnail is blurred.

Refine it yourself

Open it like any edit.

  • Trim, slip or swap any of the 39 shots.
  • Retime a graphic or re-render it with new words.
  • Ride a level where you want to hear the room.
  • Push the grade on one shot, or all of them.
Or keep asking Archi

Notes, like you'd give an editor.

Hold on the blue umbrella a beat longer, and keep the kiss on the downbeat.
Swap the second vows shot for a steadier take.
Redo just the bridge of the song, softer. Keep the rest exactly.
Make a 60-second vertical version from the same project.

Examples of what you could say next. Archi reads the timeline as it is now, including anything you changed by hand, and edits from there.

Nothing gets lost

The edit is a project file on your computer, not a flattened export.

Every change can be undone. Archi's edits are ordinary FilmCraft commands, so they land in History like yours.

Every song version is a new file. A revision keeps the parts you liked exactly; the original stays.

Graphics keep their source. A template renders again with new words, and a new version keeps the old one.

Every review is saved, so you can compare drafts.

Your footage is never changed. The Archive only reads it, and your stars, rejects and tags survive re-indexing.

It routed around a problem

One native title call failed, so Archi wrote the location tag and end card as HyperFrames graphics instead.

It said when the song missed

The song came out livelier than asked. Archi flagged it and offered to redo parts.

It explained what it left

The quiet intro and the shift from day to night were flagged by the review and kept on purpose.

How it fits together

Your AI, your Archive, your tools.

The AI you already useClaude

Desktop or Code. You talk; it plans and asks before anything that costs money.

The AI in The ArchiveArchi

63 tools that let your AI see, hear, plan, build and check.

Your Archive

What's seen, said and heard, usability, faces, your stars and tags. On your computer.

FilmCraft and the Craft apps

The edit: a native, editable timeline. EffectCraft, PhotoCraft and VectorCraft when a piece needs them.

HyperFrames + Motion Library

Titles and motion graphics in your brand kit.

Music

Your songs, mapped, or a new one from ElevenLabs.

Review

Contact sheets, cut checks, loudness.

Get started

Your footage already holds the story.
Just say Hey Archi.

Runs on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 10 & 11. Your video files never leave your computer.

Install The Archive → See everything it does

Made with Hey Archi, free and built by one person. Support the work →