Assembly Cut Notes

---
name: assembly-cut-notes
description: "Produces structured editorial notes from an assembly cut description, identifying material gaps, sequence order issues, and structural foundations before the rough cut stage."
status: stable
category: tv-documentary
subcategory: post-production
version: 1.0
eval_score: 4.52
tags: [documentary, post-production, editing, assembly, notes, structure]
---
# Assembly Cut Notes

## What This Skill Does
Produces structured editorial notes from an assembly cut description, identifying material gaps, sequence order issues, and structural foundations before the rough cut stage.

## When To Use This Skill
- You have an assembly cut — all shot material laid out in approximate sequence — and want a systematic assessment before starting the rough cut edit
- You are a producer or director reviewing the editor's first assembly and need structured notes on what is missing, redundant, or misplaced
- You want to identify material gaps early enough to schedule pickup shoots or additional interviews before the edit progresses
- A broadcaster or funder has requested an assembly viewing and you want to anticipate their notes

## What You Need To Provide
**Required:** A description of the assembly cut: the sequence of sections in order, approximate running time of each, what material is in each section (interviews, observational footage, archive, narration placeholders), and the film's intended final running time.
**Optional:** The commissioning brief or editorial treatment; any known material gaps (scenes you planned but did not shoot); the director's editorial intentions for the film's structure; whether a narrator is planned.

## How the Assistant Approaches This
1. Maps the assembly against the treatment or intended structure: which planned elements are present, which are absent, and which have appeared unexpectedly from the shoot
2. Identifies material gaps — scenes, interviews, or archival elements that the film will need but that do not appear in the assembly — and distinguishes between gaps that require a pickup shoot and gaps that can be solved in the edit
3. Assesses sequence order: whether the current arrangement of material suggests a viable narrative structure or whether major reordering is needed before the rough cut stage
4. Flags redundancy: sections where the same point is made by multiple pieces of material, allowing the editor to choose the strongest version early
5. Provides a clear recommendation on readiness: whether the assembly contains enough material to proceed to a rough cut, or whether specific actions (pickup shoot, archive research, additional interview) should happen first

## Output Format
Structured notes document. Sections: Material Assessment (what is present and what is missing), Sequence Notes (order and placement issues), Redundancy Flags (where the same ground is covered twice), Gap List (specific missing elements with recommended solutions), and Readiness Verdict (proceed to rough cut, or pause for pickups). Each note includes: Issue | Impact on Film | Recommended Action. Total length: 500–800 words. Output ends with a prioritized action list: the three most important things to resolve before starting the rough cut.

## Quality Criteria
- [ ] Material gaps are specific — names the missing element and explains why it matters to the film's structure
- [ ] Distinguishes between gaps that need new material (pickup shoot, archive search) and gaps that can be solved editorially
- [ ] Sequence notes address the overall narrative arc, not just individual scene placement
- [ ] Redundancy flags identify the strongest version of each repeated point, not just that repetition exists
- [ ] Readiness verdict is clear and actionable — proceed or pause, with specific conditions
- [ ] Language is constructive and direct — written for a director-editor conversation

## Example

### Input
Assembly cut description: A 98-minute assembly (target 52 minutes) of a documentary about a family-run bakery facing closure after 40 years due to rising commercial rents. The film follows the owner Hana, her son Tomas who wants to modernize the business, and three regular customers whose daily routines are built around the bakery.

Sequence order and timings:
1. 0:00–12:00: The bakery's morning routine — observational footage of Hana opening up, baking, first customers arriving
2. 12:00–28:00: Hana's backstory — extended interview about her parents starting the bakery, immigration story, the neighborhood's changes
3. 28:00–38:00: Tomas introduced — interview about his plans for an online ordering system, conflict with Hana over modernization
4. 38:00–52:00: Three regular customers — individual interviews about what the bakery means to them, observational footage of their visits
5. 52:00–65:00: The rent negotiation — Hana meets with the landlord's representative, aftermath interview
6. 65:00–78:00: Tomas tries his modernization plan — online orders, social media, delivery attempts
7. 78:00–90:00: The community response — a petition, a local newspaper article, a community meeting
8. 90:00–98:00: Current state — the bakery is still open but the lease decision is pending

Known gaps: We did not get the landlord on camera. The community meeting was poorly lit and audio is marginal.

### Output

**Assembly Cut Notes — Bakery Documentary**
*Assembly length: 98 minutes | Target: 52 minutes | Notes prepared: March 2026*

---

**Material Assessment**

The assembly contains strong material in three areas: Hana's observational footage (the morning routine is the film's best visual sequence), the Hana-Tomas generational tension, and the rent negotiation scene. The customer interviews are present but uneven — the three regular customers currently feel interchangeable rather than distinct.

Two significant gaps: no landlord perspective (acknowledged) and no material showing what the neighborhood looks like beyond the bakery — the gentrification argument is made entirely through interview, with no visual evidence of the changing street.

**Sequence Notes**

**A1 — The 16-minute backstory block (12:00–28:00) is too early and too long for an assembly.**
The immigration story is compelling but the film has not yet earned the viewer's investment. Move the strongest 4–5 minutes of backstory to after the rent negotiation scene, where it gains emotional context. Hold the rest as available material for the rough cut.

**A2 — The customer section (38:00–52:00) needs differentiation before the rough cut.**
All three customers are introduced in sequence, making this section feel like a list. At rough cut stage, interweave customer moments throughout the film rather than grouping them. For the assembly, note which customer has the most distinctive relationship with the bakery and lead with them.

**A3 — Tomas's modernization sequence (65:00–78:00) currently reads as a subplot, not a structural pillar.**
If the film's tension is tradition vs. change, Tomas needs to appear structurally earlier — his first scene at minute 28 is too late for a co-lead.

**Redundancy Flags**

- Hana describes the neighborhood's change in three separate interview segments (minutes 14, 22, and 55). The minute-55 version is the strongest — it follows the rent negotiation and carries real weight. The earlier two can be reduced to a single short passage.
- Two of the three customers make nearly identical points about "community." Choose one.

**Gap List**

| Gap | Impact | Recommended Action |
|-----|--------|--------------------|
| No landlord perspective | The film's antagonist is absent — the rent pressure feels abstract | Record a phone call (with consent), use a written statement on screen, or film the landlord's other properties as visual counterpoint |
| No neighborhood visual context | Gentrification is told, not shown | Half-day pickup shoot: the street, new businesses, construction, signage changes. This is the cheapest gap to close and will transform the edit |
| Community meeting footage (poor quality) | Audio problems may make this unusable | Assess whether audio can be rescued in post; if not, use the newspaper article and petition as the community-response evidence instead |

**Readiness Verdict**

**Proceed to rough cut with one condition:** schedule the neighborhood pickup shoot before the rough cut begins. The street footage will be needed throughout the film and cannot be faked in the edit. All other gaps can be solved editorially.

**Priority actions before rough cut:**
1. Shoot neighborhood context footage (half-day)
2. Assess community meeting audio quality — decide keep or cut
3. Identify which of the three customers is the strongest and plan to lead with them

## Known Limitations
- Assembly notes are based on a description of the material, not on viewing the footage. Visual quality, performance energy, and editorial rhythm cannot be assessed from text — these notes address structure and material coverage only.
- The readiness verdict assumes the described material is editorially usable. If key scenes have technical problems (focus, audio, lighting) not mentioned in the description, the verdict may change.
- Assembly cuts vary enormously in how polished they are. Some editors deliver a near-rough-cut assembly; others deliver raw material in approximate order. These notes assume a standard assembly where material is placed but not yet editorially shaped.

## Related Skills
- [rough-cut-notes](../rough-cut-notes/SKILL.md)
- [fine-cut-notes](../fine-cut-notes/SKILL.md)
- [scene-breakdown-writer](../../scripting/scene-breakdown-writer/SKILL.md)