FWITW I found a python library moviepy a lot easier to work with (although sometimes you still have to drop down to ffmpeg as it won't do everything ffmpeg can

FWITW I found a python library moviepy a lot easier to work with (although sometimes you still have to drop down to ffmpeg as it won't do everything ffmpeg can do). Moviepy is basically an easy to use wrapper around ffmpeg and some other utilities like ImageMagick. Not as full featured, but one can get quite a long way with it.