Add Metadata icon

Add Metadata¶

Reads a filled-in clip inventory spreadsheet and pushes it back into Resolve and onto disk, in up to three independent ways — placing frame counter clips on the timeline, exporting FCPXML title files, and exporting SRT subtitle files. All three can run together in a single pass.

Start with a Clip Inventory export

Add Metadata expects the spreadsheet shape that Clip Inventory produces: bold Record In/Record Out headers and your own metadata typed into the columns after that. See Export a Clip Inventory if you haven't generated one yet.

Launching it¶

Workspace → Scripts → Edit → 03 Add Metadata, with the matching timeline open.

Add Metadata main window

Interface reference¶

Excel File¶

Path to your filled-in clip inventory spreadsheet. As soon as you enter or browse to a valid file, Theia reads its header row and populates every other section below — Clip Data Columns, Metadata Columns, and the VFX Shot Code Column dropdown all repopulate automatically.

Clip Data Columns¶

Two dropdowns, Record In and Record Out, listing every column in your sheet that has a header. Theia tries to auto-select these by matching a column header named (case-insensitively) "Record In" or "Record Out" — which is exactly what Clip Inventory names them. If auto-detection doesn't find a match (for example, you renamed a column, or built the sheet by hand), pick the right columns yourself. Go stays disabled until both are set.

Frame Counter¶

Adds a new video track to the timeline and places a frame counter clip at the position of every shot — but only for rows where a VFX shot code is filled in.

Add frame counter videos to timeline — enables this operation. Checked by default.
Frame Counter File — the .mov generated by the Frame Counter tool.
Starting Frame Number — the frame number that corresponds to the first frame of the frame counter video (defaults to 1001, matching Frame Counter's own default Start value).
VFX Shot Code Column — which metadata column holds the shot code used to name each placed clip. Required if Frame Counter is enabled; rows with this column empty are skipped. These named clips are exactly what the Shot List tool later reads as the frame counter track.

Metadata Columns¶

A checklist of every populated column in your sheet (aside from the thumbnail column). Whichever columns you check here are the ones written out by FCPXML Titles and SRT Subtitles below — typically your custom shot code, vendor, or note columns, but you can include any column.

Select All / Deselect All — bulk toggle.
↻ (refresh) — reload columns from the file (use after editing the spreadsheet without restarting Theia).

FCPXML Titles¶

Export metadata to FCPXML title files — when checked, writes one .fcpxml file per checked metadata column, named after the column header (e.g. a "VFX Shot Code" column becomes VFX Shot Code.fcpxml). Each file contains Basic Title elements timed to that column's Record In/Out, ready to import into Resolve as a title track.
Output Directory — where the files are written. Defaults to ~/Downloads/.

SRT Subtitles¶

Export metadata to SRT subtitle files — same idea as FCPXML, but writes one .srt file per checked column (e.g. VFX Shot Code.srt), for import as a subtitle track.
Output Directory — defaults to ~/Downloads/.

Set Frame Rate¶

The timeline's frame rate, used to convert Record In/Out timecodes correctly for both the frame counter placement and the FCPXML/SRT timing. Theia attempts to auto-detect this from the currently open timeline; if it can't, or the value doesn't match a preset, Custom... appears with the detected (or last-used) value pre-filled. Double-check this matches your timeline before clicking Go.

Go¶

Disabled until both Record In and Record Out columns are chosen. Validates that at least one of Frame Counter / FCPXML / SRT is enabled, then runs all enabled operations in one pass, logging progress for each.

Output summary¶

Operation	Output
Frame Counter	New video track on the open timeline, with one frame counter clip per shot, named by VFX shot code
FCPXML Titles	One `<column name>.fcpxml` file per selected column
SRT Subtitles	One `<column name>.srt` file per selected column

Tips¶

You can run Add Metadata multiple times against the same spreadsheet as you fill in more columns — each run only touches the operations you've enabled.
If the FCPXML or SRT files come out empty for a column, check that the corresponding rows in the spreadsheet actually have that column filled in — empty cells produce no title/subtitle entry.
See Add Metadata to a Timeline for the complete end-to-end workflow, including importing the FCPXML/SRT files back into Resolve.