How I edit reels with Claude.

Every reel in this series was edited by Claude. I didn't open CapCut once.

There are paid courses that sell this. I asked Claude to build me my own instead. Here's how.

What you need

• A computer (mine's a Windows laptop, nothing fancy)
• A paid Claude plan and the Claude desktop app (the Code tab is where the magic happens)
• Your phone for filming
• Your brand colours and fonts if you have them

Step 1: Film like a lazy genius

1. One take. Talk to camera. If you mess up a line, pause and say it again. Leave the bad take in. Claude cuts it.
2. Good light, close crop. Face a window. Phone at eye level. Head and shoulders in frame, a little room above your head.
3. Say the big words clearly. The words you want to pop up big on screen, say them like you mean it.
4. Send it to your computer. Drop the video in a folder. That's your whole job.

Step 2: Get Claude to build your editor

This is the prompt I started with. It took one evening of back-and-forth to get something I love.

I want to edit my talking-head reels without opening an editing app. Build me a free, local reel editor I can run on this computer. It should: transcribe my video with word timings, cut dead air and keep the last take of any line I repeat, add word-by-word captions in my brand fonts and colours, put big words behind my head with me cut out in front, add punch-in zooms on cuts, add simple sound effects, and set the volume right for Instagram. Before rendering, always show me a storyboard with real frames so I can leave notes. Use free tools only.

Step 3: The edit loop

1. Drop the take. "Edit my new video."
2. Read the storyboard. Claude shows you a frame for every line, what got cut and where the effects go.
3. Leave notes like you're texting a friend. "Make NO pop up big." "Put the office footage behind me here." "Cut that last bit."
4. Render. Claude checks the finished file for leftover pauses and the right loudness before handing it over.

Step 4: Train your editing styles

This is the bit nobody tells you. Your editor starts out fine. It becomes yours because you train it, one note at a time, like briefing a new editor who happens to work at the speed of light.

Here's exactly how mine got its looks.

1. Start with a vibe you love. I saw an editing course whose demo reels I loved: a solid colour behind the speaker, big headline words stacked behind their head, small calm captions. I didn't buy the course. I described the look to Claude and said "build this, in my brand."
2. Swap in your brand. His was green with a serif font. Mine became Adventure Red, our TAN Nimbus headline font, Sandstone text and little Earth-coloured caption tags. Same energy, totally Good Livin'.
3. Give it a name. I told Claude to save it as my "studio look", and the louder word-by-word caption style as my "house look". Now I just say "studio look" and it knows.
4. Watch the first render like a hawk. Then tell it everything that bugs you. Plain words. No editing jargon needed.

These are real notes I gave, and what Claude fixed:

• "My head is covering the words." It moved the headline higher, onto one line, so my head just clips the bottom.
• "The red stays on way too long." Now the colour holds about two and a half seconds after the word lands, then cuts back to my room.
• "The red shows up before I say the word." Now the colour and the word land together, right when I say it.
• "Only NO should come up big, not the whole sentence." Now one word slams in and the regular captions step aside.
• "It cut me off halfway through my point." It put the rest of the sentence back. Always watch for this one.
• "Some shots just sit there." It now switches framing every few seconds on long talky bits, like a two-camera shoot.

Save the look we just built as my "[name] look": colours, fonts, where the big words sit, caption style, how long things hold on screen, and every fix I asked for along the way. Next time I say "[name] look", start from this.

Step 5: Effects and B-roll

Once the basics felt right, I went shopping for effects. Every time I saw one I liked, I described it and Claude built it from scratch in my brand. No template packs. My favourites:

• A number counter that rolls up to $10,000,000 when I say eight figures
• A Good Livin' magazine cover that drops in behind my head
• An AI prompt bar that types out what I asked Claude to do
• Giant single words (my NO and MAYBE moment)
• A 70s film look for flashbacks
• A comment box that types the keyword for my call to action

For B-roll, I dumped a folder of clips from my phone and told Claude what I wanted where:

• "When I talk about Vistaprint, show the Vistaprint website." It cut to it, in the same faded film look as the memory, so it felt like a flashback.
• "Find clips of me and Brett along the way." It went through my clips and built a playing grid of us at markets, events and the beach.
• "Put the office build behind me." It cut me out and played the build footage behind me while I talked.
• "Show the products when I say hero products." They tumble in as a stack of phone-shaped cards.

Step 6: Make more than one version

Once you can edit in minutes, make a few cuts of the same video and test them as trial reels. Comment TRIAL on any of my videos and I'll send you exactly how I do that.