Automate Video Editing While Keeping Creative Control (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Right now, you've got a million hour long recordings, a content calendar that keeps growing, and let's be honest, a few hobbies you'd maybe like to actually get back to someday. But you want a finished video just as much as anyone else. So is there a way you can automate video editing? The answer is yes, with an asterisk. Now we've gone over what an MCP is, and how you can set up Descript's MCP with your assistant of choice. But today we're going to go over how you can go from footage to final video with as little manual work as possible. But I'm just going to let you know now up front, if you want an actual watchable video, there are some things that I recommend you do not try to automate. So we're going to go through each step of the video editing process, and talk about if and how you can add it to an automated workflow. And let's talk about the very first step in the video editing process, uploading and organizing all the footage that you just recorded. Now this is something that you can actually automate. But in order for this whole automation workflow to work best, it's important to note that you'll have to upload your files onto a storage service like Google Drive or Frame.io that also have their own MCPs, since you aren't going to be able to upload huge video files into your assistant itself. First I'll just upload my footage and any graphics I might need into the drive. And from here, I can actually have my assistant take my footage and reorganize them into their proper video and audio folders, so I don't have to do all that stuff myself. Which can get a lot more annoying the more footage I have to work with. And I can even have my assistant rename my files, so I can have them nice and formatted too. Heads up though, some assistants can actually watch your footage just in case your filenames need any context. But often times that requires you to upload your files into the assistant itself, which again can be pretty costly the longer your footage is. Next it's time to import our footage into a project and get it nice and primed for editing. And this is all just boring logistical stuff, so again this is something you can automate. But it's very important that before you do this, you make sure to allow proper sharing permissions in Google Drive so your assistant can actually transfer your files to Descript. Now all you have to do is ask your assistant to take all the files in your drive folder and throw them into a new project in Descript. And you can even specify which folder in your Descript drive you want it to be created in. From here, you can tell your assistant to set up your project however you want. For example, I want a video, audio, and graphics folder with the proper files placed in them. And if I needed to create a sequence, I can ask it to do that as well. Then I'll ask to put all my footage into a composition for me, and boom. Easy peasy, my project is set up for me. That didn't rhyme, but you get it. And even though I'm not planning to be doing a whole bunch of editing in this use case, it's still important that my project is nice and organized for when I do want to jump in. And now we're moving on to the rough cut of our video. And this is something that you can hand off, but there is a trade-off here. See, automating your rough cut is great for getting rid of all the fluff like retakes, dead air, and filler words from your video automatically. But the rough cut serves as the foundation of your video. It's the starting point that you build off of as you go. So there can be a certain level of creative control lost here if you hand this off. That's why if you do choose to hand this off, it's super important that you review the cuts and choices that your assistant makes, or have it give you multiple options to choose from in terms of style, pacing, content, all that fun stuff. So if you think that the trade-off is worth it, then go ahead and automate. But if you want to be really meticulous in particular about starting off in the direction you want, then it's probably best you take the rough cut on yourself. So I'll ask my assistant to make my rough cut for me. And it's also super vital for all these prompts that you're being as descriptive and detailed as possible. Treat it as if you're giving notes to a real editor. The more detailed you are with your prompts, the more accurate your results are going to be. And if that's not quite what you're happy with, you can even ask Underlord to turn what you did into a skill, which is a saved set of instructions. That way, next time you can use your saved skill instead of having to start from scratch. Next is the picture lock, where we finalize all the visuals in our video. And this includes graphics, animation, b-roll, captions, pacing, all that stuff. And as you can see, this is something that I think would be best done with a human touch. Depending on how complex you want your edit to be, there are just so many creative and technical decisions here that would be better made by you and not your assistant. So in my opinion, I would keep all the creative calls manual. But that doesn't mean that you have to do it all by hand. See, because getting a picture lock done isn't really one step. It's really just a big pile of smaller jobs. So some of those jobs are easier to hand off than others. The mechanical ones automate a little easier, captions being a great example. Just tell your assistant the style, where you want it to sit, how you want it to look. They can do that pretty easily. Same thing with repeatable moves, like applying a slow push-in on every talking head shot, or applying layouts that you already built so that every video looks consistent. The more subjective jobs are where I would slow down and do them manually. For example, what b-roll do I want for this moment? Is an animation going to be helpful or distracting for this shot? What video effects do I think would be effective here? These are the kinds of decisions that really strongly shape how a video feels, so I would keep them for myself. So if you're going to automate, then just remember, again, to be as detailed as you can be. And while your assistant may be able to do a pretty good job here, it's almost a guarantee that there'll be some revisions you'll want to make manually after the fact. It's kind of like taking the supervisor route. Have it build your picture lock, and then refine what it gives back to you. The final mix is where we finalize all of the audio elements in our video. Adding any music and sound effects, mastering our audio, and using any audio tools. And again, this is something I would stick to doing manually. You can ask your assistant to find music and sound effects for you, and even add them into your composition. But there are just too many intricacies with audio levels, placement, and selection that you'd be the best judge on what's too loud or too quiet, or where you want to start or end a song, or throw in a sound effect. And there's just way too much subjectivity on what songs or sound effects you'd want to use for any given moment, so I think it would be better for you to just go in there manually and make those edits yourself. And now that you've got your video finished, it's ready for posting. So here, I'll ask my assistant to send me a link to my finalized video, so I can give it a final watch and make sure everything's good, as well as downloading it so I can post it wherever. And I'll even ask for multiple options for a title and description, so I don't have to worry about figuring all that out for myself. I can even ask for possible thumbnail ideas too. Now that my video's finished, I want to make some clips. And this is something that automation is great for. Instead of going through and fishing for moments, I'll ask my assistant to give me a list of viral-worthy clips to choose from. And I'll pick which ones I want it to make. I'll specify aspect ratios, any music or visuals like captions. And just like that, I'm social media ready, baby. Social media ready, baby. Sometimes I really gross myself out with the things I say here. But as you can see, we built an automated workflow to make high-quality videos in way less time. And while there are parts in here that I recommend doing manually, you don't really have to listen At the end of the day, this automation stuff is all about give and take. There's a natural, unavoidable sacrifice of a little creative control when it comes to automating videos. And I'm just on the much, much, much more conservative side when it comes to that. But there is a version of this where you ask your assistant to do all these steps for you while you go on a brisk little walk. Or run. Or jog. I don't know, your cardio level. Now I do highly recommend that whichever path you take, you at least do one final look-through of your video before posting. But no matter what, one thing is true. Whether you're fully automating your workflow or just handing off bits and pieces here and there, Descript's MCP can save you a ton of time and energy. So while it isn't magic, it is a tool that can be extremely useful. So go ahead and add it to your current workflow today. And stay tuned for our next video, where I try to automate something else in my life. Like working out. Man, if I can get an assistant to do that for me, that would be life-changing.