The rough cut is the cheapest moment to change the story. Nothing has been graded, mixed or animated yet, so moving a section costs the editor an hour instead of a week.
It’s also the worst moment to judge the color. The first cut looks unfinished on purpose, and a review that spends its energy on the temp music or the grey picture misses the one thing this round is for.
In short
- Review the rough cut for structure, story and pace, in that order.
- Watch it once straight through before writing anything, and note where your attention drops.
- Leave color, mix, final music and graphics for later, except for problems that need a reshoot or a legal call.
- Write notes as problems over a stretch of the video, and let the editor find the fix.
What a rough cut is, and what it isn’t
A rough cut is the first assembly of the whole video, with the story in order and the length roughly where it should end up. Depending on the shop it’s called the first cut or the assembly, and on interview-driven work it often follows a paper edit.
What it doesn’t have yet is just as important. Expect temp music, ungraded footage, an unmixed sound bed and placeholder titles or lower thirds, some of them with lorem ipsum.
Transitions are hard cuts or quick dissolves. Pacing is loose, because tightening a section that might be cut tomorrow is wasted work.
What to look at in the rough cut
Look at structure first, then story, then pace. Walter Murch, in In the Blink of an Eye, ranks what makes a good cut, putting emotion at 51% and story at 23%, with rhythm a distant third. A first cut is where those two get settled.
Structure
- Does the opening set up the video? The first ten seconds should tell the viewer what this is and why to keep watching.
- Are the sections in the right order? A testimonial that saves the strongest line for the end can lose half its viewers before they hear it.
- Does the ending land? It should resolve what the opening promised, and the call to action should be where the viewer expects it.
Story and message
- Is the main message clear without the brief in front of you? Imagine someone who has never seen the script.
- Does every section earn its place? If you can remove a block and nothing is lost, it’s a candidate for the cut.
- Do the interview bites still mean what the person said? Joining two halves of different sentences can change the meaning, and this is the round to catch it.
Pace and length
- Where did your attention drop? Write down the moments you checked your phone, even if you can’t say why.
- How long is it against the target? If the brief said 90 seconds and the cut runs 2:40, the structure conversation has to include what goes.
What to leave for later
Leave the finishing for the rounds built for it. Color, the sound mix, the final music, motion graphics, typos in placeholder titles and the exact frame of each cut all change after the rough cut.
A note on these now gets fixed twice, once in the rough cut and again when the real element arrives. It also pulls the conversation away from structure, which is the only thing this round can change cheaply.
There are exceptions. Say these now, even in a rough cut:
- A person on screen who shouldn’t be there, or who hasn’t signed a release.
- A claim that legal or compliance will reject.
- A shot that will need a reshoot or new material, because those take calendar time.
- A brand problem in the footage itself, like an old logo on a wall.
How to watch and write the notes
Watch it once without stopping. First impressions of pace only exist on the first viewing, and pausing every ten seconds turns a rough cut into a list of small fixes.
Then watch again and write. Put each note on the stretch it’s about. “From 1:10 to 1:45 the interview repeats the same point” is something the editor can act on, and “it feels slow” isn’t.
Describe the problem and leave the fix open. “I lost the thread in the middle section” gives the editor room to reorder, trim or add a line of voiceover, while “cut 1:20 to 1:35” picks one of those for them. More on this in our guide to giving video feedback.
Get the people who decide into this round. A stakeholder who first sees the video at the fine cut and wants a new structure resets the schedule. If several people review, agree on who has the last word before the notes go back.
From rough cut to fine cut
The fine cut answers the rough cut notes. Sections move or go, take choices are settled and the pace is worked frame by frame.
Check the fine cut against your rough cut notes, one by one, and watch it straight through again to judge the new pace. Once the structure holds, the next decision is to lock the edit, covered in what picture lock is.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview each cut you upload to a task becomes the next numbered version, so the rough cut and the fine cut sit on the same page. With version control you can play v1 and v2 side by side in sync to see what moved.
Press I and O to mark a stretch in the player, and the comment covers the whole range. The range shows as a bar under the timeline, which is how a note like “this section repeats itself” should look.
On a computer, reviewers who would rather talk it through can record a voice or video note on the moment. It sits on the timeline like any written comment.
Team only comments stay inside the team. Use them for the internal pass before the client sees the cut, and for the notes you’ve decided to park until the fine cut. The client never sees them, and a client can’t write one.
With the Video Production preset, every new version goes into internal review as soon as it’s uploaded. Whoever reviews it for the team can approve it internally or send it back to the editor with a new due date.
On the client side, comments and Request changes are how a rough cut round ends. Keep the client’s Approve button for the finished video. In RecReview approval is the final sign-off, and it sends the delivery email with the download link.
