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For those who don’t know the tool: Filmtext-o-Mat is a local browser tool from Ulf Marquardt Medienproduktion for timed film manuscripts. It exports files for Word, Excel and subtitle workflows, including refinement in DaVinci Resolve.
Timecodes without arithmetic
Writing a film manuscript often means maintaining two documents at once. One contains the actual words. The other exists invisibly inside the writer’s head and tracks where every passage begins, how long it lasts and how badly the timing will break after one late edit. Filmtext-o-Mat 2.7 moves that arithmetic into a small local application. Each manuscript row contains a starting timecode, spoken text, a sequence description and a duration. The user normally enters the duration. The application calculates the starting timecodes.
The calculation begins with a global start value. Filmtext-o-Mat adds the durations of all preceding rows and updates every later entry. Insert an eight-second sequence and all following timecodes move eight seconds forward. Shorten a passage and they move back. This sounds modest because it is modest. It also removes a particularly tedious source of production mistakes.
The first row inherits the global start timecode. That value defaults to 00:00:00 and can be changed, including to broadcast-oriented offsets such as 10:00:00. The total running time updates at the bottom of the manuscript.
Rows without spoken text remain part of the timeline. Openings, atmosphere, visual passages and other silent sections can carry a duration and description while leaving the text field empty. Filmtext-o-Mat gives these rows a separate visual treatment and includes their duration in every later calculation.
The result is a continuous timecode structure without forcing writers to fill silent passages with placeholder prose. Blank narration stops looking like missing data and starts behaving like actual screen time.
Type first, shuffle later
Each manuscript row can move up or down. Writers can insert another row below it or delete it. A separate control appends a row at the end. Text areas grow as their contents expand. Reordering a sequence triggers the same timing logic as changing its duration. The software recalculates later timecodes rather than leaving the user to repair the document manually.
That matters during editorial revisions. A manuscript rarely travels from blank page to approval in one clean direction. … .Which is the kind of obvious that will have you hitting your head on the keyboard, I know.
A writer can also enter timecodes directly. Editing the starting time of a row changes the duration of the preceding row, then updates everything that follows. Filmtext-o-Mat rejects a value that would place the row before its predecessor.
Durations accept seconds, minutes with seconds, or hours with minutes and seconds. An entry can therefore use 8, 1:30 or a complete hour-based value. Displayed timecodes use hours, minutes and seconds.
This relationship works in both directions. Durations generate starting values, while manually entered starting values alter durations. The timeline remains internally consistent whichever method suits the current stage of the job.
The picture stays beside the words
Filmtext-o-Mat places a video player to the left of the manuscript table, or in the top half when you use a portrait screen (See above). A local video file loads directly into the browser and remains on the computer. The application does not upload it. EVERYTHING is local.
The divider between player and manuscript can be dragged to resize the working areas. A double-click restores its default position. The player also retains its fullscreen control.
MP4 files provide the most reliable playback. Browser support still determines which media formats and codecs actually play, so the container name alone cannot rescue an unsupported stream.
A control beside each timecode sends the video to that position. This makes the manuscript navigable in both directions. The picture can create a timing point, and a timing point can relocate the picture.
The final block needs its duration entered manually. Another option is to append a short closing sequence and mark its beginning, which gives the preceding block a calculable endpoint.
Hands on the keyboard
Keyboard shortcuts cover the repetitive actions needed while writing against picture. Control and Enter assigns the current video position to the active row. Alt and Enter toggles playback. Alt with the left or right arrow moves the player backward or forward by five seconds. Outside text fields, the space bar also toggles playback and the arrow keys perform the five-second jumps. Enter confirms values in timecode and duration fields.
One file, local execution
The complete application lives in a single HTML file. Opening that file launches the interface in the computer’s standard browser. It requires neither installation nor an internet connection. The developer has tested it with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge.
The self-contained format has several practical consequences. There is no service account, cloud project or server-side media transfer. Moving the application means copying one file. Launching it means opening that file.
It also makes version discipline the user’s responsibility. The manual advises working from a copy and checking that the browser has not opened an older duplicate from the downloads folder.
Filmtext-o-Mat warns when a browser tab contains unsaved changes, but the included manual states that the application does not save projects automatically. The project page separately lists an auto-save function. For production use, the safer interpretation is simple: press Save regularly and retain intermediate project versions.
Save the manuscript, not the movie
The Save command writes the current work to a JSON project file. That file stores the manuscript and can be reopened later through the application. A status dot on the Save control identifies unsaved changes. The project filename follows the film title entered in the interface. For longer productions, the manual recommends retaining intermediate states rather than relying on one continually overwritten prjoect.
Video remains separate from the saved manuscript. Loading a movie gives the browser local playback access, but the project file does not become a media package. This keeps saved files small and avoids duplicating editorial media. It also means reopening a manuscript and reconnecting its corresponding video remain separate actions.
There is no described relinking system, media database or path-management layer. Filmtext-o-Mat saves the writing work. It leaves asset management to the production around it.
Word for people, CSV for tables
Export starts with Microsoft Word. Filmtext-o-Mat creates a DOCX document and opens a dialog for selecting columns. A speaker preset exports timecode and spoken text while omitting silent visual and atmosphere rows. A separate editorial preset exports all four columns.
Users can also choose columns individually, remove empty rows and append the total duration. The resulting document uses A4 portrait layout with 12-point Calibri text.
This is a sensible split. A narrator needs words and timing rather than production notes. An editor or commissioning desk may need the full sequence description and duration structure.
The generated Word file requires no copy-and-paste stage between the working manuscript and a readable handover document. That reduces the opportunity for one version to acquire a correction while another quietly remains wrong.
A second export produces a semicolon-separated CSV file for use in Microsoft Excel. Semicolon-separated lists suit environments where commas already function as decimal separators. CSV also gives production teams a neutral tabular handover. The file can enter scheduling, translation, logging or archive workflows without requiring the recipient to run Filmtext-o-Mat. The browser’s print dialog supplies a further route to paper or PDF. Printing hides the controls and video player. Selecting the browser’s PDF destination creates a manuscript document without the working interface.
SRT as a useful first pass
Filmtext-o-Mat can export SRT subtitles. Every row containing text becomes a subtitle. Its starting point comes from the row timecode, and its endpoint comes from the row duration.
Silent rows do not generate subtitle entries. Their timing still affects everything after them. Long passages split automatically into chunks lasting no more than five seconds. The text divides at word boundaries rather than cutting words in half.
That creates a practical raw subtitles file from the narration manuscript. It does not create finished broadcast captions. The timing remains second-based, and automatic text distribution cannot judge reading speed, shot changes, speaker identity or good linguistic line breaks. The manual directs users toward a dedicated subtitle editor for final adjustment. It specifically names Aegisub and the subtitle tools in DaVinci Resolve. Either can refine the SRT after export.
This boundary is important. Filmtext-o-Mat turns an existing timed manuscript into a starting subtitle file. It does not claim to replace specialist captioning work.
For a documentary workflow, even that first pass can remove duplicate labour. The narration already contains the text. The manuscript already contains broad timing. Exporting both into SRT gives the subtitle stage material it can correct instead of material it must recreate.
Small scope, useful outputs
Filmtext-o-Mat sits early in postproduction, around narration writing, sequence descriptions and editorial timing. It then hands the same data to document, spreadsheet, subtitle and PDF workflows.
The tool also keeps the writer close to the film without turning the browser into another timeline. The embedded player supplies reference picture and navigation. The table remains the main workspace.
That makes Filmtext-o-Mat particularly clear for authored narration, documentaries and factual productions where a manuscript must describe both what viewers hear and what they see.
The author, Ulf Marquardt, has directed and produced documentaries for broadcasters including WDR, ZDF, ARTE and 3sat. His selected filmography includes wildlife, science and environmental productions. The software’s structure follows that manuscript-heavy working context without pretending to cover every possible post pipeline.
Free, with strict modification terms
Filmtext-o-Mat and its manual may be used, copied and shared free of charge. The supplied disclaimer prohibits modifications to the code or accompanying text. This is therefore free software in the everyday price sense, but the published terms do not grant permission to alter or redistribute modified versions.
A voluntary Ko-fi link appears inside the application and manual. The package includes the HTML application and a four-page German manual. German and English downloads are available separately from the project page.
As always, test new tools and workflow changes on disposable material before using them in production.
About: https://www.ulf-marquardt.de/current-projects/filmtext-o-mat/
Source: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZtdcrZRIbUYDTAiOVM8jpKzWt1ApbEAY67
