PaperCuts vs Descript: planning versus execution in documentary editing

Both produce searchable multi-speaker transcripts and export in multiple formats. The divergence is in what comes after: Trint has no beat sheet or paper cut assembly; PaperCuts has no NLE-style video scrubbing.

Otter.ai is built for meeting notes. PaperCuts is built for multi-speaker documentary interviews, speaker identity across files, and a post-production assembly layer. The gap is not about accuracy.

A paper cut is a written assembly of interview selects in the order the editor plans to use them. It is the blueprint for the rough cut. Here is how it works.