The Best Prompts for Editing Interviews

Rough cut

1. A rough cut with a clear length and opening

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   Build a [4]-minute rough cut of the interview with [name]. Open on the strongest answer about [topic], keep each answer whole rather than cutting mid-sentence, and use natural pacing.

   Eddie reads the transcript, picks the soundbites, builds the edit to the length you named and reports the finished length against the footage it used.

2. Search before you cut

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   Find every answer where [name] talks about [topic]. List each one with its timestamp and the first line of the answer. Do not build an edit yet.

   Eddie searches the transcript and returns the matching passages, so you can choose before anything is cut.

3. A selects timeline for your editor

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   Rate every answer in the interview and export a selects timeline for Premiere Pro: the best answers on track 3, usable answers on track 2, and everything else on track 1.

   Eddie rates the transcript against the tiers you name and writes a timeline with one tier per track, so an editor starts from the best material.

Highlights

1. The emotional moments

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   Find the moments in the interview where [name]'s voice breaks, they pause for a long time, or they look away, then build a 60-second highlight around the three strongest.

   Eddie analyses the footage for moments the transcript cannot show, records them with timestamps, then cuts the highlight from them.

2. The quotable lines

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   Pull the five most quotable single sentences from the interview and put them in a 45-second cut, strongest first.

   Eddie picks short, complete sentences that stand on their own, which is what a highlight or a trailer needs.

Social clips

1. Three vertical clips

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   Make three vertical 30-second clips for Instagram Reels from answers that make sense on their own. Crop each to a close-up on the speaker's face and add social-style captions.

   Eddie builds each clip as its own edit, sets a 9:16 canvas, crops to the detected face and adds word-by-word captions.

2. A square clip for LinkedIn

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   Turn the best 20-second answer about [topic] into a square clip for LinkedIn, with a short title in the first two seconds that says what the answer is about.

   Eddie cuts the answer, sets a square canvas and places the title at the start.

Captions

1. Clean captions

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   Add captions in the documentary look at the bottom of the frame, two lines at most, and leave out filler words like um and uh.

   Eddie times the captions from the transcript's word timings. Filler words are left out of the caption text by default.

2. Fix names first

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   Correct the transcript everywhere it says [misheard word] to [correct name], and everywhere it says [misheard company] to [correct company].

   Eddie replaces the words and keeps every word timing, so captions built from the transcript stay in sync.

3. Name the speakers

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   Speaker 1 is [interviewer name] and Speaker 2 is [guest name]. Rename them in this interview.

   Eddie renames the speakers for that interview, on every camera angle that belongs to it.

B-roll

Eddie uses your own b-roll first. Where you have nothing that fits, it searches stock footage: free Pexels clips, plus your own Shutterstock catalog if you connect it. When neither has the shot, it can generate a short b-roll clip. It quotes the credits first and generates nothing until you agree. You can also tell it to use only your own footage.

1. B-roll from your footage, then stock

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   Add b-roll over the answers about [topic]. Use my own b-roll first. Where nothing fits, search stock footage, and ask me before you generate any shot.

   Eddie places your own b-roll first, searches stock where you have nothing, and only generates a shot after it quotes the credits and you agree.

2. Hide the jump cuts

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   Cover every cut inside an answer with b-roll so the viewer never sees the jump. Leave the start of each answer on the speaker.

   Eddie places b-roll over the cut points only, so each answer still opens on a face.

Music

1. A quiet bed under the talking

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   Add a quiet piano bed under the whole cut, ducked under speech, and fade it out over the last answer.

   Eddie attaches the track, ducks it under speech by default and sets the fade where you asked.

Multicam

1. Sync the cameras and cut between them

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   Sync the A camera, the B camera and the lav recording as one multicam group. Cut to the close-up when [guest] makes a key point and to the wide shot between answers.

   Eddie measures the sync offsets, groups the files and assigns an angle to each segment of the edit.

2. Use the best microphone

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   Use the lav microphone audio for the whole interview instead of the camera audio.

   Eddie sets the group's audio source, so every cut plays the lav recording.

Export

1. A Premiere Pro project with real multicam

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   Export the rough cut as a Premiere Pro project and keep the multicam clips as multicam.

   Eddie writes a native .prproj that keeps bins, crops, audio levels and real multicam clips, pointing at your original media.

2. A review link for the client

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   Give me a review link for this cut so [client] can watch it and leave notes at the timecode.

   Eddie returns a link to a web page where reviewers watch the cut and comment without an Eddie account.