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    RoughCut

    From transcript to editable project.

    RoughCut is a Mac companion for Final Cut Pro built for interview, documentary and long-form work — where the story is decided in the words long before it's decided on the timeline.

    Search

    Index the transcriptions already in your Final Cut Pro libraries and search them the way you'd search a document. Find the phrase, hear it in context, and mark it as a select without opening the timeline.

    RoughCut window with the search field set to the query "allig". The left column lists two matching clips, the centre column shows the transcript of clip A001_06061542_C046 with four matching phrases highlighted, and the right column holds the resulting Rough Cut segment.
    Search. Searching for a word matches across every transcribed clip at once. The left column lists the clips that contain it, the centre column shows the phrase in the context of its full transcript with timecodes, and selected phrases move straight into the Rough Cut panel on the right — no timeline scrubbing involved.

    Rough Cut

    Collect dialogue and selects into an ordered Rough Cut. Reorder beats, trim in and out points, group takes, and write the structure down before you commit an hour to the timeline. Save it as a .roughcut document and pick it back up later.

    RoughCut showing the library sidebar with events and 43 clips, the centre transcript column in Text mode with several phrases selected, and a Rough Cut panel on the right containing six ordered segments totalling fifty-one seconds across four clips.
    Rough Cut. Selects from different clips collect into one ordered assembly. The Rough Cut panel on the right shows each segment with its source clip and in and out points — six segments, 0:51, four clips here — and every beat can be reordered, trimmed or removed before you commit anything to a timeline.

    Create Final Cut Project

    Hand Final Cut Pro an editable project built from your Rough Cut — real clips, real in and out points, in your order. This is the part markers and note-taking tools can't do, and it's where the assembly stops being a plan and starts being an edit.

    Final Cut Pro open beside the RoughCut window. The Final Cut timeline holds a project named Rough Cut with three connected clips and audio waveforms, and the RoughCut status bar reads that the Rough Cut .fcpxml was exported.
    Create Final Cut Project. The paid unlock turns that assembly into a real Final Cut Pro project. The clips land on the timeline in your order with their in and out points intact, ready to trim and grade — this is a project you keep editing, not a list of markers.

    Script view

    Read the whole assembly as continuous script text. Useful for producers, for approvals, and for catching a story that reads well in cards but doesn't flow in sequence.

    RoughCut with the Rough Cut panel switched to Script view, showing three segments as continuous paragraphs of dialogue with the source clip and timecode range printed beneath each block.
    Script view. Switch the Rough Cut panel from Cards to Script and the same assembly reads as continuous prose, with the source clip and timecode range under each block. It is the fastest way to check that a story that looks right as cards actually flows when it is read end to end.

    Copy for AI

    Copy a clean, structured version of the transcript or Rough Cut to your clipboard so you can paste it into whatever assistant you already use. RoughCut sends nothing itself — the clipboard stays on your Mac until you paste.

    RoughCut clip list with a context menu open showing Insert All Phrases into Rough Cut, Copy Transcript, Copy Transcript With Timecodes, Copy Clip Name and other commands. The status bar reads that the transcript for eight clips was copied.
    Copy for AI. Right-click any selection to copy a clean transcript, with or without timecodes, for as many clips as you have selected. The text goes to your Mac's clipboard so you can paste it into whichever assistant you already use — RoughCut sends nothing anywhere itself.

    Free forever

    • Browse Final Cut Pro libraries
    • Search every transcript
    • Build and edit Rough Cuts
    • Cards and Script views
    • Save .roughcut documents

    Create Final Cut Projects

    • A 7-day trial starts the first time you successfully create a Final Cut Pro project.
    • Create editable Final Cut Pro projects from any Rough Cut
    • FCPXML import and export as part of that project handoff
    • Restores across your Macs with the same Apple Account
    Download on the Mac App Store — coming soonPricing