A Mac app for video editors
Point Sift at a card dump from every camera and recorder. It sorts the clips by device, syncs them onto one timeline, transcribes, finds the moments, and builds a rough cut that follows the structure and pacing of the channel you give it. Then it hands Premiere Pro an organized project.
Apple silicon · macOS 13+ · your own OpenRouter or Anthropic key
How it works
Choose the folder. Sift reads every clip and sorts it by camera and recorder, from metadata, reel names and folders. You check the devices board and confirm.
Paste a YouTube channel and pick the videos to learn from. Sift measures their structure, pacing, shot mix and sound.
Sift syncs everything onto one timeline, transcribes it and finds the moments. Review is one count of what needs you before export.
A cut in that channel's style, from your footage. Trim, lock, swap angles, reorder, or cut it to a song.
One XML with the rough cut, a master timeline, Selects, synced sequences and every moment's candidates, in bins.
For scale: a 436-file wedding (about 11 GB from six cameras and a Zoom recorder) ran start to finish in about half an hour on a 10-core Mac. Review and the rough cut open as soon as it finishes.
Review
After the run, Sift tells you what needs you before the export is safe, and nothing else. “139 things need you before export · 62 must fix · 74 placed by clock, not confirmed by sound.” Press N for the next one.
Each item says why it matters and what to do. For a clip whose sound didn't match, press Enter to Listen: this clip against another device, A, B or both, left and right. Nudge by a frame, ten frames or a second, then “Looks right” pins it. Fixes for a whole camera take one click, and every change can be undone.
Review in the docs
Multicam
Every device sits in its own lane on one timeline, placed by timecode, by sound, or by clock. Scrub anywhere and the program monitor plays what was rolling. Turn on Angles to see every camera at the playhead, and press 1–9 to switch.
J K L shuttle, arrows step by frame or second, and ↑ ↓ jump between edits. Moments sit above the lanes. Each has candidates from different cameras: ★ Use in Selects, Keep, or Exclude.
The playhead and angles
Style match
A style profile is measured from real videos: which moments appear and in what order, how much screen time each gets, median shot length, jump cuts per minute, how much is talking to camera, and whether a moment plays under its own sound.
The rough cut is planned to match, and the Style match panel shows how close it came, metric by metric, next to the channel's numbers. Dialogue is cut on word boundaries from the best source for it. Drop in a song and turn on Cut to music: the song sets the length, moments land on its sections, cuts snap to the beat, and the music ducks under speech.
Style profiles in the docs
Premiere export
Export writes one Final Cut Pro 7 XML file for Premiere Pro. The rough cut comes first, then numbered bins: a master timeline per part of the day, Selects, synced multicam sequences, a candidates sequence for every moment type, the cameras, and anything still flagged.
Captions come as SRT files. Copy media collects the footage beside the project and checks every copy. An editor drive root rewrites the paths for the editor's drive, so the XML opens on their machine with nothing to relink.
Export in the docs
Who it's for
Six cameras, a lav or two and a Zoom on the lectern. Sift syncs the ceremony and speeches by sound, names the parts of the day, and finds the processional, vows, ring exchange, kiss, toasts and first dance. The rough cut follows your own highlight films, or the house style you cut for.
Vlogs, sports and golf channels with a main cam, body-mounts, drones and phones. Sift groups takes and picks the best one, finds A-roll and moments, and builds a cut paced like the channel: its shot length, its jump cuts, its talking-to-camera share. Short-form candidates and a vertical Selects bin come with the export.
Local first
Sift runs on your Mac and opens in your browser from 127.0.0.1. Model calls go straight from your Mac to OpenRouter or Anthropic, on your key and your budget cap. We don't see your footage, your transcripts or your key.
Read the privacy pageQuestions
No. Your footage, audio and project files stay on your Mac. To label moments and learn a style, Sift sends small still frames (512 px on the long edge) and transcript text to the AI provider you choose, with your own API key. Audio is never sent: transcription runs on your Mac. The Privacy page lists exactly what leaves.
MP4, MOV, M4V, MXF, MTS/M2TS, AVI and MKV video; WAV/BWF, MP3, M4A and AIFF audio. It recognises Sony, Canon, GoPro, DJI and iPhone files, and Zoom, Tascam and Sound Devices recorders. Camera RAW (BRAW, R3D, ARW, CR3 and others) is listed as unsupported so you can see what was left out.
By sound. Sift compares each clip's audio with the devices it overlaps. Clips that match are placed to the frame. Clips that don't are placed by their camera clock and flagged in Review, where you can listen to them against another device and nudge or pin them.
You pay your provider directly. A full run of a 436-file, seven-device wedding cost between $5.68 and $7.73 in our runs. Each event and profile has a budget cap, and Sift shows the estimate before it starts. See Pricing for the details.
The export is a Final Cut Pro 7 XML file made for Premiere Pro, with bins, sequences, markers and captions. Sift doesn't need Premiere to run; you need it to open the project.
No footage or music from the channel goes into your cut. A style profile is a set of measurements: which moments appear and in what order, how long shots run, how often the edit jump-cuts, how much is talking to camera. The rough cut is built only from your footage.
Partly. With API calls switched off, scanning, sync, scene detection, transcription, takes and frame sampling still run. Moment labels and style profiles need the API.
No. Sift runs on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 13 Ventura or later.
A license, plus your own AI key. You pay the model provider directly, usually a few dollars per event.