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How to clip a video into a vertical Short locally

Short answer: Ask the AI to trim and reframe your video to 1080×1920: it runs entirely on your machine as a local process, so the footage never uploads anywhere. Use the Studio mode (or just ask; the AI can pull in the capability itself). Media editing isn’t in the default Assistant mode.

Steps

  1. Get your source video into the workspace: drag it into the Files panel, or use its “import a file” toolbar button.
  2. In chat, ask for what you want: “clip the first 30 seconds into a vertical short,” or point at a longer recording and ask the AI to find a good moment. If you’re not already in Studio mode (the Mode pill above the compose box), switch to it, or just ask; the AI can bring in media editing for the turn on its own.
  3. The AI inspects the file first to confirm the real duration and check for rotation, then cuts the section you want. The default cut is fast and lossless; ask for a frame-accurate cut if the exact start/end point matters.
  4. It reframes the trimmed clip to a vertical frame: 1080×1920 for 9:16 Shorts/Reels/TikTok is the common target, though square or landscape work too. This step re-encodes the video (slower than the trim) and crops the largest centered region of that shape, so a subject near the edge of frame can get cut off; the crop isn’t subject-tracking.
  5. Preview the result in the chat’s media gallery, or ask for a different start time or a different crop size.

For a long recording, ask the AI to find the highlight for you: it can transcribe the audio and scan for silence, loud moments, and scene changes, then propose a cut list in chat and wait for your approval before producing anything.

Notes & gotchas

  • Nothing leaves your machine: trimming and reframing both run as a local process on your files.
  • Sideways phone video is auto-uprighted before reframing.
  • Width and height must both be even numbers (the video encoder requires it); 1080×1920 (vertical), 1080×1080 (square), and 1920×1080 (landscape) are the common targets.
  • The default lossless trim can start a fraction of a second before your requested time because video cuts snap to the nearest keyframe; ask for a precise cut if that matters.
  • To add captions to the finished clip, see how to burn captions onto a video.