When in doubt, Nandi: how R01 was made

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Made with Claude. Direction: gravelmonk. Execution: Claude.

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R01 is a 16-second Instagram reel about my home climb, Nandi Hills. This page gives one full prompt that makes the whole reel, then the tweaks I gave along the way, then the steps Claude took. Copy the full prompt, fill in the brackets, and make your own.

What you need

Your ride videos (I exported mine from Google Photos with Google Takeout)
Strava, connected to Claude
Claude, with access to the folder that holds the footage
Final Cut Pro (optional, for the final polish)
A music track at a known BPM (mine is my own track, at 120 BPM)

The full prompt

Copy this into Claude. Replace each [bracket] with your own details. Claude needs access to your footage folder and your Strava account.

You are my video editor. Make one 16-second vertical Instagram reel about my home climb.

INPUTS
- Footage: a Google Takeout export of my ride videos in [FOLDER]. Use the JSON sidecars for the time and GPS of each file.
- Ride data: my Strava account.
- Music: [TRACK FILE], at [BPM] BPM.
- My handle: [HANDLE]. Home climb: [CLIMB NAME]. Summit altitude: about [SUMMIT M] m. Year: [YEAR].
- Series line (the title): "[SERIES LINE]"
- My line (for the caption): "[YOUR OWN WORDS]"

STEPS
1. Catalogue the export. Keep only files from my phone camera; leave out WhatsApp, Instagram and screenshot copies. Match each clip to a Strava ride by its timestamp (within 20 minutes). Flag duplicates and blurry clips for me to review. Delete nothing.
2. From the Strava altitude streams, list every ride this year that reached the summit of [CLIMB NAME]. Count the summit climbs on each day (some days have 2).
3. Choose 4 or 5 shots of the climb: the arrival sign, one fixed corner that I can film again on every visit, the climb itself, the approach in morning light, and a frame at the summit to hold. Put the shots in date order, oldest first.
4. Cut at 1080 x 1920, 30 fps. Make the reel exactly 8 bars at [BPM] BPM. Put every cut on a bar line. Hold the summit frame for the last 2.5 bars. Bring in the title "[SERIES LINE]" on the downbeat of bar 7.
5. Overlays. Use one mono font and one accent colour.
   - Stat strip on each shot: date, km and climb from Strava, with my handle as a wordmark. On the summit hold, show the wordmark only.
   - Credit tape that rolls up on the left side: one line per summit climb (number and date), ending with "NEXT". Make it clear the screen before the title.
   - Gradient map of the climb from the Strava GPS and altitude, on a dark panel during the hold. It draws on flat, then the camera tilts and orbits so the climb rises in 3D. Colour by gradient: 0-3%, 3-6%, 6-9%, 9% and more. Label the distance, the gain and the average gradient.
   - Credit at the bottom right: "MADE WITH CLAUDE / direction [HANDLE] / execution Claude".
6. Sound. Put the music on top and the ride audio about 12 LU under it. Master to -14 LUFS with a true peak of -1 dBTP.
7. Before each full render, look at the busiest frames at full size and fix what you see.

DELIVER
- A preview MP4.
- An FCPXML file for Final Cut Pro, with markers on each shot, the music on its own lane and the overlays on lanes above the video.
- The overlays as one transparent ProRes 4444 clip.
- A caption that uses my line and the credit.

Prompt tweaks (what I actually said)

I did not write the full prompt first. I got there one step at a time. These are my own words, in order, and what each one changed.

#	What I said	What it changed
1	"I have videos of cycling in Google Photos. I want to use them to create cycling reels, with captions and text, that show who I am as a cyclist."	Set the goal
2	"Let us say 2026 only."	Limited the export to one year
3	"How do I filter only camera photos? There are other backups in Google Photos."	Added the camera-only filter from the sidecars
4	"Let us work on the carousels and reels. We need a storyline."	Started the series plan
5	"When in doubt, Nandi."	Gave the series line and the home climb
6	"Some folks climb once, some climb twice, some climb more number of times, I do what I can."	Gave the thesis, and the reason to count climbs
7	"Can you create R01?"	First cut
8	"Let us say 120 BPM."	Put every cut on a bar line, 8 bars, 16 s
9	My own track, put in the R01 folder	Music and mix
10	"Can we overlay the Strava gradient map for Nandi on this?"	Added the gradient map
11	"Add all the dates of the Nandi climbs till now, like a rolling credit tape going up on the left."	Added the credit tape, from verified summit climbs
12	"Can we make the Nandi map at the end fly out in 3D?"	Map tilts and orbits into 3D
13	"The dates at the bottom, let them be in ascending order."	Shots reordered by date
14	"Add Made With Claude: direction gravelmonk, execution Claude."	Added the credit

The steps

1. Get the footage

Export the album with Google Takeout (Google Photos, one album or one year).
Keep the zips as they are. Each file has a JSON sidecar with the time and GPS of the shot.

2. Catalogue and cull

Claude unzipped the export and read every sidecar: source app, device folder, time, GPS.