Paper-Edit Assistant — AI Skill for Filmmakers

The time sink isn't editing. It's staring at two hours of interview.

The footage is good. Somewhere inside thirty-five minutes of a founder talking there is a ninety-second film, and finding it means watching the whole thing three times while the deadline moves closer.

Then you build a cut, show the client, and get the question every editor dreads: “what about the bit where I explained our mission?” You know why it's out. You just don't have the answer written down. And two weeks later they ask for the 60, the 30 and a bumper.

Paste the transcript. It finds the story, assembles the cut on paper, writes the answer to that question before it's asked, and tells you which questions the interview never got answered.

One skill. Six jobs.

Find the story, build the cut

The verdict first: what the film is actually about, even when that isn't what the client planned. Then the radio cut in final story order, every quote timecoded and verbatim, each pull's duration computed and totalled against the budget. A 90-second film gets 70 seconds of talking, and the arithmetic is on the page.

› Here's the transcript. Target: 90 seconds, brand film.

Get the pickup list

What this interview can't carry, run as a count rather than a feeling: every beat with no pull carrying it, plus the five gaps missing from most interviews — the clean self-ID, the payoff restatement, the stakes, the present-tense line, the specifics. Each one comes with the question that fixes it and a triage.

› What's missing? Give me the pickup questions.

Chapter the long-form

Past four minutes one arc runs out of tension and the middle sags. Films over four minutes get chaptered by formula, each chapter its own mini-arc with its own sub-budget, titled with a phrase from the transcript rather than a topic word.

› This one's a 10-minute doc. Chapter it.

Cut subtitled work properly

Interview in a language the audience doesn't speak? Quotes get selected on the original language, never on a translation, and every pull is checked for readability at 17 characters per second across two lines. A pull that fails gets one named fix rather than quietly shipping unreadable.

› The interview is in German, the film is for English viewers.

Build the cutdown ladder

Say ladder for the 60, the 30 and the bumper, derived from the approved hero cut. The payoff pull survives every length, then the hook, then descending voltage until the next pull would break the budget. In the demo the 60 lands at 36.8 seconds against a 46.8-second budget, and the spare seconds are reported as air for picture and music.

› ladder — they want a 60 and a 30 as well.

Take the client's notes

Say revise and paste them. Each note gets classified before any is answered, and every addition names the pull that paid for it. You get a versioned paper edit plus a change log, so round three can't re-litigate round one.

› revise — here are the client's notes on v1.

A paper edit your client can read.

Real files for the edit bay, the phone call and the client, each exported separately:

The radio cut in story order, every quote timecoded, plus the kill list and the B-roll map
The pull list as a CSV, ready to sit beside the timeline
The pickup page on its own — the questions alone, in asking order
The client summary page, with the edit-bay plumbing left out

Why not just ask the chatbot?

Quotes stay verbatim, with timecodes

It will never smooth a subject's words or put a sentence in their mouth. Every line traces to a number you can scrub to, and multi-interview cuts prefix each timecode with its source.

The runtime maths actually runs

Every pull's duration is computed at 150 words a minute plus a second for each marked pause, then summed against the budget. The demo's first assembly comes in at 87.4 seconds against a 90-second target, says so, cuts one pull and re-totals at 69.6.

It finds what the footage lacks

The pickup list names the beats no quote covers and writes the questions that fix them. Caught on paper it's a ten-minute phone call. Caught in the edit it's a reshoot.

Your first five minutes.

Install it, then type any of these. No prompt-writing, no setup screens.

1Here's the interview transcript. Target: 90 seconds. [paste]
2What's missing? Write the pickup questions.
3ladder — I need the 60, the 30 and a bumper.
4revise — the client's notes are below.
5demo — watch a rambling interview become a film.

Plug and play

From download to done in three steps.

Buy & download

A skill folder and a one-page install guide. Claude and ChatGPT are both included.

ii.

Drop it in

About a minute, once. Then fill your profile — the same one every skill in the suite reads.

iii.

Just talk

Paste the job in front of you — an email, a brief, a spreadsheet. It runs the whole workflow and hands back a finished file.

What it won't do.

Every skill in the store ships with this section. If a tool won't tell you its limits, it's selling you something.

It's a paper edit, not a picture edit. Pacing on paper is an estimate and the footage always gets the final vote.
It reads transcripts, not footage. A moment that only works visually makes the cut when your notes mention it.
On subtitled work it marks every translation for a native speaker to verify, and flags each name, place and number rather than vouching for them.

Questions.

What exactly is an AI skill?

A small file you add to Claude or ChatGPT once. It teaches the AI you already use this specific professional workflow — so from then on, one sentence runs the whole job. No prompt writing, no new app to learn. You buy it once, download it, and it's yours. It runs inside the Claude or ChatGPT account you already have; the free tiers work too.

How is this different from just asking Claude or ChatGPT?

A chatbot summarises what was said. The Paper-Edit Assistant produces a radio cut: selected quotes in final story order, each timecoded and justified, with every pull's duration computed and totalled against a runtime budget. It adds three ranked cold opens, a B-roll map, the kill list, and a pickup list of what the interview never covered.

What is the pickup list?

A page of the questions this interview never answered. Every story beat is counted against the quotes carrying it, then checked against the five gaps missing from most interviews: the clean self-introduction, the payoff restatement, the stakes, a present-tense line about the hero image, and the specifics the client will ask for. Each entry carries the question to ask and how cheaply it can be fixed.

Can it give me the 60 and the 30 as well?

Yes — that's ladder mode. Each length is derived mechanically from the approved hero cut: the payoff pull survives every version, then the hook, then remaining pulls in descending order until the next would break the budget. Pulls that only work because an earlier line set them up keep their setup or get dropped, which is the most common way a cutdown breaks.

What happens when the client sends notes?

Say revise and paste them. Notes get classified first — taste, structural, factual, or a request to restore something already on the kill list — and every addition names which pull comes out to pay for it. You get a new versioned paper edit plus a change log, and the approved version is never overwritten.

Is it a subscription?

No. The Paper-Edit Assistant is $19 once, yours to keep, updates included.

Your 35-minute interview is a 90-second film.