Problem[01]
The line is somewhere
You remember her saying it, roughly. Finding it again means scrubbing sit-downs from three shoots, or waiting on a transcription service before the paper edit can start.
For Documentary editors
Find the bite, then the b-roll that covers it
Months of sit-downs and verité, transcribed on your Mac before the first assembly, every line timed. Ask for the line you half remember and get the clip, the seconds and the shots to cut against it.
14 days free, then $59 a year or $7.99 a month. Works with your Claude or ChatGPT plan; timelines need DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1+. Clip descriptions are optional and use your own API key, billed by Anthropic or OpenAI.
Works withA Mac with Apple silicon · macOS 26+
ClaudeClaude Desktop and Claude Code
ChatGPTThe ChatGPT Mac app and Codex
DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1Timelines through its own MCP server
Any drive or NASThe Prewatch folder travels with the media
Problems
What slows Documentary editors down
Problem[02]
Verité has no script
Nothing records when the argument started or when he finally laughs. Unless someone logged it while watching, the moment lives only in the memory of whoever was there.
Problem[03]
Covering the bite
The interview line is chosen. Now you need the farm at dawn, somewhere in two years of b-roll from four cameras, every file named like A001_C003.
What Prewatch gives you
Your footage, already watched
Prewatch indexes every clip on your Mac, so Claude or ChatGPT knows what is in your footage and can build the cut with you in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
| What you get | Where it runs | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Transcripts for the paper edit | On your Mac | Whisper on the Mac's GPU, every line timed. WebVTT and SubRip per clip, plus one Markdown file with every line of the folder to read and mark up. |
| Interviewer and subject apart | On your Mac | Voices told apart within each clip, so the answers stand out from the questions, and each subject recognized across every interview. You name them once; voiceprints stay on your Mac. |
| Interviews in any language | On your Mac | Whisper detects the language spoken and transcribes it, with an English translation alongside. Your own API key makes the translation sharper. |
| Interviews and b-roll sorted | Claude or OpenAI | Each clip's role, such as interview, dialogue, b-roll or establishing, judged from its frames and words. With your own Claude or OpenAI API key. |
| Moments with in and out points | Claude or OpenAI | Reactions, reveals and turning points in the verité, each with an in point, a duration and a usability score from 1 to 5. |
| Days and scenes | On your Mac | Clips grouped by their own capture times and places, so a shoot from last spring reads as days and scenes, not camera cards. |
Prewatch · ClipsMac app
The screenshot arrives with the app
Ask it
One question instead of a day of scrubbing
You ask in Claude or ChatGPT. Prewatch answers with the clips, the seconds and the timecode, and your assistant builds the timeline in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
01
Find every time Maria talks about leaving the farm.
Her answers across every interview, each with the line, the clip and the timecode, in the order they were shot.
Your AI app02
Find b-roll of the farm to cover her line about the drought.
Clips of the farm with no one talking, steadiest first, each with in and out points and a contact sheet to check.
Your AI app03
Build a selects timeline of the day 4 verité, reactions included.
A timeline in DaVinci Resolve Studio with each moment trimmed to its in and out points, in shoot order.
Your AI appCan I do a paper edit from the transcripts?
Yes. Each folder gets one Markdown file with every transcript line, its speaker label and its seconds, plus WebVTT and SubRip files per clip. Open them in any text editor or print them, and lines Whisper was unsure of are marked so you check them against the sound.
Can it transcribe interviews in other languages?
Yes. Whisper detects the language of each clip and transcribes it on your Mac, with a rougher English translation made on the Mac too. With your own Claude or OpenAI API key, the description model makes a better translation that keeps each line's times.
Is the footage uploaded for transcription?
No. Transcription and speaker detection run on your Mac, and no video or audio leaves it, which matters when subjects trusted you with their story. Only if you turn descriptions on does Prewatch send still keyframes and transcript text, with your own key, at a cost shown up front.
Does it work with the free version of DaVinci Resolve?
Building timelines by chat needs DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1 or later, whose built-in MCP server lets your assistant work in Resolve. With the free version you can still index your footage, search it and ask Claude or ChatGPT about it, then place the clips yourself. A file handoff that the free version can import is planned.
How does the free trial work?
Prewatch is an App Store subscription with a 14-day free trial: $59 a year or $7.99 a month after it. You manage or cancel it in your Apple Account's subscription settings; cancel before the trial ends and you are not charged.
Try it on your own footage
Point Prewatch at a folder you have already shot, then ask about it in Claude or ChatGPT.
14 days free, then $59 a year or $7.99 a month. Works with your Claude or ChatGPT plan; timelines need DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1+. Clip descriptions are optional and use your own API key, billed by Anthropic or OpenAI.