Highlight Reel

Highlight Reel turns processed match clips into a short-form vertical video ready to post. It is a separate workflow from the main broadcast export, focused on short-form vertical content with no scoreboard overlays. The flow has two stages: Choose Clips and Edit Reel.

Getting Started

Open a processed project in the Editor, then click the Highlights button in the sub-action bar at the top. The button is available once your project has clips.

What starring does: The star is a shortlist flag, not an automatic export. Starring a clip marks it as a candidate so it shows up pre-selected and sorted to the top when you open the clip picker. You can still add or remove any clip from the reel regardless of whether it is starred.

Stage 1: Choose Clips

The clip picker shows every active clip from your condensed game. Trashed clips and clips marked as excluded are not shown.

Browsing and selecting

• Click any clip to add it to the reel. Click it again to remove it.
• Hover a clip to see an inline video preview.
• Starred clips appear at the top of the grid and are pre-selected on first entry.
• Use Select All Starred to instantly populate the reel with your starred picks.
• Filter the grid by stat type (Ace, Service Break, Sideout, Def. Break, Def. Hold, Double Fault, Error, or None) to find specific moments quickly.

The queue

The right side of the picker is the reel queue. This is the actual order clips will play in the final export.

• Drag clips in the queue to reorder them.
• Remove individual clips from the queue using the remove button.
• The total selected duration is shown at the bottom so you can gauge reel length before continuing.

When you're happy with your selection, click Continue to move to the Edit Reel stage.

Stage 2: Edit Reel

The reel editor has three main areas: a main video area in the center, a right sidebar with preview controls and trimming tools, and a bottom filmstrip showing all clips in reel order.

Navigating clips

• Click any clip in the bottom filmstrip to switch to it.
• Use ← and → to move between clips with the keyboard.
• The filmstrip shows each clip's trimmed duration and a crop indicator if that clip has correction keyframes set.
• Drag clips in the filmstrip to reorder the reel at any time.
• Remove a clip from the reel using the remove button on its filmstrip card.

When switching clips, the video seeks automatically to that clip's trimmed start. Playback stays within the trimmed range. When it reaches the end, it loops back to the start and pauses.

Trimming

Each clip has its own independent start and end trim points. The sidebar shows the current start time, end time, and trimmed duration.

Fastest workflow (keyboard):

Mouse nudge buttons: The sidebar also has nudge buttons for fine adjustment: -1s, -.1s, +.1s, +1s. It also has Start Here / End Here buttons that set the trim point to the current playhead position.

Aspect Ratio and Crop

Use the aspect ratio selector to choose how the reel will be framed. Three modes are available:

Setting the Crop Path

In 4:5 and 9:16 mode, you control where the crop window sits across the frame by placing correction keyframes. The crop only moves horizontally; it always uses the full video height.

If you add no corrections, the crop stays centered for the entire clip. For most plays, you'll want to add a few corrections so the action stays in frame as it moves across the court.

Adding corrections

1. Switch to 4:5 or 9:16 mode so the crop overlay is visible.
2. Pause the video at a moment when the ball is touched (a serve, a hit, a catch).
3. Click where the crop should center at that moment. CutServe places a correction keyframe at the current playhead position.
4. Repeat for each major touch or action beat in the clip.

The crop pans smoothly between keyframes over time. You don't need to mark every frame. One keyframe per touch is the recommended workflow.

Managing correction keyframes

The scrubber below the video shows the trim span and a dot for each correction keyframe.

• Click a dot to jump the playhead to that keyframe.
• Drag a dot left or right to retime it.
• Select a dot and press Backspace or Delete to remove it.
• Right-click a dot for a delete option.
• Click Reset Corrections in the sidebar to clear all keyframes for the active clip.

Preview

The normal editing view shows the crop overlay on top of the original video. To see exactly what the export will look like, click Preview Clip in the sidebar.

Preview mode shows the clip cropped and framed as it will appear in the final reel, using your current trim and crop corrections. Click Stop Preview to return to editing.

Exporting

Click Export when your reel is ready. CutServe will:

1. Save the current reel state.
2. Open a save dialog. You can save as .mp4 or .mov.
3. Render each clip individually, applying trim and crop corrections.
4. Concatenate the clips into the final reel, preserving audio from the source footage.
5. Show export progress in the UI and alert you when it completes or fails.

The default filename is {project_name}_highlight_reel.mp4.

Saving and Persistence

Highlight Reel state is saved per project. Your clip selection, reel order, trim ranges, crop corrections, and chosen aspect ratio are all preserved.

• The reel autosaves about 5 seconds after any edit.
• It also saves when you leave the page.
• When you reopen a project, the reel picks up exactly where you left off.

Keyboard Shortcuts