How to rebuild an edit when all you have left is the exported video

Last updated 2026-09-15 · 8 min read

What is the short version?

An export is a flat file that has forgotten how it was made. But the cut is still in there — every shot boundary and every source moment is recoverable if you have the footage it was built from.

1. Send Vizard Agent the export and the original recording.
2. Ask it to recover the shot list by matching frames.
3. Ask for the same cut re-rendered from the source.

What do you need before you start?

The finished video and the footage it came from. Vizard Agent recovers the edit by finding each exported frame inside the source, so the source has to be the actual recording that was used — a different take of the same thing will not match, and neither will a re-encode that has been cropped.

• The export. The finished video as delivered.
• The original recording. The one it was cut from.
• What you want different. Clean, higher quality, one shot changed.
• Whether the audio is reusable. Usually it is.
• Any zooms you remember. It helps the match.

What do you type into Vizard Agent?

Ask for the cut to be recovered, not for the video to be recreated. Those sound similar and produce completely different results — one gives you the same edit, the other gives you a new edit that happens to use the same footage.

Prompt

Variants worth knowing:

• "Work out where the cuts are." The recovery, stated plainly.
• "Exactly the same cut." Stops a well-meaning re-edit.
• "Each shot against the export." The proof it matched.

What does Vizard Agent actually do?

Here is the sequence on a real ninety-second walkthrough whose project files were gone. Notice that the matching happens twice: once straight, then again allowing for zoom, because a shot that was pushed in during the edit will not match its source frame directly.

1. Surveys and transcribes the export to understand what is in it.
2. Looks for the original build files in case they still exist.
3. Detects the cuts in the export and prepares frame-matching data.
4. Matches every frame of the export back to the source recording.
5. Compares export frames with their matched source frames side by side.
6. Re-matches allowing for mild zoom to recover each cut's source timing.
7. Inspects a difficult section of the export against the source directly.
8. Solves the shot-by-shot timing with a continuity-aware match.
9. Re-renders the cut shot by shot from the source and remuxes the audio.
10. Compares every rebuilt shot against the export before delivery.

Step two is worth doing first and takes a minute. If the build still exists somewhere, rebuilding from it is exact and free, and Vizard Agent checks for that before starting the expensive route.

Step six is the one that rescues the job. An edit that pushed in on a shot leaves an export frame that no source frame matches pixel for pixel, so Vizard Agent retries the match at several zoom levels rather than declaring that shot unrecoverable.

Step eight stops the shot list from being nonsense. Matching frames individually can put shot four earlier in the recording than shot three, so Vizard Agent solves the timings together and requires them to make sense as a sequence.

What does the result look like?

The same edit, rebuilt from the source. Same shots, same order, same length, same audio — without whatever you were trying to get rid of, and at whatever quality the source can give. Vizard Agent shows the rebuild beside the export shot by shot so you can see the match rather than take its word for it.

When does this not work well?

Some exports cannot be traced back. If the footage has been heavily graded, cropped or re-timed since, or if the export mixes in material you no longer have, the match fails on those shots and Vizard Agent will tell you which ones rather than filling them with something close.

• Heavy grading since. The frames no longer look alike.
• Missing source. Some shots came from footage you do not have.
• Speed changes. A ramped shot matches nothing cleanly.
• Generated inserts. They exist only in the export.
• Very low-quality exports. Too little detail to match on.

How do you fix a result that came back wrong?

Name the shot number. Because Vizard Agent produced a recovered shot list rather than one continuous render, a bad match is a single entry to correct and the rest of the rebuild stands, so you are never re-solving the whole video because one shot landed two seconds off.

• "Shot six is from the wrong moment." That match is re-solved.
• "This shot was zoomed in." Re-matched allowing for the push.
• "The audio drifts." The original audio is remuxed rather than rebuilt.
• "This shot is not in my footage." It is flagged and left as the export.

How does Vizard Agent compare to doing it yourself?

By hand you scrub the export and the source side by side, find each cut point, and note the timecodes. On a fourteen-shot video that is an afternoon, and the errors are silent — a shot recovered two seconds late looks fine until someone notices the sentence starts mid-word.

Common questions

Do I need the original project file? No. That is the point. But Vizard Agent checks for it first, because it is the better route.

What if the source is a long recording? Fine. Vizard Agent searches it rather than asking you where to look.

Will the audio be rebuilt? Usually not. Vizard Agent remuxes the original audio, which is exact.

Can it recover on-screen text? Text added in the edit is not in the source. Vizard Agent flags those shots.

What if only some shots match? Vizard Agent rebuilds the ones it can and tells you which it could not.

Does this work for a longer video? Yes, though the matching takes longer. Vizard Agent reports progress by shot.

Can I change one shot while rebuilding? Yes. Once Vizard Agent has the shot list, swapping one entry is straightforward.

Will the quality be better? As good as the source allows. Vizard Agent renders from the recording, not the export.

What about zooms and pans added in the edit? Vizard Agent detects the zoom during matching and can reapply or drop it.

How do I check it really matched? Vizard Agent puts each rebuilt shot beside the export frame it matched.

What if the export was re-encoded several times? It still usually matches. Vizard Agent works on picture content, not file identity.

Can it give me the shot list itself? Yes. Ask Vizard Agent for the recovered timings and you have a usable edit list.

Why not just re-edit it from scratch? Because you approved this cut. Vizard Agent recovering it keeps that approval intact.

Does the length stay the same? Yes. Vizard Agent rebuilds shot for shot, so the duration matches the export.