How to use Film Room
Daily workflow
- Get the footage in. On iPhone/iPad: Open from Photos is Apple's own picker, albums and all. On the Mac: keep games in one folder (an iCloud Drive folder shares it with every device) and point 📁 Games at it once — every game is then one click away. Drag films into that folder from the Photos app via Finder (that drag works; dragging into a browser window doesn't). YouTube film someone shared: press ⌘⇧5, screen-record the section, open that file here. Everything stays on your machine — nothing is uploaded.
- Find a moment. Use slow-mo and frame-step to land on the exact touch or decision.
- Draw on it. Put a ring on him (it follows him along), an arrow where the pass or run should have gone, a shaded area over the space that was open.
- Add a question just before the moment — the video stops there and asks him first, before he sees what happened.
- Keep the moment. Press Start clip here when it begins and End clip here when it is over, then ＋ Save clip and mark it 👍 strength / 🔧 work-on so it goes in his library.
- 🎬 Save video turns that clip into a file you can AirDrop to his iPad or phone — or just watch it together here.
- End of the week: press ➕ Reel on the best clips (Clips tab), put the strengths first, then either 🎬 Save as one video for the TV or 🎓 Watch together to go through them here — each clip asks its question first and his answers are written down for you. Anyone can run it; the questions are built in.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Space or K | Play / pause |
| ← / → | Move one single picture at a time |
| J / L | Back / forward 5 seconds |
| I / O | Start clip here / End clip here |
| Enter | Save the marked moment as a clip |
| 1–6 | Tools: Select, Spotlight, Arrow, Zone, Pen, Text |
| [ / ] | Slower / faster playback |
| Delete | Delete selected drawing |
| ⌘Z | Undo |
| ⌘K / Ctrl K | Do anything by typing a few letters of it — “save video”, “board”, a clip’s name… |
Spotlights that follow a player
Auto-track: put a spotlight on him, move to where the play ends and press Disappears here, come back to the start, then press 🎯 Auto-track. The ring follows him on its own, and you can still drag it anywhere it is not quite right (Esc stops it). If it says it lost him — players crossing, camera whip — drag the ring back onto him at that moment and press Auto-track again from there.
By hand: move forward a second or two and, with the spotlight picked, drag it to where he is now (or press 📍 Pin him here). The ring glides between the points you set, so three or four of them usually covers a whole play. Either way, give it his name and a color — and spotlight a defender or teammate in another color to show the relationship.
Saving your work
Everything autosaves in this browser per video file (matched by file name + size), so reopening the same file restores your clips and drawings. 💾 Save project downloads a backup file you can move between machines or keep with the video; 📂 Load project brings it back.
Working on more than one computer? When you open a game from 📁 Games, Film Room also saves your work into that folder, right next to the video. Keep the folder in iCloud Drive and the same game opened on another computer picks up your clips and drawings automatically — you'll see ☁︎ Saving to your Games folder in the top bar when it's on. If two computers have both been used, whichever was saved most recently wins. Nothing is uploaded anywhere: it is your folder, syncing the way it always did.
Exports — made to watch without you
🎬 Save video turns a saved clip into a video file with every drawing burned in, big enough to look right on a large TV. It opens with a title card — the clip's name, whether it is a strength or a work-on, and your coaching note — and any question you added inside the clip becomes a built-in pause showing that question before the play continues. That is what makes a clip teach on its own when someone else is watching it with him, or when he watches alone. The game sound comes along too. AirDrop the file to a phone or iPad and play it on the TV. 📸 Photo saves the frame you are on as a picture — the fastest way to text him one teaching image.
Two clips side by side
⚖ on any clip plays it next to an example — another one of his clips, or a video from this computer (📂 in the bar at the top). Both sides slow down and step together, the pair repeats, and the align buttons shift the example a little so the two moments happen at the same time. 📸 saves both sides as one labelled picture.
Tactics board
🗒 Board swaps to a top-down pitch with both teams in formation — drag the chips, double-click to name them, and draw with the same tools to teach shape and runs off-video. Each clip's 🗒 button opens a board linked to that moment. 📸 exports the board as an image.
Your words, not mine
The tag list is a starting point. In the Save-clip dialog hit ✎ Edit tag list to rename any tag to the words his coach uses, remove ones you don't use, or add your own — renames update clips you've already saved.
Zoomed-out footage
On far-away sideline or Trace-camera film the players are small. Auto-track measures how big he really is and pulls the ring in to fit him on its own; if you want to adjust it yourself, select the spotlight and use 🔽 Smaller ring / 🔼 Bigger ring. It copes with the picture getting brighter and darker, and with another player crossing in front for a moment (watch the lock number while it runs — it dips and recovers).