What is a paper edit?

A paper edit is a documentary or interview film written as text before anyone cuts it: the lines from the interview transcripts that should be in the film, in the order they should play, each with the interview it came from and its timecode. It's called a paper edit because it used to be done on printed transcripts with a highlighter and scissors. Today it's usually a document or a spreadsheet, and the editor turns it into a first sequence.

What a paper edit looks like

Every paper edit carries the same few things, whatever it's written in:

• The quote, as the person actually said it.
• The source, meaning which interview or camera file it's from.
• The timecode where the line starts and ends, so the editor can find it in seconds.
• Section headings that group the lines into the film's beats or acts.
• Notes for the editor: the shot to use, a breath to keep, what to drop if the cut runs long.

Here's a short one, from a film about the last season of an island ferry:

You can download this layout as a ready-made paper edit template for Excel, Google Sheets or Word.

Paper edit, selects, string-out and radio cut

These four words get used loosely. In most cutting rooms they mean:

• Selects are every usable moment pulled out of an interview, before anyone decides the order. See how to pull interview selects in Premiere.
• A paper edit is the story built from those selects, in order, on paper.
• A string-out is selects or a paper edit laid end to end on a timeline, often one per interview or theme. See how to make an interview string-out.
• A radio cut is a sound-only first cut of the interviews, checked by listening rather than watching.

The paper edit sits in the middle. It's the cheapest point to change the story, because moving a line is retyping a row, not recutting a timeline.

Who makes the paper edit

On many documentaries the producer or director writes it, because they know the story and the interviews best, and the editor turns it into a cut. On smaller films the editor does both. Either way, the paper edit is where the two agree on the story before hours go into the timeline.

Why documentaries still do it

Interview-driven films are written in the edit. A feature documentary can have twenty or more hours of interviews, and nobody can hold that on a timeline at once. Reading is much faster than watching, a transcript can be searched, and a document can be shared with people who don't have the footage or an editing app. That's why the paper edit survived the end of actual paper.

Turning a paper edit into a sequence

The traditional way is for the editor to read the paper edit, find each line by its timecode, and cut it into a sequence by hand. For a long film that's a day of work, and it's where most mistakes creep in: the wrong take, a line cut a word short, a timecode typed wrong.

You can skip that step. Paste the paper edit into PaperEdit along with the interview transcripts (or the videos, which it transcribes on your computer), and it finds every quote and downloads a sequence for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer. If the producer and editor want to build the paper edit together, PaperEdit gives the producer a link to pick the lines straight from the transcripts.

FAQ

What is a paper edit in film? A paper edit is the order of a film's interview lines (and sometimes narration and shots) written out as text before editing, with each line's source and timecode. The editor uses it to build the first cut.

What is the difference between a paper edit and a script? A script is written before shooting and tells people what to say. A paper edit is written after shooting from what people actually said in the interviews, so every line in it already exists on camera.

Who writes the paper edit? Usually the producer or director, sometimes with the editor. On small productions the editor writes it. What matters is that the person writing it knows the interviews.

What software do you use for a paper edit? Many teams still use Word, Google Docs or a spreadsheet, with the transcripts open alongside. Tools like PaperEdit put the transcripts and the paper edit in one place and turn the result into a sequence for your editing app.

How long does a paper edit take? Roughly as long as it takes to read every transcript closely, plus time to try structures. For a feature with twenty hours of interviews, a first paper edit is often days to a couple of weeks of a producer's time.