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Quick start guide for Premiere Assistant

This guide walks you through completing your first captioning and editing workflow in Premiere Assistant.

Written by Nandita Kothari

Step 1. Open Premiere Assistant

To open Premiere Assistant, first open your project in Premiere. Launch the plugin from [Window > Extensions > Premiere Assistant by Cutback].

Premiere Window menu with Extensions open and Premiere Assistant by Cutback selected

Sign in with your Cutback email and password. If you don't have an account yet, click [Sign Up] in the panel, or create a free account on the Cutback Dashboard.

Premiere Assistant does not support Google sign-in yet. If you signed up with Google, click [Signed up with Google?] > [Set password] and use the emailed link to create a password first.

See Understanding the Premiere Assistant panel & features to learn your way around the interface.

Step 2. Transcribe your footage

To transcribe your footage, select the sequence you want to work on in your timeline.

In the Premiere Assistant panel, click [Edit captions] and start transcription. Premiere Assistant will analyze your footage and generate a full transcript.

Review the transcript before moving on. The more accurate it is, the faster everything else goes.

Edit captions screen with a finished transcript and the Apply to sequence button

See Generate captions for your video.

Step 3. Clean up your footage

To clean up your footage, open the [Trim] menu and click [Transcribe video for auto rough cut]. When the transcript is ready, click [Cut tools] and choose a tool:

  • [Remove silence]: cuts dead air from your timeline

  • [Remove filler words]: removes "um", "uh", and similar

  • [Remove retakes]: identifies and removes repeated takes

  • [Edit according to script]: trims footage to match a script

  • [Create shortform clips]: pulls highlight clips from longer footage

Premiere Assistant marks the suggested cuts. Review them, then click [Apply to sequence] and choose [Create new sequence] or [Apply to original sequence].

Cut tools menu with Remove silence, Remove filler words, Remove retakes, Edit according to script, and Create shortform clips

You can also refine your cut using text-based editing. Navigate your footage by reading the transcript instead of scrubbing the timeline. Select the text you want to remove, and Premiere Assistant marks the edit.

See Clean up your video with Trim and Text-based video editing.

Step 4. Switch camera angles (optional)

If you're working with a multi-camera shoot, use [Edit multi-cam] to automatically cut between angles based on who's speaking. No manual cutting needed.

Skip this step if you're working with a single camera.

Premiere timeline with multi-cam cuts applied across three video tracks

See Edit multi-cam in Premiere Assistant.

Step 5. Generate and style captions

With your edit locked, open [Edit captions] and click [Transcribe video to edit captions]. When your captions are ready, click [Apply to sequence] > [Add captions] > [Premiere Pro captions] to add a native caption track to your Premiere sequence.

Style your captions:

  • Set line length and punctuation

  • Choose single or double line layout

  • Hide filler words, repeated words, or profanity

  • Translate your captions into other languages

To use animated captions, open [Animated captions], choose a template, and transcribe your video to apply it.

Animated captions panel showing the preset template list

See Generate captions for your video and Add animated caption effects.

Step 6. Add effects and visuals

To add effects and visuals, finish your edit without leaving Premiere:

You're done. Footage cleaned up, captions generated, effects applied, all inside Premiere. Ready to go deeper? See Understanding the Premiere Assistant panel & features to learn every tool in detail.

FAQs

How do I download and install Premiere Assistant?

  1. Download the Premiere Assistant installer from https://cutback.video/premiere-assistant/install.

  2. Run the installer and complete the installation.

  3. Restart Adobe Premiere and open your project.

  4. In Premiere, go to [Window > Extensions > Premiere Assistant by Cutback] to open the panel.

Note: If the [Extensions] menu is not active, restart Premiere with a project open. The menu appears once a project is loaded.

How do I update Premiere Assistant?

Close and reopen Premiere Assistant. It updates automatically to the latest version.

Can I continue working on a different device?

Yes. Export your transcript data first, then import it on the new device.

To export: In the Premiere Assistant panel, go to [Menu > Settings > Backup > Export transcript data]. A cutback folder is created in the same directory as your Premiere project file (.prproj), with transcription data saved per sequence.

To import: Place your project file (.prproj) and the cutback folder in the same directory. Then go to [Menu > Settings > Backup > Import transcript data].

Important: Do not rename or modify any files or folders inside the cutback folder. Doing so will prevent the data from being imported.

I can't log in to Premiere Assistant

If you can't log in to Premiere Assistant and see "An error occurred. If it persists, please contact customer support.", your password is not the problem. A wrong password shows "Invalid login information. If you're not registered, please sign up." instead. This message means Premiere Assistant couldn't complete the login from this computer, for example because a virtual private network (VPN) or security software is blocking the connection.

Try the following:

  1. Fully quit any VPN. Some VPNs keep running in the background after you close them, so check that it has stopped completely, then log in again.

  2. Temporarily turn off your firewall and antivirus, restart your computer, and try again.

  3. Try a different network, such as a phone hotspot.

  4. Log in to the Cutback Dashboard in a browser on another device, such as your phone. If that works, your account is fine and the connection is being blocked on this computer.

If you still can't log in, contact support.

Premiere Assistant won't launch

If you see errors like "ERR_NETWORK_ACCESS_DENIED" or "ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT", try the following:

  1. Check your internet connection. A stable connection is required, with an upload speed of at least 200 Mbps. Test at https://fast.com.

  2. Check your firewall and security settings. Your firewall, antivirus, or VPN may be blocking Premiere Assistant. This includes Mac network monitoring apps like Little Snitch or Radio Silence, which can block Premiere Assistant even when your regular firewall is off. Temporarily disable all of these, restart your computer, and try again.

  3. Try a different network. If you're on a shared or restricted network (corporate or proxy), switch to a different connection.

If you see "The Cutback plugin must be running and logged in to use this feature," you may have opened Cutback Browser instead of the Premiere Assistant plugin. Close the panel, then in Premiere go to [Window > Extensions > Premiere Assistant by Cutback].

How do I add Premiere Assistant as a firewall exception on Windows?

  1. Open Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Defender Firewall.

  2. Click Advanced settings on the left.

  3. Select Inbound Rules, then click New Rule.

  4. Choose Custom, applied to All programs.

  5. Set the protocol to TCP.

  6. Under "Which remote IP addresses does this rule apply to?", choose "These IP addresses" and add each of the following:

    • 34.149.203.40

    • 34.36.200.4

    • 35.216.66.141

    • 35.209.20.87

  7. Click Next, then choose Allow the connection.

  8. Check all profiles (Domain, Private, Public) and click Next.

  9. Name the rule (e.g., Cutback Exception) and click Finish.

I tried to use Premiere Assistant, but my payment didn't go through

Go to the Cutback Dashboard and complete the transaction. Check your email for a payment failure confirmation.

I can't access the payment page or dashboard

If the page isn't loading:

  1. Clear your browser cache and try again.

  2. Try a different browser (e.g., Chrome or Safari).

  3. Check that your network connection is stable.

Access the dashboard at https://dashboard.cutback.video/.

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