Auto Rough Cut in Premiere Pro: Edit Faster with AI Chat Prompts
Auto Rough Cut in Premiere Pro: Edit Faster with AI Chat Prompts In A Chatbot Video Editor
If you're a video editor working in Adobe Premiere Pro, you already know how time-consuming rough cuts can be. Whether you're trimming out silences, filler words, or unnecessary takes, the process can take hours, especially if you're working with long videos, podcasts, or talking-head content.
That’s where Cutback’s Auto Rough Cut comes in. This AI editing tool takes a completely new approach by letting you use chat-based prompts to automate your rough cuts inside Premiere Pro. The result? An automated video editing workflow with less timeline editing and more time for creative editing.
Let’s break it down.
Traditional Rough Cut Editing in Adobe Premiere Pro: What is a Rough Cut in Video Editing?
While the definition differs among video editors. The standard definition of a rough cut is the first full version of a video where all the key clips are arranged in the timeline, but without any detailed polish. It includes your main shots in the correct order, trimmed down to essential moments, but usually lacks final transitions, color grading, sound mixing, or motion graphics.
Traditionally, in Premiere Pro, creating a rough cut means scrubbing through hours of footage manually, setting in/out points, cutting clips by hand, and stacking sequences until your video starts to take shape. It's a time-consuming process that requires strong editorial judgment and careful timeline navigation, especially when you're juggling interviews, podcasts, or unscripted content.
The Cutback Premiere Pro plugin simplifies all of that with just a few clicks, making the first cut faster and smarter by using transcript-based editing powered by AI. It also takes care of the next stages of post-production video editing with a built-in stock library, AI video background remover, automatic video captioning features, and more.
Intelligent Video Trimming: What is Auto Rough Cut?
Auto Rough Cut is part of Cutback’s suite of AI-powered video tools. It’s designed to automate the tedious parts of video editing, like generating subtitles, silence removal in videos, cutting retakes, and trimming filler content.
Unlike traditional tools, this one works in two stages:
It analyzes your video’s speech and structure using speech-to-text for videos.
After speech recognition, it lets you control the edit using a chat interface, either by selecting presets or typing in custom instructions. This is hand-in-hand with text-based editing through a transcript with AI video summarization features.
It’s like giving your smart video editing assistant a command and letting it do the first pass for you.
Getting Started with AI-driven Video Production for Rough Cut in Premiere Pro
Here’s how to launch the Cutback tool in just a few steps:
Open your Premiere Pro project and load your video into a sequence.
Navigate to Window > Extensions > Cutback.
In the Cutback plugin panel, choose Auto Rough Cut.
You’ll then be prompted to set some options:
Language and Audio Range
Speaker Recognition
Optional: Upload a script or add keywords to improve accuracy.
When you're ready, click [Transcribe video for auto rough cut] to begin subtitle and dialogue analysis.
Chat-Based Editing with Cutback AI Video Assistant
Once your video is analyzed by the video transcript generator, you’ll see a Smart Summary of its contents, organized by chapters. This is where the fun begins. You can start playing around with the AI co-editing tools now.
By clicking the Assistant button, you’ll access a chat box that accepts:
Preset Editing Commands like “Remove Retakes” or “Shorten Video”
Custom Prompts, like “Keep only the questions I ask” or “Cut everything after 5:32”
The AI processes your request and generates a draft rough cut. You can preview and apply the changes, or revise your prompt to refine it further.
Video Editing Automation: What You Can Ask the Assistant To Do
Some of the most useful editing directions include:
Remove Retakes: Trim repeated lines from reshoots.
Remove Silence: Delete dead air between speech.
Remove Filler Words: Cut “uh,” “um,” “like,” etc.
Shorten Video: Keep only meaningful sections.
Create Shortform Clips: Auto-select clips for Shorts, Reels, and TikTok whilst automatically setting the aspect ratio.
Match the Script: Edit your video to follow a transcript, either strictly or flexibly.
This makes script-based editing effortless, especially useful for podcasts, interviews, or online courses. Thereafter you can make use of things like the AI subtitle generator to create animated captions, too.
Tips for Best Results With Video Post-Production AI
Use clear, specific prompts for more accurate results.
The Cutback video AI performs best when editing based on speech content, not visuals.
Always review the draft cut before applying it to your timeline.
You can choose to overwrite your current sequence or generate a new one. Deleted segments appear in gray until confirmed.
Time-Saving Video Tools And Features You’ll Love
Besides editing, the feature includes:
Find & Replace in subtitles
Export Subtitles (.srt, .txt, or copy chapters)
Smart Chapter Navigation
Time Machine: Undo applied changes instantly
Keyboard Shortcuts for ultra-fast editing (e.g., cut at sentence = "L")
Real-Time Use Case Examples
Let’s say you're editing a 30-minute explainer video:
Cutback recognizes all speech, generates chapters, and creates subtitles.
You tell the Assistant:
“Cut all filler words and remove sections where I rephrased my intro.”
A few seconds later, you have a clean draft ready for review.
This process used to take an hour or more. Now it takes under 5 minutes.
FAQs About Cutback’s Auto Rough Cut Software
Q: Can I use it without a script?
A: Yes. The tool works great with or without one. However, uploading a script increases precision.
Q: How accurate is the subtitle generation?
A: Very. Cutback’s subtitle engine is optimized for Korean and English, with high accuracy for speaker separation.
Q: What if I want to undo changes?
A: Use the Time Machine button or standard Undo (u) shortcut.
Why Use Cutback?
This feature is ideal for:
YouTubers who want to edit faster in a single video editing software
Course creators with long, structured content who want to utilize automated video editing
Podcasters and interviewers worried about video content optimization
Social media editors creating shortform clips who need bonus features like image background removal or the ability to generate subtitles.
It’s an AI video editing tool built into your existing Premiere Pro workflow, and it only takes a few clicks to drastically speed up your rough cut process.
Ready to reduce editing hours to minutes? Try it out today.
For more in-depth knowledge about the ins and outs of video editing, check out our latest posts on the Cutback blog or our YouTube channel. You can also join Cutback’s Discord community of like-minded video editors.
