diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b91f249..5fc17c9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,13 +1,49 @@
-# viewer
-interactive player for MIT: REGRESSIONS, with footnotes, sources, and more
+# documentary metadata viewer v0.1
+interactive player for [MIT: REGRESSIONS](https://regressions.net), with footnotes, music, and footage sources revealing themselves as they appear in the movie. This viewer can be extended to support any source-heavy film or documentary! 
 
-Currently using NextJS with create-t3-app and deploying to Vercel (https://vercel.com/regressions)
+<img width="1777" alt="image" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/10426513/210282642-36142be5-a12c-4895-8cdf-a878e243cb81.png">
 
-Uses react-player to play video in-browser, currently experimenting with [webvtt-player](https://github.com/umd-mith/webvtt-player) to display captions + sources + commentary + footnotes as the video plays!
 
-TODO:
-- create custom VTT schema with [OHMS support]() for our project's needs (implies ample unit testing and some E2E)
-- create VTT builder so we can easily add sources (likely will be a light GUI, don't want to just do plain text editing of VTTs)
-- create pretty caption playback
+This player reads transcript and metadata from a user-supplied [.VTT file](https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/).
 
-View current deployment at https://viewer-dukeeagle-regressions.vercel.app/
\ No newline at end of file
+Snippet of .VTT metadata used in the [current demo](https://viewer-dukeeagle-regressions.vercel.app/):
+
+```vtt
+00:00:45.601 --> 00:00:47.499
+{
+    "uid": "3",
+    "type": "video_source",
+    "data": {
+        "type": "video_source",
+        "title": "MIT: Progressions",
+        "artist": "David and Sheri Espar",
+        "year": "1969",
+        "notes": "AI-upscaled and frame-interpolated",
+        "retrieved_from": "Kenneth Friedman (YouTube)",
+        "hyperlink": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3mq5E0GwLA&ab_channel=KennethFriedman"
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Metadata is read according to this custom schema:
+
+
+### State of project
+
+This project has lots of work remaining! We are proud present our initial v0.1 of the viewer as a proof-of-concept. Roadmap:
+- [x] custom .VTT schema defined and implemented
+- [x] custom .VTT viewer with bindings to video player implemented
+- [ ] "timeline" view for easier metadata viewing at-a-glance
+- [ ] custom .VTT metadata populator GUI for easily labeling large movies / videos (This will be necessary for precesely labeling all 3.5 hours of MIT: REGRESSIONS!)
+
+This repo also needs proper CI, testing, linting, and refactoring in order to be reliable in the long-term. #1 priority is clearing tech debt before new features!
+
+# Live demo!
+🚀 View current deployment at https://viewer-dukeeagle-regressions.vercel.app/
+ 
+Bult on top of the excellent [webvtt-player](https://github.com/umd-mith/webvtt-player), which just supports audio metadata and transcription viewing. Converted this package to Typescript and a more modern, functional React format.
+
+Built with create-t3-app and deploying to Vercel (https://vercel.com/regressions)
+
+# Full schema definition
+See /schema.md for full definition of our custom .VTT metadata format