KynikossDragonn said:
You mean to tell me you don't see the file, right there, next to the mp4...?

Not trying to sound condescending but, I'm having a hard time understanding what's hard to understand about ffmpeg's operation... Unless MacOS is doing something stupid and forcing it to output the file somewhere else you're not paying attention to in Finder. (is that what the file manager is called in MacOS?)

i found it!! it was sent to my video player app. thank you so much for your help, you have the patience of a saint and have restored years to my life

thank you to savageorange and mairo as well! couldn't have done it without y'all either!!