Summary
Recut turns video footage you already have into a short-form video ad through a chat conversation. It's one of two equal ways to start making an ad in Cuttable, alongside briefing an ad in writing. Select your clips, optionally add a note describing the direction you want, and Cuttable composes every strategy automatically and starts rendering the first cut right away. From there, refine it directly on the canvas or by chatting with Cuttable.

Recut takes raw video footage you already have, such as talking-head clips, product footage, b-roll, or testimonials, and cuts it into a short-form video ad. Recut selects the strongest moments, orders them, keeps your original audio or adds a voiceover, and adds on-screen text, background music, and cutaway b-roll where they help. You control the result by chatting with Cuttable in plain language rather than using a timeline or editing software.

When your footage includes more than one presenter who look similar, Recut uses each speaker's voice to tell them apart, rather than treating them as the same person.

To start with Recut, select Make Ads, then select Recut videos.

Selecting your videos is what triggers Recut, and volume matters: the more clips you provide, the more cuts and variations Recut can build. What is in those clips matters just as much as how many you provide, because it determines which of the following three cut types Recut can compose.

⭐ Important: a note narrows the field. The more specific your direction, the fewer variations Recut returns, because it composes toward that direction instead of exploring every strategy. Write a note if you already know what you want. Leave it empty if you're still exploring and want to see the widest range of options.

Recut chooses the background music for each cut automatically. It checks your Music Library first for a track that fits the cut, and only generates a new track when nothing in your library is a good fit. See the Managing music for your ads in Cuttable article for more on your Music Library.

Every track Recut generates is saved back to your Music Library, so it stays available to reuse in later cuts and ads.

When the chosen track has a known tempo, Recut trims clip boundaries onto the nearest beat, so scene changes land on the beat instead of at an arbitrary point.

Cuttable composes every possible strategy automatically from your selected videos, instead of asking you to choose one first. The first version of your cut starts rendering as soon as you hit enter, and opens in the workspace where you can watch it come together.

Once a cut is generated, tell Cuttable what to change in plain language. Recut makes targeted changes: it does what you asked and leaves the rest of the cut alone. Your previous version stays in the Ad Group, so you never lose a cut you liked.

You can ask Recut to edit:

⭐ Important: bleeping a word or phrase silences every spoken instance of it in the beats that play in the cut, and masks the matching captions. If a cut has been flagged during prescanning for restricted speech, it still won't finalize even after the flagged words are bleeped.

Keep edit requests specific. "Shorten the close by about two seconds and use the other product shot" works better than "make it better." If a request is too vague, Recut may ask you to be more specific.

⭐ Important: some edits open the editor instead. Fine-grained visual tweaks, such as swapping a logo, restyling captions, or adding a specific image overlay, are best handled in Cuttable's editor. When you ask for one of these in chat, Recut provides an Open in Editor link so you can make the change directly.

To build a fresh cut from a different strategy instead of editing the current one, ask Recut to try another strategy, for example "try a different angle" or "create another version." Cuttable keeps your current cut and composes a new one with a deliberately different opening so your versions don't feel repetitive. All versions live side by side in the same Ad Group, so you can compare them and pick your favourite.

Every version in the Ad Group can be opened directly in the editor for fine-grained visual edits, not only the most recent cut. Open the Ad Group in Your Ads, select the version you want, then select Open in Editor.

To start a completely new hook that does not build on your current cut at all, select the + button in the chat panel and describe the fresh hook you want. This differs from asking Recut to try another strategy, which still varies the opening but works from the same footage and direction as your current cut.

Recut can add more than clips to a cut, using three features. On-screen text is native, creator-style text laid over the video, such as a hook label or a price, and is separate from captions. An image overlay is one of your own images composited onto the video, such as a logo or product photo. A layout splits the frame to show two or more things at once, side by side, top and bottom, or in a grid of up to four.

The table below shows what Recut adds automatically in the first cut, and what you can request in an edit.

On-screen text uses a default font, not the fonts saved in your Brand Kit. See the FAQs below for how to change it.

⭐ Important: images must be attached to your edit message. Recut places images you attach to an edit request, either an uploaded picture or a product image. Recut cannot find an image in your library on its own. To add a logo, attach it to the same chat message where you ask for it.

If Recut isn't behaving the way you expect, one of the following usually explains why and how to resolve it.

Can I choose which strategy Recut uses before it generates a cut?
No, Cuttable composes every strategy it can automatically from your footage and your note, rather than asking you to pick one first. The first version renders as soon as you hit enter. If you want a different take afterwards, ask Recut to try another version in chat.

How many variations can I make from one set of videos?
The number of variations depends on both how many videos you provide and what's in them. More footage generally means more possible cuts, but the type of content in your clips, such as dialogue versus b-roll, also determines which of the three cut types (narrative, montage, or hybrid) Recut can build. Cuttable continues generating new variations until the footage is exhausted, so uploading more videos at the start gives you more possible variations.

Do I need editing skills?
No, you do not need editing skills to use Recut. If you can describe what you want in chat, Recut does the editing.

Will Recut use footage I did not choose?
No, Recut works only from the videos you select. If a cut could not use one of your clips, Recut tells you.

Can I see the chat history from my Recut session?
Yes, open the Ad Group in Your Ads and select View chat to see the full conversation, including your note and any edits you requested.

Why did my cut fail or return a generic error even after I changed my note?
This almost always means your source footage already has captions or on-screen text burned in. Remove any pre-captioned clips from your selection and try again with plain footage; changing your note won't fix it, since the footage is the blocker.

Can I mix my original audio with a voiceover, use more than one voiceover voice, or change the background music partway through a single cut?
Yes, you can mix your original audio with a voiceover within a single cut, for example adding a voiceover intro over b-roll before your on-camera speaker takes over, then keeping your original speech for the rest of the cut. Ask Recut for this directly in chat, for example "add a voiceover intro, then keep my original audio for the rest." You still cannot use more than one voiceover voice or change the background music partway through a single cut. If you need either of those, make separate cuts and pick between them.

Does Recut use my Brand Kit fonts for on-screen text?
No, on-screen text that Recut adds automatically uses a default font, not the heading or body font saved in your Brand Kit. To match your Brand Kit fonts, change the font manually after the first cut is generated:

See How to Edit Your Ad in Cuttable for more on editing text in the editor, and Update fonts in your Brand Kit for how to add or update the fonts in your Brand Kit.