Sifting through hours of raw footage is the most tedious part of editing. You know the highlights are buried in there, but finding them manually eats up your day. What if your first rough cut could be assembled before you even open your NLE? The key principle is multi-layered AI analysis . Don't rely on one signal. Layer visual, audio, and transcript data to cross-reference and identify high-confidence moments. Layer 1: The Automated First Pass (The Broad Net) Use AI tools to scan your footage for obvious spikes. Tools like Descript analyze audio for laughter spikes, pace of speech changes (>20% increase), and sentiment peaks. It also uses computer vision to flag extreme facial expressions. This creates a broad list of potential clips. Layer 2: The Transcript-Based Deep Dive (The Precision Hook) Now, analyze the transcript. AI can highlight sentences with key phrases like "the key is..." or "wait until you see...". These often indicate important points. Crucially, you cross-reference signals .…