Sorting footage and assisted editing

This lesson is still being tested: it improves with learners' feedback. If something is unclear, it is the lesson that needs fixing, not you.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to

sort your footage: go through your images and your voice, keep the best;
have the AI propose a footage sort from a transcript, and check it;
edit your video in free software, following your storyboard;
add music you have the right to use.

Why it matters to you

“Raw footage” means your images and your raw takes: the good ones, the failed ones, the hesitations. Sorting them takes time, and that is where AI can help you, working from the text of what is said. But the editing itself is done in software, by ear and by eye. This lesson shares the work: the AI prepares, you decide and you cut.

Before you start


You need	Editing software: Clipchamp (free online editor), DaVinci Resolve (free download) or iMovie (Mac, iPhone, iPad); your images, your voice and your subtitles (lessons 2 and 3); your assistant or Claude Code
Cost	€0 with the free versions; extra features on paid plans
Duration	70 minutes
Reminder	Raw footage showing other people stays private until you have their permission

Understand it in 3 minutes

Three editing programs, as of the date (24/10/2026, according to their pages):

Software	What its page says	For whom
Clipchamp (Microsoft)	A free online video editor, with exports up to 1080p HD on the free plan; premium features included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family	Getting started, in the browser. You need a personal Microsoft account, and Edge or Chrome on a computer (not Safari, not a phone browser)
DaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design)	A free download, and a paid version, Studio; editing, color grading, effects, sound	Going further, on a powerful enough computer
iMovie (Apple)	A free app on iPhone, iPad and Mac; on Mac, the latest version needs a recent macOS (macOS 26.4 or later on 28/10/2026)	Simple editing on an Apple device

Assisted footage sorting, from a timestamped transcript (the text of what is said, with the times): the AI proposes what to keep and what to cut (silences, hesitations, repetitions, false starts), with the reason. You check that no information is lost, then you cut in the software.

The transcript of your interview is offered by some programs: Clipchamp, for example, generates a transcript with times, in the Captions tab, Transcribe media button (Microsoft help, 25/10/2026).

Check, tool by tool, what its free plan allows. To practice, the example in step 1 is enough.

Music. According to YouTube, its audio library, in YouTube Studio (you need a YouTube account), offers copyright-safe music and sound effects that you can use in your videos on YouTube.

If you publish elsewhere, YouTube says it cannot help you legally with the use of music outside its platform: read the license of each track. For a track under a Creative Commons license, you must state the artist’s name in the description.

Do it together

1Step 1: The footage sort proposed by the AI

With a timestamped transcript (from your interview, or the example below, made up):

[00:00.0 - 00:03.2] Um... hello, so, um, I'm Lou, the club's secretary.
[00:03.2 - 00:06.0] (silence)
[00:06.0 - 00:11.5] So, the back-to-school evening, it's on... wait... it's on November 22, at 18:30.
[00:11.5 - 00:15.0] It's on November 22 at 18:30, there.
[00:15.0 - 00:19.8] We'll be at the media library, Victor-Hugo room, on the second floor.
[00:19.8 - 00:24.0] And, um, the theme is "a book that made you travel".
[00:24.0 - 00:26.5] (laughs) Sorry, let me start again.
[00:26.5 - 00:31.0] The theme is "a book that made you travel".
[00:31.0 - 00:36.2] Everyone brings a book and presents it in three minutes, no more, okay.
[00:36.2 - 00:38.0] (silence)
[00:38.0 - 00:43.5] To sign up, you need to write to me before November 15, so.
[00:43.5 - 00:46.0] There, um, see you soon!

Then:

Here is the timestamped transcript of a filmed interview. Propose a footage sort: a table of the passages to KEEP and to CUT, with their exact times and the reason for each cut (silence, hesitation, repetition, false start). Do not cut any information. Give the estimated final length.
[paste the transcript]

In our test of 24/10/2026, on a made-up 46-second transcript, Claude Code proposed cutting 15 seconds (silences, hesitations and false starts), for a final length of about 31 seconds: we recalculated, and it is correct. No information was lost.

And it warned that cuts in the middle of a sentence are estimates, “to be matched to the waveform when editing”.

2Step 2: Check the footage sort

Is every piece of information from the transcript in a kept passage?
Do the times exist in the transcript?
Is the final length right? Redo the addition.

3Step 3: Editing, shot by shot

In your software:

import your images, your voice and your music (and your SRT file in DaVinci Resolve: the iMovie and Clipchamp help pages don’t describe this import, see lesson 3);
place the voice, then the images in the order of the storyboard;
cut what the footage sort removed, listening to each cut;
add the subtitles (lesson 3) and the on-screen text;
set the music under the voice: the voice must stay clear;
watch the whole video, and compare the length to the storyboard.

Your turn

Have the footage sort of your takes proposed, then check it.
Edit your video following the storyboard.
Add music whose license you know, and note its credit if one is required.
Watch the whole video twice: once with sound, once without.

Check your work

It worked if:

the footage sort was checked: information, times, length;
the editing follows the storyboard, and its length is the target length;
the voice stays clear above the music;
the music has a known license, and its credit is ready if one is required.

Common mistakes:

cutting exactly at the proposed times, without listening;
losing a piece of information while cutting a hesitation;
music found on the Internet, with no license;
effects everywhere, which tire the eye (lesson 5).

Keep it and pick it up later

Keep the editing project, not only the exported video: it is your editable source (as in module 10).
Note in your folder: the software and its version, the music and its license.

Going further

optional

In Claude Code, a transcript can also be used to prepare the shot titles and the video description, from what is really said.

New words

5 words explained

Word	What it means
Raw footage (rushes)	The images and raw takes, before editing
Footage sorting	Sorting the raw footage: what to keep, what to cut
Timestamped transcript	The text of what is said, with the times
Timeline	The strip in the editing software where you place images, sound and text
Waveform	The drawing of the sound in the software, showing where the speech and the silences are

The footage sort in step 1 was actually run with Claude Code 2.1.310, on a made-up transcript, and we recalculated the durations (test report, T63). To be checked: no editing was done in any software for this lesson (no video production while it was written); each program’s transcription features have not been checked.