For documentary editors and the producers they cut with
Your producer picks the lines. You get the timeline.
PaperEdit puts every interview transcript on one shared page. Your producer highlights, orders and trims the lines they want, without footage or an account. You open the result as a sequence in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro or Media Composer.
Free for 2 hours of interviews. Producers never need an account.
The old way
The paper edit still lives in a Word doc.
Somebody prints the transcripts. Somebody goes at them with a highlighter. Then the editor gets an email that says "Ruth, around 14:22, the bit about the boat having moods" and spends the evening finding it.
PaperEdit replaces that email with the sequence itself. The producer picks from the text. The editor gets every line on a timeline, in order, at the right frames.
Sam Patel
Re: Re: Re: paper edit v4 FINAL (2)
ok new order, ignore the last one
1. lena grandmother suitcase (tape C? maybe 16:48)
2. ruth "nobody waved at a bridge" 14:31:02
2. ruth the horn thing, 3 times, near the end
3. dev hat off on the quay?? not sure which take
sent from my phone
How it works
Three steps, two people, one link.
- 01Editor
Add the transcripts
One file per interview, as many interviews as the film has. Set the media name and start timecode once. The footage stays on your drive.
SRTVTTPremiere JSONRevOtterDescriptTrint - 02Producer
They build the paper edit
Your producer opens one link and reads every interview like a printed page. Highlight a line to add it. Drag lines into order, trim to the word, write notes. You watch it happen.
HighlightReorderTrim to the wordSectionsNotesPaste a script - 03Editor
Open the sequence
They press Send. You get an email, choose your app, and download a timeline with every clip in order. Sections and notes arrive as markers.
Premiere ProResolveFinal Cut ProMedia ComposerEDL
Try it here
Click a line. Watch the cut assemble.
Click any line to add it. Click again to take it out.
Your paper edit
0:13
1Lena Sørensen · Islander0:07
"The crossing is twenty-two minutes. It's the only twenty-two minutes of the day nobody can reach you."
2Ruth Okafor · Captain0:06
"People say a bridge is progress. Maybe. But nobody ever waved at a bridge."
This is the sequence your editor downloads.
Built for both sides of the edit.
Reads like paper. Works like a timeline.
- Every interview in one place, with one search box across all of them.
- Highlight to add a line. Drag it to where it belongs.
- Trim by clicking the first and last word you want.
- Already wrote it in a doc? Paste it. PaperEdit finds each quote.
- Print a clean script for the room, with timecode on every line.
- No account, no app to install, no footage to download.
Gets a sequence, not a list of timecodes.
- An email when your producer sends, with a copy of that version kept.
- Reads your project file and points every clip at your real media.
- Notes become markers on the clips they're about. Sections become markers too.
- Watch the paper edit build live, and add lines yourself.
- Hide the interviewer's questions when you only want answers.
- Source timecode on every line, so you can check it against the camera files.
Privacy
The footage stays on your drive.
Text only.
PaperEdit stores the transcripts and the paper edit. It never receives video or audio. Playing a line from your own copy happens inside your browser.
A link you control.
The producer link is a long random key that can't be guessed. Replace it or turn it off and the old one stops working that second.
Projects read locally.
When you relink from a Premiere, Resolve, Avid or Final Cut project, your browser reads the file. It's never uploaded.
Delete means delete.
Delete a paper edit and its transcripts, lines and sent versions go with it.
Pricing
Start free. Pay when the film gets big.
Every plan has every feature. Plans differ in how many hours of interviews you keep and how many producers work on each paper edit. Producers never pay.
Free
$0
2 hours of interviews
1 producer per paper edit
A short piece, or a real try-out.
Pro
$9/month
25 hours of interviews
3 producers per paper edit
A feature documentary, or a few films at once.
Studio
$19/month
100 hours of interviews
10 producers per paper edit
A series, or a whole team on one edit.
Questions editors ask.
No. They open the link you send, type their name, and start. The name goes on every line they add, so you know who picked what. You sign in with a CutConvert account; they never do.
No. PaperEdit stores the transcripts and the paper edit, and nothing else. If someone has a copy of an interview, they can play lines from it in their own browser. The file never leaves their computer.
SRT and VTT from any service, Premiere Pro's transcript JSON (with word timing, so trims land on the exact word), and the plain text exports from Rev, Otter, Descript and Trint that put a timestamp on each paragraph. Speaker names come through.
Premiere Pro (XML), DaVinci Resolve (.drp), Final Cut Pro (.fcpxml) and Media Composer (.aaf), plus a CMX 3600 EDL for anything else. The timelines come from the same converters CutConvert uses, checked by opening the files in each app.
Give PaperEdit your project file (a .prproj, .drp, Avid bin, AAF or .fcpxml) when you export. It reads the project in your browser, finds the file each interview came from, and writes that path into the sequence. Or type the folder your interviews live in. Either way, you skip Link Media.
Yes. Changes show up for both of you as they happen, with a marker for who's in the project. When the producer presses Send, you get an email and a copy that won't change, and they can keep working on the next pass.
Each interview keeps its own rate and start timecode. The sequence uses the rate you choose for the project, and clips from other rates are placed at the right length on it.
Handback is for after the first cut, when your producer reviews a cut you made. PaperEdit is for before there's a cut at all, when somebody has to decide which lines go in. Many teams will use both.
Free holds 2 hours of interviews with one producer per paper edit. Pro ($9 a month) holds 25 hours and three producers; Studio ($19) holds 100 hours and ten. Every plan has every feature, and producers never pay. Pro and Studio are the same CutConvert plans that unlock the converters and Handback.
Hand your producer the highlighter.
Start free with one interview. It takes about a minute to set up.