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The Master Guide / 11 Editing · The cut

The running assembly after every batch

Cut each batch's keepers into a working timeline as soon as you have reviewed them, so jumps are caught before the next batch [proven].

Cut each batch's keepers into a working timeline as soon as you have reviewed them, so jumps are caught before the next batch [proven].

  1. Place the keepers at their plan windows. Every shot not yet made is a slug: a black placeholder of exactly its planned length (steps below).

  2. Render a low-resolution internal copy (960×540 is enough).

  3. Make a cut sheet: the four frames either side of every cut on one image, with each cut's brightness and colour shift, and the average shot length (the length ÷ the number of shots). Steps below.

  4. Write one line per cut in the next batch report: light, colour, wardrobe and pace, "holds" or "jumps (frame)". A fault found here goes into the next batch's diagnoses (see Planning, budgets and takes → The generation rhythm).

It is never a client file. The full assembly starts from it.

Why: Higgsfield's own Seedance film was assembled as the takes arrived, and an award-winning AI filmmaker builds his rough cut while he generates, as editors cut dailies as they come in. AI filmmakers report light and colour jumps found too late as a common failure.

Do it yourself

Make the slugs (Premiere)

  1. Make each slug a Black Video or Color Matte clip of exactly the shot's planned length.

Make the cut sheet: frames, brightness and colour shift (ffmpeg, Premiere)

  1. Lay the four frames either side of every cut on one image: ffmpeg's tile filter, or stills exported from the timeline.

  2. Read each cut's brightness and colour shift: Lumetri's scopes, or ffmpeg's signalstats (YAVG for brightness, UAVG and VAVG for colour).

Sources

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