Step 1 — Project
Saved projects — click "Open →" to resume. Projects auto-save when you load a timeline. Use 💾 Save in the nav bar at any time.
Soul document — paste a tandw.dev URL or creative foundation text. Shapes how Claude reads the interviews.
Transcript Coverage — scans every video, groups by subject. Green = has SRT. Red = needs transcription.
Interviews only (MP4s) — selects all MP4s in numbered subject folders. Skips drone, B-roll, audio stems.
Combine all SRTs — rebuilds master from all per-clip SRTs on disk.
Step 2 — Build (four paths)
A — Suggest Angles — Claude reads all interviews, suggests 10 directions with estimated duration and speaker count.
B — Director's Brief — write what you want. Claude extracts the topic, searches all interviews for verified mentions, builds narrative from confirmed clips only.
C — Script to Timeline — paste a script or beat sheet. CutLine matches each section to the best interview moments.
D — Topic Search — search with optional context (e.g. "traditions" + "Shosholoza, the cock crow, Arthur's Seat"). Select results, build timeline.
Step 3 — Review
Beat cards — each shows speaker, timecode, camera, description. Click "Show full clip" for ±30s of transcript context.
Full Transcript — searchable panel with keyword highlighting and speaker filter.
Try Again — rebuilds the narrative. Approve & Export → Step 4.
Whisper models
| Model | Speed | Use for |
|---|
| tiny | ~3x real-time | Quick scan, overnight batch |
| base ✓ | ~real-time | Recommended for editorial |
| small | ~0.5x | Accents, technical language |
| medium | ~0.25x | Final transcripts |
Good to know
Speaker labels come from the subject folder name (e.g. "15 Tete Dijane"), not camera filenames.
Per-clip SRTs saved next to each video — e.g. LP-A7iv-6963.mp4 → LP-A7iv-6963.srt
XML paths link to source files on the drive. Drive must be mounted at the same path on the editing machine.
Topic cache — search results are cached. Rebuilding the same topic reuses the search (saves time + API cost).
Build time estimates shown on Step 2 based on project size (subjects × segments).
Session timeout is 72 hours. If CutLine forgets your project, click "Open →" on the saved project.
Troubleshooting
"No transcript loaded" — go to Step 1, load the master XML + SRT.
"No source clip found" — master XML is outdated. Click "Combine all SRTs" to rebuild.
"Credit balance too low" — add credits at console.anthropic.com/settings/billing.
"A job is already running" — wait for the current build to finish, or restart the server.
Clips offline in NLE — drive path changed. Right-click → Relink.
Stale build status — hard-refresh (Cmd+Shift+R) to clear.