A How I AI trailer between prototype tests
ChatPRD prototypes and model testing continued while I got How I AI launch material ready. I gave Codex the episode recording and asked for a short cut with punchy quotes, funny moments, and enough room around each edit to keep the speech intact.
Cut a trailer from a long recording with Codex and FFmpeg
I gave Codex long recordings and asked it to find the punchy quotes and funny moments for short trailers. It used local transcription to locate possible cuts and FFmpeg to assemble and export them. The first rounds needed my direction: horizontal video, no overlays, and more cuts between speakers.
On one recording, it made three trailer options, but some edits clipped the beginning or end of a word. I asked it to leave more room around the speech, and it rebuilt the cuts with short buffers. That became part of the next brief: fast pacing still has to leave a complete thought.
For a How I AI episode, Codex used word-level timestamps to choose six moments from a 36-minute recording and assembled a 58-second cut. It kept hard visual cuts and added tiny fades at the audio edges. I supplied the editorial direction; the agent handled the initial search through the recording, the selects, the assembly, and the export.
# Cut a short trailer
Adapted from my workflow; this is not the original transcript.
Use the recording I provide to make an approximately 60-second horizontal trailer. Find punchy quotes, funny moments, and reactions that make sense without the full conversation. Preserve the original framing and sound. Do not add captions, titles, music, or overlays.
Use an existing transcript or create one with word timestamps. Build a short sequence from several parts of the recording, with enough context for each moment to land. Keep the pace quick, but preserve complete thoughts.
Listen around every edit. Leave enough audio before the first word and after the last word that no syllable or final consonant is clipped. Use small audio-edge fades where needed. Do not choose cut boundaries solely to hit an exact runtime.
Export the trailer, check its audio, video, and duration, and save the source time ranges used in the edit. Keep the original recording unchanged.