references/a-roll

Edit by complete semantic units such as full sentences, answers, or steps rather than keyword fragments. Keep connective words and context that retained sentences depend on, and when boundaries are uncertain, keep the content or make a smaller cut.

Only meaningless fillers like um, uh, er, and ah are safe for batch removal. Context-dependent fillers like so, like, or then require manual judgment, and functional connectives expressing causality, contrast, or sequence must always be kept.

First confirm the attempts are true retakes of the same intent, then keep the most complete version, usually the later one. Delete only the failed portions fully covered by the kept version, starting the cut at the failure point without removing useful earlier setup.

Compress pauses longer than 0.8 to 1 second down to about 0.3 seconds, keeping 0.3 to 0.5 seconds between sentences for natural breathing. Never eliminate pauses entirely, and follow explicit user thresholds when provided.

Pause compression only works on gaps between transcript segments, not within-sentence breaths, which need word-level timing. The skill covers only speech keep-or-delete decisions; visual jump-cut coverage belongs to b-roll and overall pacing belongs to editing skills.