Tool 04

Reel Time Plus

Hit Your Mark Perfectly.

Running time, always in frame.
Know your over/under before the cut locks.

↓ Standalone — macOS ↓ Standalone — Windows ↓ Resolve Script User Guide View on GitHub

What it does

You're cutting a four-act TV movie to a 1:26:30 delivery spec and you're six minutes over. You need to know which act is carrying the weight — and exactly how much you need to lose. Or you're in DI and need to confirm your total runtime including leaders clears the delivery window before you send the drive.

Reel Time Plus is a running-time calculator built for TV and film editors. Create named show projects, add acts or reels with individual durations, set a goal time, and see your total runtime — with a live over/under readout and a proportional segment bar — updated the moment you change anything. Configure commercial breaks between acts or head/tail film leader per reel, and the total always reflects your actual delivery length. Film projects can display timecodes in feet+frames (35mm or 16mm) or raw frame counts. No DaVinci Resolve connection needed — it runs anywhere Python runs.

Features

Create named show projects — each stores its own acts, goal, FPS, and break settings
Add segments (acts, reels, or any structure) with individual durations
Set a goal time and see over/under live as you edit any segment
Proportional segment bar — see each act's share of the total runtime at a glance
TV breaks: automatically adds (N−1) commercial breaks between acts
Film leader — Whole Show mode: one head and one tail for the full deliverable
Film leader — Per Segment mode: head and tail leader on every individual reel
Film format selector — Digital, 35mm (16 fr/ft), or 16mm (40 fr/ft) per project
View toggles — switch the entire segment list between Timecode, Feet+Frames, and Frames
Spot-check — right-click any segment TC to flip that one row to feet+frames without changing the rest
Enter durations as timecode, feet+frames, or raw frames — toggle per segment in the edit dialog
Accepts H:MM:SS:FF, H:MM:SS.FF, MM:SS.FF, feet+frames (e.g. 1234+08), and bare frame counts on input
11 frame rates: 23.98 NDF, 24, 25, 29.97 DF, 29.97 NDF, 30, 48, 50, 59.94 DF, 59.94 NDF, 60
FPS locked after project creation to keep all frame counts consistent
Open to Projects preference — set the app to always open on the projects list instead of the last project
Fully standalone — no DaVinci Resolve connection required

Pro Tips

FPS is locked — choose before you start

Frame rate cannot be changed after project creation. All frame counts are stored relative to the chosen FPS. Wrong FPS? Start a new project.

Whole Show vs Per Segment leader

Whole Show adds one head + tail for the entire deliverable. Per Segment adds leader to every reel individually — right for DI delivery, wrong for broadcast.

TV breaks: the N−1 rule

Breaks = acts minus one. A four-act show gets three commercial breaks, not four. Set the break duration once and Reel Time Plus handles the math.

Film editors: use Feet+Frames view

Set your project to 35mm or 16mm and switch the view to F+F. Every segment displays in feet+frames, matching your cut list. Right-click any segment to spot-check that row without switching the whole view.

Get Reel Time Plus

Three ways to run it — pick the one that fits your setup.

↓ Standalone — macOS ↓ Standalone — Windows ↓ Resolve Script User Guide

.app / .exe — double-click and go, no Python or Resolve needed — runs on any Mac or Windows machine. · .py — drop it in your Resolve scripts folder, launch from Workspace → Scripts → Utility. Works with DaVinci Resolve 18+ — free version and Studio both supported.

Download the full suite