CUTROOM field guide / Start here

From raw footage to a paper edit.

Follow the video, then use the eight-step reference below while working on your first documentary.

Video guide

CUTROOM walkthrough

Working order

01
Create a project
Open the Project Shelf and create a canister for your documentary. The canister keeps its reels, analysis, selects, edit, treatment, and archive together.
02
Upload in the Screening Room
Open the first reel and upload your source video. The Screening Room is where you watch the complete recording and return whenever you need to find another moment.
03
Transcribe and analyze
Run transcription to turn speech into timed text, then run analysis to identify speakers, scenes, themes, claims, contradictions, and notable quotations.
04
Mark a select
Move the playhead to the beginning of a useful moment and set IN. Move to its ending and set OUT, then save the select to preserve that exact section.
05
Review the Contact Sheet
Use the Contact Sheet to scan the reel as a visual overview. It helps you move through long recordings and relocate scenes quickly.
06
Organize the Selects Bench
The Selects Bench gathers your saved moments from every reel. Review the clips, compare them, and decide which ones belong in the story.
07
Build the Paper Edit
Move selects into Acts I, II, and III, arrange their order, and play the sequence to test how the documentary flows before opening a traditional editor.
08
Write and archive
Develop the written Treatment from the emerging structure. Use the Archive Ledger to reopen and manage source footage stored for the project.

Your source reel remains available, so one upload can produce as many selects as the story needs.