Reel Time

Reel Time is a talking clock made from movie scenes.

Open the site, press play, and let a film scene tell you the current local time. When no exact scene is available, Reel Time falls back to broader or approximate time references.

The project is intentionally compact: plain static files, no framework, no build step, and no server required.

Demo

https://reel-time.thomaspericoi.com

Features

• Selects a movie scene from the current local time.
• Prioritizes exact-time scenes when available.
• Uses approximate, before, after, broad, and generic fallback scenes to fill gaps.
• Plays a three-second countdown with audio beeps.
• Displays the film title, release year, director, and rights holder.
• Simulates a projection with grain, flicker, vignette, and image offset.
• Runs entirely as static HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, video, and audio files.
• Provides a small console API for browsing and playing scenes.
• Presents a desktop-only experience on mobile, where browsers restrict timed video playback.

Scene library

Current library statistics:

• Total scenes: 427
• Exact-time scenes: 319
• Exact minutes covered: 233 / 1440
• Exact-time coverage: 16.2%

Exact minutes covered counts unique exact minutes only.

Scenes marked as both count toward both their AM and PM equivalents.

For contribution planning, see the full coverage table in docs/scene-coverage.md.

Exact minutes covered

Hour	Minutes
00:00-00:59	00:00, 00:10, 00:15, 00:30, 00:31, 00:45
01:00-01:59	01:00, 01:06, 01:08, 01:10, 01:15, 01:17, 01:18, 01:21, 01:30, 01:33, 01:37, 01:45, 01:56
02:00-02:59	02:00, 02:02, 02:15, 02:30, 02:45, 02:55, 02:59
03:00-03:59	03:00, 03:05, 03:07, 03:08, 03:15, 03:22, 03:25, 03:30, 03:42, 03:45, 03:51
04:00-04:59	04:00, 04:05, 04:11, 04:15, 04:20, 04:30, 04:35, 04:36, 04:48
05:00-05:59	05:00, 05:02, 05:10, 05:15, 05:30, 05:35
06:00-06:59	06:00, 06:05, 06:07, 06:10, 06:15, 06:30, 06:34, 06:35, 06:45, 06:53
07:00-07:59	07:00, 07:06, 07:07, 07:15, 07:22, 07:23, 07:30, 07:45
08:00-08:59	08:00, 08:03, 08:05, 08:12, 08:15, 08:17, 08:20, 08:30, 08:35, 08:42, 08:45, 08:59
09:00-09:59	09:00, 09:02, 09:10, 09:13, 09:15, 09:18, 09:20, 09:23, 09:30, 09:40, 09:45, 09:46
10:00-10:59	10:00, 10:01, 10:15, 10:25, 10:30, 10:33, 10:44, 10:45, 10:46, 10:55
11:00-11:59	11:00, 11:01, 11:11, 11:30, 11:36, 11:40, 11:45, 11:46, 11:53, 11:54, 11:56, 11:57
12:00-12:59	12:00, 12:10, 12:15, 12:30, 12:31, 12:45
13:00-13:59	13:00, 13:04, 13:06, 13:10, 13:15, 13:17, 13:21, 13:30, 13:33, 13:45, 13:56
14:00-14:59	14:00, 14:15, 14:30, 14:45, 14:55, 14:59
15:00-15:59	15:00, 15:07, 15:08, 15:20, 15:22, 15:25, 15:30, 15:42, 15:45, 15:51, 15:55
16:00-16:59	16:00, 16:05, 16:11, 16:15, 16:20, 16:29, 16:30, 16:33, 16:35, 16:36, 16:48
17:00-17:59	17:00, 17:02, 17:10, 17:15, 17:30, 17:35, 17:45
18:00-18:59	18:00, 18:05, 18:07, 18:10, 18:15, 18:30, 18:34, 18:35, 18:53
19:00-19:59	19:00, 19:06, 19:07, 19:15, 19:23, 19:30, 19:45
20:00-20:59	20:00, 20:05, 20:12, 20:13, 20:15, 20:17, 20:20, 20:30, 20:35, 20:45, 20:59
21:00-21:59	21:00, 21:02, 21:10, 21:13, 21:15, 21:18, 21:20, 21:23, 21:30, 21:40, 21:45, 21:46
22:00-22:59	22:00, 22:01, 22:04, 22:15, 22:25, 22:30, 22:33, 22:44, 22:45, 22:46, 22:55
23:00-23:59	23:00, 23:01, 23:11, 23:30, 23:36, 23:40, 23:45, 23:46, 23:50, 23:53, 23:55, 23:56, 23:57, 23:58, 23:59

Scene selection

On the first launch, Reel Time selects a scene using the following priority:

1. Exact time.
2. Approximate time.
3. Scene occurring shortly before or after the current time.
4. Broad period of the day.
5. Generic fallback scene.

After the arrival scene, exact scenes remain the priority.

Approximate, before, and after scenes can each be used once per page load to reduce repetition.

Filename convention

Exact and approximate scenes use

HH-MM_period_precision_movie-slug_###.mp4

Examples:

08-30_am_exact_ford-v-ferrari_001.mp4
12-00_both_approx_gremlins_001.mp4
08-00_both_before_lucky-number-slevin_001.mp4

Accepted period values include:

am
pm
both

Accepted precision values include:

exact
approx
before
after

Range scenes use

HH-MM_start-period_HH-MM_end-period_range_movie-slug_###.mp4

Example:

01-00_am_02-00_am_range_the-bfg_001.mp4

Range scenes are only used as arrival fallbacks. They are not part of the ongoing playlist after the first scene.

Broad scenes use

broad-label_broad_movie-slug_###.mp4

Example:

dawn_broad_sunset-boulevard_001.mp4

Generic fallback scenes use

fallback_movie-slug_###.mp4

Example:

fallback_you-can-count-on-me_001.mp4

Console API

Reel Time exposes a small API through the global ReelTime object.

Open the browser console after the page loads.

Browse scenes

ReelTime.scenes();

Return exact-time scenes only:

ReelTime.scenes({ exactOnly: true });

Return scenes associated with a specific time:

ReelTime.scenes({ time: "08:30" });

Search scenes by film name or metadata:

ReelTime.find({ query: "pulp" });

Play scenes

Play the first scene matching a query:

ReelTime.play({ query: "pulp" });

Play a scene associated with a specific time:

ReelTime.playAt("08:30");

Only use exact scenes:

ReelTime.playAt("08:30", { exactOnly: true });

Play a random scene:

ReelTime.random();

Play a random exact-time scene:

ReelTime.random({ exactOnly: true });

Stop playback:

ReelTime.stop();

Audio

Play the countdown beep:

ReelTime.audio.beep();

Start the projector sound:

ReelTime.audio.projectorStart();

Stop the projector sound:

ReelTime.audio.projectorStop();

Maintenance scripts

No dependency installation or build step is required for the site itself.

Open index.html directly in a browser.

When scenes are added, renamed, or removed, rebuild the scene library:

python3 tools/build-scenes-json.py

build-scenes-json.py reads filenames from assets/medias/videos/movie-scenes/, resolves movie metadata from MOVIE_META, applies BROAD_LABELS, and regenerates:

assets/data/scenes.json
assets/data/scenes-data.js

scenes.json is the readable data export. scenes-data.js is loaded directly by the browser, including when opening the project through file://.

When MP4 files need to be cleaned after renaming or importing, run:

python3 tools/clean-mp4-metadata.py

clean-mp4-metadata.py removes inherited MP4 metadata and chapters, keeps the media streams without re-encoding, sets the internal video title to the filename, and applies faststart for better browser playback.

Structure

index.html
README.md
docs/
  scene-coverage.md
assets/
  css/
    styles.css
  js/
    app.js
    ascii-printer.min.js
  data/
    scenes-data.js
    scenes.json
  medias/
    images/
      high-noon-cover.jpeg
      movie-posters/
    sounds/
      ahem_001.mp3
      ahem_002.mp3
      countdown_beep_001.mp3
      hush_001.mp3
      hush_002.mp3
      projector_001.mp3
    videos/
      movie-scenes/
tools/
  build-scenes-json.py
  clean-mp4-metadata.py

The local video files stored in assets/medias/videos/movie-scenes/ are intentionally ignored by Git.

Stack

• HTML.
• CSS.
• Vanilla JavaScript.
• Python for scene-data generation.
• Static audio and video files.

Rights notice

Reel Time uses short excerpts from films for a non-commercial experimental project.

The films, scenes, characters, music, trademarks, and related materials belong to their respective rights holders.

No ownership of third-party material is claimed.

Please don't sue me.