Get this effect
Switch to Code in your Claude Desktop App
Install the skill (once)
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Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skillsAsk for the effect
Add bleach bypass to input.mp4 Opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1): 0.9 Color left after the blend: 0.45
Several videos, several effects, one ask
Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.
Add bleach bypass to @clip1.mp4, put a sale badge on @clip2.mp4, give @clip3.mp4 a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.
Settings you can change
Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
STRENGTH | 0.9 | Opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1). Higher means harsher contrast. |
SATURATION | 0.45 | Color left after the blend. 1 keeps it all, 0 is black and white. |
CONTRAST | 1.3 | Extra contrast on top of the blend, pushing shadows down and highlights up. |
BRIGHTNESS | -0.1 | Overall brightness shift (-1 to 1), so bright footage doesn't wash out. |
Without the skill
Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.
Show the prompt
Give input.mp4 a bleach bypass look for the whole clip. Using ffmpeg, convert the video to RGB (gbrp), split it, make one copy black and white (hue=s=0) and blend that copy over the color copy in overlay mode at 0.9 opacity (blend=all_mode=overlay:all_opacity=0.9). Then apply eq with saturation 0.45, contrast 1.3 and brightness -0.1. The result should be silvery and low in color, with brighter highlights and darker shadows than the original, but still the same shot with a hint of its color. Keep the size (540x960), 30fps, 6 seconds and the audio. Encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4.Run it without Claude
This is the exact command we tested. Save it as bleach-bypass.sh and run:
sh bleach-bypass.sh input.mp4 output.mp4Show the command
#!/bin/sh
# Bleach bypass: a black-and-white copy laid over the color in overlay mode, then the color pulled back, for a silvery, harsh, high-contrast look.
# Usage: sh bleach-bypass.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
# Needs ffmpeg.
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
STRENGTH=0.9 # opacity of the black-and-white overlay layer (0-1); higher means harsher contrast
SATURATION=0.45 # color left after the blend (1 keeps it all, 0 is black and white)
CONTRAST=1.3 # extra contrast on top of the blend, pushing shadows down and highlights up
BRIGHTNESS=-0.1 # overall brightness shift (-1 to 1), so bright footage doesn't wash out
# work in RGB so the overlay blend acts on each color channel against the gray copy's brightness
ffmpeg -y -v error -i "$IN" -filter_complex "[0:v]format=gbrp,split[color][bw];\
[bw]hue=s=0[bw];\
[color][bw]blend=all_mode=overlay:all_opacity=$STRENGTH,\
eq=saturation=$SATURATION:contrast=$CONTRAST:brightness=$BRIGHTNESS,fps=30,format=yuv420p" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 18 -c:a copy "$OUT"
