---
url: https://superduperai.co/library/promise-payoff-pairs-multi-day-film/
title: Promise and payoff: find the pairs that thread a multi-day film
description: An agent prompt that reads several days of transcripts and pairs every promise ('tomorrow we'll buy the boat') with the moment it is kept or broken, so the film has a thread, not a sequence of days.
category: editing
platforms: [youtube]
works_with: [claude-code, claude]
tags: [story, structure, multi-day, vlog, transcript, agent, editing]
difficulty: advanced
verified: false
created: 2026-11-01
skill: video-edit
---

# Promise and payoff: find the pairs that thread a multi-day film

An agent prompt that reads several days of transcripts and pairs every promise ('tomorrow we'll buy the boat') with the moment it is kept or broken, so the film has a thread, not a sequence of days.

## Prompt

```text
Below are the transcripts of {N} days of footage, in shooting order, each sentence tagged with day, clip and time. Find every PROMISE: a sentence about something that will happen later (a plan, a wish, a bet, a 'tomorrow', a 'we'll see', a 'never again'). For each, search the later days for the PAYOFF: the moment it happens, fails, or is mentioned again.

Output a table: Promise (day, clip, time, quote) | Payoff (day, clip, time, quote, or 'none found') | Type (kept / broken / forgotten) | Gap in days | Keep both? (yes if the payoff is visible on camera or said clearly).

Then propose the thread: the 3-5 pairs that would carry the whole film, in the order they should appear, with one sentence on why each one matters to someone who was not there. Mark any promise without a payoff that is still worth keeping as an open question for the ending.

Transcripts:
{paste day transcripts}
```

## Steps

1. Transcribe all days first and fix names with a glossary; a promise about 'Mehmet' and a payoff about 'Mohammed' will not be paired.
2. Run the prompt over all days at once, not per day. The pairs cross days by definition.
3. Keep both halves of every chosen pair in the cut, in order. A payoff whose promise was cut is a random event; a promise whose payoff was cut is a loose end the viewer notices at the credits.

## Tips

- Broken promises make better threads than kept ones. 'We'll catch the 7 am ferry' followed by the midnight ferry is the film.
- A long trip film is cut from the finished day films; find the pairs before cutting the days, so each day keeps its half.

## Works with

- Claude Code: Runs as a skill or a prompt in the terminal; can read your files and write the result.
- Claude: Paste into claude.ai or the Claude app.