How to make sure the clips you supplied actually get used

Last updated 2026-09-04 · 7 min read

What is the short version?

When you send a pile of footage and get back a cut that uses four of the eleven files, there are two possible explanations, and you cannot tell which from the video. Asking is the fastest way to find out which one you are looking at.

1. Go to Vizard Agent and name the shots that are missing.
2. Ask why they were not used.
3. Set a minimum share if you want them in regardless.

What do you need before you start?

The delivered cut and a clear idea of which footage you expected to see. Vizard Agent still has the analysis it did on every file, so the question is cheap to ask — it does not have to re-watch everything to answer you.

• The current cut. As delivered.
• The shots you mean. By filename or description.
• A floor, if you want one. "At least 15% from these."
• Your reason. Sometimes the shot is contractually required.
• A willingness to hear no. Occasionally the answer is good.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Ask the question and set the requirement in the same message. Asking alone gets you an explanation from Vizard Agent; asking with a floor attached gets you the explanation and a new cut together, which is usually what you actually wanted in the first place.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "At least 15%." A measurable floor, not "use them more".
• "Tell me why first." Explanation before the re-cut.
• "This one is non-negotiable." A shot that must appear.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the order Vizard Agent worked in on a real music video where new footage arrived after the first master was approved. Steps five to nine are what an honest answer to "why didn't you use this" is actually made of.

1. Probes and downloads every clip and the track.
2. Builds contact sheets of all the footage.
3. Maps the song — beat grid and section structure.
4. Looks at every clip's frames one file at a time.
5. Checks rotation metadata and whether the clips carry audio.
6. Detects the cuts inside each file.
7. Tests whether each take was shot to playback of the song.
8. Measures the exact playback sync of every take.
9. Has each take watched shot by shot.
10. Locates the subject in every planned shot.
11. Builds grid sheets and judges the framing across all of them.
12. Tracks the subject through each shot before choosing crops.
13. Renders the shots and checks frame-accurate cut alignment.
14. Builds QC sheets of the assembled cut and reviews them in thirds.
15. Fetches the newly supplied clips and probes them.
16. Measures their sync against the track.
17. Tests a grade for the new footage, which was lit differently.
18. Checks the framing at the exact moments it plans to use.
19. Rewrites the timeline with the new angles in it.
20. Re-tracks the performer through every new shot and re-cuts the framing.
21. Builds and uploads the new master, then reviews it again.

Steps seven and eight are the usual answer. In a performance video, footage shot to a different playback of the song will not cut against the rest no matter how good it looks — the mouth is in the wrong place. That is a real reason, and it is the kind of thing worth being told rather than silently worked around.

Step twenty is the cost of the floor being honoured. New footage does not simply drop into a timeline; it has to be graded to match, and the subject has to be tracked again so the framing agrees with the shots either side.

What does the result look like?

A new master with the requested footage in it at the share you asked for, graded by Vizard Agent to sit alongside the original shots rather than announcing itself as an addition, and re-framed so the performer stays where the eye already expects them to be.

You also get the answer to the original question — which shots had a real technical problem and which were simply passed over. That distinction is worth having, because one of them means "try again" and the other means "reshoot".

When does this not work well?

A floor is a promise about screen time rather than about quality, and there are shots that simply cannot be made to work at any share of the runtime. Forcing those in produces a cut that is measurably compliant with what you asked for and visibly worse to watch.

• Out-of-sync performance takes. The mouth will not match.
• Badly out-of-focus footage. No grade rescues it.
• A completely different look. It will read as a different video.
• Very short files. There may not be fifteen per cent to give.
• Footage that contradicts the story. Continuity beats coverage.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

React to the specific shot. Vizard Agent keeps the per-clip analysis, the sync measurements, the tracking data and the timeline, so swapping one forced shot for a better moment from the same file is a re-cut rather than a rebuild.

• "Use a different part of that clip." Re-cut from the same file.
• "That one really is unusable." Dropped; the floor rebalanced.
• "It looks different." Re-graded against the surrounding shots.
• "Now it drags." Shortened while keeping the share.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

An editor who leaves your footage out will usually tell you why if you ask, and that conversation is the valuable part. The difference is that here the answer arrives with measurements behind it — sync offsets, focus, framing — rather than as a judgement you have to take on trust.

Common questions

Will it always give a reason? Yes, if you ask. Vizard Agent explains what it measured on that file.

Can I insist on a specific shot? Yes. Name it and Vizard Agent works it in.

Is fifteen per cent a real setting? It is just a number you name. Vizard Agent cuts to whatever share you ask for.

What if the shot is genuinely bad? Vizard Agent says so and uses it anyway if you insist. The call stays yours.

Can it fix the footage instead? Sometimes. Vizard Agent can grade, stabilise or reframe before deciding.

Does adding footage restart the edit? No. Vizard Agent rewrites the timeline around what is already approved.

Will the new shots match the grade? Yes. Vizard Agent tests a grade for the new footage specifically.

What about footage shot on a different phone? Common, and handled. Vizard Agent matches the look in the grade.

Can I send more clips later? Yes. That is exactly the situation this handles.

Does it tell me which shots it struggled with? Yes, and that list is usually the most useful part of the answer.

Can it show me where each clip is used? Yes. Ask Vizard Agent for the timeline breakdown by source file.

What if two shots cover the same moment? Vizard Agent picks one and tells you the other was redundant rather than bad.

Does this apply outside music videos? Yes. Any job where you supplied more footage than ended up on screen.

Why did it not just use everything? Because a cut is a set of choices. The point of asking is to see the choices rather than only their result.