There are two moments where you can start creating a draft manually:
When a project is first created: click [Skip] on the prompt that appears after analysis completes.
After that: click [New draft] on the draft tab bar above the timeline to create a new blank timeline.
Build your edit
Add topics or subtopics
Double-click a file in the project panel, or hover it and click [View topics], to browse the topics and subtopics Selects detected in it. Click [Add on timeline] on any topic or subtopic to add it to your draft, or drag it directly onto the timeline.
Tip: Use search to find specific moments across your footage. Learn more in Search your footage: text and scene search.
Add from the transcript
In the transcript panel on the right, select any sentence or paragraph and drag it onto the timeline to add that segment to your draft.
You can also edit at the word level using text-based editing. Learn more in Refine your draft.
Scrub through the preview
Toggle on [Compare with source] to show the original footage in the preview.
Scrub through the original footage to find the section you want.
Select the section you want by clicking and dragging in the preview timeline, then drag it onto the timeline.
Tip: Select the preview timeline when you want to browse your original footage. Sections not included in your draft are grayed out. If the draft timeline is selected, the transcript only shows what is in the draft.
Add B-roll and audio
Drag B-roll or audio clips from the project panel directly onto the timeline. You can also ask chat to find and place cutaways for you.
Learn more in Add B-roll and audio to your edit.
When to use this
Manual editing is the right choice when:
You have a specific creative vision that AI suggestions would not capture.
You want to explore the footage yourself before deciding on a structure.
Your content is too specialized or unconventional for AI to structure effectively.
You still have AI tools
Starting manually does not mean giving up AI assistance. All cleanup tools are still available in the [Tools] tab of the left panel: remove silence, cut filler words, and speaker audio settings. Camera switching runs through chat, and [Speakers] in the floating toolbar is where you assign each speaker to a face on camera and an audio track. Search works the same way, too. You are simply building your timeline yourself instead of starting from an AI-generated draft.
Learn more in AI editing tools and shortcuts and Set up speakers, cameras, and audio for multi-cam.