Rough cut by quote

You choose by text; BashCut resolves it to frames and flags edges inside a word or sentence; it never ranks or picks. Never type timestamps from memory or from SRT lines: tools that let the model write times are off by 0.6–1.5 s (T06 §4). The ranges below are starting points; choose within them for this footage.

A rough cut is selection and order only: no music, titles, grade or effects unless the user asks (T06 §4). Be generous on the first pass and tighten later: a discarded moment is slow to find again (T06 §2).

Before selecting

1. Transcripts and speech gaps of each talking file (media transcribe, media transcript, media speech-map; bc:footage-survey). When the speech-map says there is no separation (music or noise under the voice), it gives no gaps: do not invent them.
2. Classify the source (T06 §4): words (the content is what is said: talks, interviews, tutorials), reactions (laughter, surprise: watch the picture; laughter and "clip that" lag the moment they react to) or visual (demonstrations, sport: the transcript is weak evidence, use the survey's descriptions).
3. The brief and plan (project data brief, project data plan): length, outputs and sections decide what is worth keeping.
4. Take the survey's recording cues (bc:footage-survey, hygiene checklist): no range starts, ends or runs across a cue; after "cut that", "take two" or "làm lại" the dead take is not a candidate. Between two takes of a line ([again T] in media digest, alternatives from resolve-range) the later one wins unless you looked and the earlier is better; say which in the select's reason.
5. Cut restarts and repeated phrases, including the ones the transcript hides (the survey's suspect words: a word over ~1 s or under ~0.4 confidence, re-transcribed). A select never holds a phrase said twice; keep the later, complete take, and check the range again with the re-transcribed words before placing it.

The select-by-quote loop

For each moment: bashcut media resolve-range M3 --quote "the first time I opened the app it crashed". Pick among alternatives by context.

• matched under 1: read text. A misheard word is fine, but a range that holds only one or two of your words means the quote is not there; never place it.
• An edge midSentence is allowed only when you mean it (a deliberate interruption). Otherwise move it to the nearest sentence edge the result gives and resolve again.
• Cut on the resolve-range result as it is; never add padding by hand. In connected speech the next word starts within ~0.1 s: a 0.1 s pad pulled the neighbouring words in (lesson, one ad edit). To hold a breath or a reaction, resolve a wider quote or move the edge to a sentence edge the result gives, then check the trim with --dry-run (cutsInsideWord must be empty) before applying.
• Gaps as cut points (T06 §3, video-use): ≥400 ms of quiet is a clean cut; 150–400 ms needs a look at the picture; <150 ms is unsafe. Whisper-style word ends hide pauses, so trust media speech-map gaps over word ends (T06 §4).
• Takes: default to the last complete take ("people warm up", T06 §3), then confirm by reading or asking; a fluent take is not always better.
• Long lifts: removing more than 10–20 s at once needs a look (T06 §3): quiet is not empty picture in a screen demo.

Store your choices as selects with reasons, in one edit (bashcut selects set selects.json --base-rev N):

[{"media": "M3", "from": 61.42, "to": 74.9, "quote": "the first time I opened the app it crashed",
  "reason": "hook: the problem in one sentence", "evidence": "edges on sentence ends; last complete take of three",
  "mustKeep": true}]

Give order when the story order differs from the recording order. The user can keep, reject or reorder selects in the Media panel: before placing, read selects list again and follow their choices. Never undo a user's rejection; ask instead. Keep and reject with a reason ({"id":"S1","status":"kept","reason":"hook and payoff"}); mark the lines the edit cannot lose with mustKeep.

Blind second pass (long → short, or many candidates)

Propose about 2× the clips you need (T06 §3): 30–45 % of AI picks are duds (hotclip, T06 §3). Then judge them blind: a fresh sub-agent (or you, ignoring your reasons) gets each candidate's text with one sentence of context on each side (media transcript --from S --to E) and returns a verdict with one sentence why:

• publish: stands alone and pays off; mark kept.
• review: promising but needs a trim, a different start or the user's eye; keep candidate with the note.
• drop: fails the standalone test or quote-mines; mark rejected with the reason.

Prefer these tiers to a weighted score (T06 §3). Ranking by score breaks story order; a highlight batch kept in recording order hides the best clips: order by narrative for one video, by strength for a batch (T06 §2).

The standalone test

A clip shown without the rest must make sense (T06 §2, openmontage):

• no unresolved "he", "this", "that one" pointing to something outside the clip;
• no reference to earlier context ("as I said");
• no long lead-in before the point; the setup, turn and payoff are inside;
• it does not stop before the payoff or on a comma;
• a stitch of two ranges never makes a meaning that was not said: do not stitch across a "but" or "however" (T06 §2).

Length

Length follows the moment: setup + turn + payoff, then capped by the platform (T06 §3).

Never cut natural speech short to hit a quota or a "sweet spot" (T06 §4).

Placing and checking

The quick path writes the kept lines straight into plan.cut ({media, quote, section}, cover for pictures over a line), then plan check and plan apply --why "rough cut: 7 lines, hook first"; the selects stay as the record of what was picked. Or selects place (kept selects on Main, in order); then timeline sheet --cuts. One range without selects: media place --media M3 --from 61.42 --to 74.9. Before any later trim, --dry-run reports cutsInsideWord; fix those before applying. captions find "words as said" finds where a line now plays. A cut inside a word is a review error; look at doubtful cuts with review window F.

Then G3: checkpoint request G3 --summary "<duration> against <plan range>, N selects, what was dropped and why" --attach <sheet path>. When G3 is ask, wait for the user's answer before rhythm, sound and text; otherwise go on.

Several shorts from one source

One project per short, not one timeline: project derive (a sibling per kept select; variants list shows them). Open each (project open <path>) and finish it through the stages of bc:edit-workflow (its own hook, captions and review). Compare two versions of one short with variants create and variants diff.

Log: run append stage --stage rough-cut --text "20 candidates, 9 kept, 3 shorts derived".