Direct the filmin your head.

Direction is a Mac app for making films the way directors do. Write the brief, circle the takes, give notes in your own words, and every cut comes back answered. You never touch a timeline.

Download for Mac See it work
Apple silicon · macOS 26 · Open source View the code on GitHub ↗

Every film has a director and an editor. You watch the cut and say what you feel: let it breathe, this is too polite. Your editor knows what that means, makes the change, and tells you what it did.

The production

From brief to delivery.

The steps you already know, in the order a film is made. Your editor does the work between them.

  1. 01 Brief

    Say what the film is.

    What it's about, how it should feel, and its shape: as shot, 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5. Then choose who's editing.

  2. 02 Dailies

    Circle the takes you want.

    Your editor watches and logs every take: what's in frame, what's said, where focus drifts. You circle the ones worth using.

  3. 03 Cut

    Watch it. Say what you'd say.

    Your editor cuts an assembly from your circled takes. Pin a note to a moment, a range or part of the frame.

  4. 04 Turnover

    Hear your notes read back.

    Before it cuts, your editor tells you what it heard and what it plans to do. Change anything, then let it work.

  5. 05 Finish

    Lock picture. Deliver.

    Lock scenes as they're done, then picture. Direction delivers a master, a web copy and captions.

Notes, answered

Say it the way you'd say it.

Name a take, a sound, a transition or an effect with @ and your editor uses that one. Every note is answered in the next cut, and Play changes shows only what changed.

▶  Play changes52 s of changes to watch
Learn from what you love

Show it work you admire.

Your editor studies other people's films the way you would, then keeps what it learned for every film you make.

youtube.com/watch?v=night-driveStudying
Night DriveA video you like · 4:12
Shots
142
Average shot
1.8 s
Cuts a minute
34
Words a minute
168
Music under the voice
−18 dB
Loudness
−14 LUFS
Saved as a style: Night Drive
  • PaceCut every 1.5 to 2 seconds; never hold past 6.
  • SoundMusic sits 18 dB under the voice and stops for the lines that land.
  • CaptionsThree words at a time, upper case, lower third.

It learns a style.

Paste a link to a video or drop in the file. Direction measures it: the pace, the words a minute, where the music sits. Your editor writes it up as a style, with rules, values and parts to reuse. Name the style in a brief and the film follows it.

0:06 · the result
1:20 · the settings
3:45 · the masks
Tutorial · 9:41Grid flash transition
Grid flash Transition · in your library BigFrom the middleNegative

It learns a move.

Show it a tutorial for a transition or an effect, from Premiere, Resolve, After Effects or CapCut. Your editor works out how it's built, rebuilds it from Direction's own pieces and keeps it in your library. From then on it's Grid flash in any note.

Made, not shot

The shot you didn't get.

An establishing shot, an insert, a sky at dusk, a beat more of a calm shot. Add your OpenRouter key and your editor can make it, matched to the shots around it. Music and sound effects too.

  • It searches your footage first. A real take beats a made one.
  • Stills before motion, more than one way, every frame judged before it goes in.
  • Every made shot says what it cost, and nothing is spent past your limits.
6

We need the town before the ridge. We never shot it.

Nothing in the footage shows the town. I'll make an establishing shot: the town's lights from the ridge, wide, at dusk, 5 s. About $1.10

Still, way 1
Still, way 2 · picked
Shot from way 2 · 5 s
2 Two winters
Made · 5 s
3 The ridge
Made with BalancedAsk above $5 a turnoverStop at $40 a month$1.06 spent
Before the shoot

Start from a script, or just a story.

Your editor writes an A/V script, what we see beside what we hear, and breaks it into the shots you need. Each comes with a board, so you know what to shoot before you roll.

PICTURESOUND
Int. Garage — NightWide. Maya at the bench, the window blue behind her. 3A
MAYA (V.O.)Two winters. Most of it was waiting for glue to dry.
Int. Garage — NightClose. Her face in the laptop's light. A slow push. 3B
Room tone. The laptop fan.
Int. Garage — NightInsert. Her hands seat the eyepiece. 4A
A ratchet, once. Then quiet.
Ext. Ridge — DuskWide. She steps back from the telescope and waits. 5B
Music enters, low. It stays under her line.
3AWide · Static
3BClose · Push in
4AInsert · Static
5BWide · Dusk
And the rest

Everything else an editor does.

wide of the ridge at dusk
3A-2 · picture
5B-1 · picture
3D-1 · picture

Find any shot by what's in it.

Ask for the wide of the ridge at dusk and get it. The search runs on your Mac and never leaves it.

Every shape from one cut.

16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or 4:5. Your editor reframes to fill the frame.

So I glued the um, the mirror cell in place and then, you know, and waited.

Two winters, basically, waiting for glue.

Cut by deleting words.

Strike words in the transcript and the footage goes with them, on every camera.

A look for the whole film.

Your editor proposes a grade and holds it shot to shot.

A cam
Recorder
In sync

Sound synced for you.

Cameras and a sound recorder, matched by their sound as the footage comes in.

A
B

Two ways, when it could go either way.

Watch both, then pick one.

Maya OkaforTelescope maker
Most of it was waiting for glue to dry.

Titles, lower thirds and captions.

Drawn on your Mac, in your style's fonts and colors. Captions come straight from the transcript.

Her line on the ridge: take 2 or take 4?

Take 2Take 4

It asks when it isn't sure.

One clear question, not a guess.

S
Sam · Producer

Can we see the telescope earlier?

Not nowAccept

Notes from outside.

A producer's or client's notes wait in their own inbox until you accept them.

0.25×

Slow motion and sharpening.

Made on your Mac. No key, no cost.

On your Mac

Your film is a folder on your Mac.

Back it up, move it or archive it, like anything else on your Mac.

~/Movies/Direction/First Light.direction
Footage

Linked, never changed.

Your original files stay where they are. Direction works from them and never writes to them.

Rendering

Made on your Mac.

Cutting, color, sound, titles and export run on Apple silicon. Transcription uses Apple's on-device speech.

The editor

Your own plan.

Claude Code or Codex, signed in with your Claude or ChatGPT account. No API keys to buy or paste.

Keys

In your keychain.

Optional extras keep their keys in your Mac's keychain. Never in a film, never shown to the editor.

Direct your next film.

Download Direction for your Mac and sign in your editor with your own Claude or ChatGPT plan. It keeps itself up to date.

Download for Mac
Apple silicon · macOS 26 or later · Claude Code or Codex Direction is open source. Read the code, build it yourself, or send a fix.↗
Does my footage leave my Mac?

Your original files stay where they are and are never changed. To make its decisions, the editor reads what Direction gives it (logs, transcripts and frames) through your own Claude or ChatGPT plan.

Claude Code or Codex?

Either. Each new film asks who's editing and keeps that editor, with your last choice already picked. You can pause or stop the editor at any time.

Do I need an OpenRouter key?

Only to make shots, stills, music and sound effects. It's paid per use, and you set the limits in Settings. Everything else, from logging to delivery, runs without one.

What does it deliver?

A master, a web copy and captions, in SDR Rec. 709. HDR footage is converted to SDR inside the film; your originals stay as they are.