The cutaway rule: what is said, same place and time, never over moving lips
Three constraints for every cutaway in a talking film, and the agent prompt that applies them to a transcript. Kills what viewers read as broken: a picture from elsewhere, a face out of sync.
You are placing cutaways in a film cut from real footage. Below are the numbered sentences of the transcript with the clip each comes from and its shooting time, and a list of silent shots with clip, time and a one-line description of what is visible. For each sentence, decide: no cutaway, or one cutaway. A cutaway is allowed only if ALL three hold: 1. It shows what the sentence says: the object, place or action named in it, literally. 'The bread' means a shot with the bread in it. 2. It comes from the same place and within {15} minutes of the sentence's shooting time. Never from a scene the story has not reached yet, never from one it has left. 3. The speaker's lips are not visible on camera during the sentence. If they are, the sentence stays on the speaker. No exceptions for a nicer shot. Output a table: Sentence | Text | Cutaway clip + in/out | What it shows | Which of the three rules you checked and how. If no silent shot passes all three, write 'none' and, in a separate list, what shot would have been needed (so it can be filmed next time). Sentences: {paste numbered sentences} Silent shots: {paste shot list}
In Claude Code, paste the prompt as a message, or run /video-edit which does this end to end.
Steps
- Produce the two inputs first: the numbered transcript (clip, time, text) and a shot list with a one-line description per silent shot, from the analysis sidecars or from watching.
- Run the prompt; then lay out the result as a contact sheet with the line under each cutaway and read it. Measured on one film: 12 of 54 automatic cutaways were off topic.
- Place cutaways only in silent windows: between sentences, over a breath, over the listener. If the window is shorter than the cutaway, shorten the cutaway, not the rule.
Tips
- Rule 3 is the one editors break for a better shot. The viewer does not see a better shot; they see a face whose voice continued without it.
- Same place, same time is what makes a cut feel like you were there. A beach shot over a line said in the car is stock footage.
- Automatic matching by caption similarity picks a car for a line about a garage, and a frame upside down. Read every pair.
| works with | Claude Code: Runs as a skill or a prompt in the terminal; can read your files and write the result. · CapCut / any editor: A manual recipe for any editor. · By hand: No tool needed: a checklist or a technique. |
| skill | npx skills add fortunto2/solo-factory/video-edit · source |
| cost | Free. No API, no key. |
| status | Unverified: written from the technique, not yet run end to end by us. |
| license | CC BY 4.0 for the text here; skills are MIT. |
| updated | 2026-11-01 |
| for agents | cutaway-rule-same-place-same-time.md |
Related
A contact sheet of every cutaway with its line under it
The one-page check that catches off-topic cutaways before anyone watches: every cutaway frame in a grid, its sentence under it. Measured once: 12 of 54 automatic cutaways were off topic.
Cutaway matching: sentence to a literal visual, same place and time
A prompt that reads each sentence of a transcript and names the one picture that shows it, with the place and time it must come from, so the shot list is a list of things, not moods.
A mentioned object must be seen, ideally just before the line about it
The rule that turns 'X is mentioned, never shown' from a viewer complaint into a check you run on the transcript: every named thing gets a shot, placed just before or on the line.
The day as one text file: an agent reads the speech and proposes the story
The step before any timeline: the day's speech in shooting order, numbered by clip and sentence, read by an agent like a scriptwriter. It proposes story, scenes, hook and cutaways; you argue in text.
Length follows the material: cut stammers and repeats, not thoughts
The decision rule for how long a film should be. A target length makes you stretch a thin day or chop a full one; the material decides, and the checklist says what may be removed.
Scenes, not best phrases: keep the lead-in, the talk and the reaction
Why a reel of good lines confuses everyone who was not there, and the checklist for keeping a scene whole: the lead-in, the talk, the reaction, with filler trimmed only at the ends.