Crafting Effective Prompts (Prompting Guide)

Welcome! Prompting is how you get the results you want from Spingle. This guide covers the three places Spingle listens: your project setup, Selects, and Create. Think of it like briefing an assistant editor: the better your brief, the better the cut.

You no longer have to write that brief from scratch. Spingle now asks you a short set of questions and builds it for you, and you can write your own answer to any question you like.

The Three Layers of Prompting

Spingle works in three layers over a single, one-time analysis of your footage. Get the first layer right and the rest is fast.

1. Project setup (the guided questions)

You do this once, when you press Analyze. Spingle asks you about your project and your footage: what it is, what you are delivering, how it was shot, and what matters most. While it watches your footage it applies those answers to every clip, building a picture of what counts as a good shot and pulling your Selects at the same time.

This is the make-or-break step. If you do not tell Spingle to look for something, it will not look for it. Invest your effort here first.

2. Selects

After analysis, Selects pulls the usable regions of your footage. Because the thinking happened during analysis, you can either Use Spingle's Picks instantly (no prompt needed) or Refine with a prompt to fine-tune. This is the precision layer.

3. Create

Create assembles rough cuts. Pool one or many sequences into a single cut, build it from your Selects or from the raw footage, and batch several variations at once. This is the ideation layer: fast rough cuts to react to, not a finished edit.

Setting Up Your Project: The Guided Questions

When you press Analyze, Spingle picks your project style and then walks you through a short set of questions. Your answers become the brief it applies to every clip, so this is the single biggest lever on your results.

Some questions are about the project and are asked once. Others are about each sequence, so a tripod interview and a handheld B-roll reel can be treated differently.

Describe this project (project) A short free-text description, prefilled to match your chosen style. This is the most valuable box on the page: replace the suggestion with your actual project. Name the brand, event, couple, or property, say what the video is for, and mention anything specific you want found.

Call out anything not standard. Cultural traditions, a ceremony in another language, an unusual running order: if it matters to the edit, say so, and Spingle will look for those moments.
Say when a sequence is a mixed bag. If the lighting or locations vary a lot, mention that variety. If you describe only one look, footage that does not match it can score lower than it deserves.

What footage is in each sequence? (each sequence) Choose B-roll only, A-roll only, or Both. A-roll is your main talking or dialogue footage; B-roll is supporting and cutaway visuals. This shapes how Spingle judges what to keep.

If the sequence contains A-roll, a follow-up asks whether Spingle should clean it up: remove silences, awkward pauses, and false starts, and keep the strongest takes. Say yes for interviews and pieces to camera.

What is the output of this project? (project) Your deliverable and its rough runtime, for example a 30 second social ad, a 3 minute highlight reel, or a 60 second trailer. This shapes pacing and how tight the selects are.

What is the camera and lighting setup? (project or each sequence) If everything was shot the same way you answer once; otherwise you answer per sequence. The options are tailored to your project style, and you can describe your own rig.

Was the camera moving or stationary? (each sequence) Choose Moving (handheld, gimbal, shoulder, monopod, drone) or Stationary (tripod, locked off).

Moving turns shaky filtering on, so selects come from the steadiest takes.
Stationary leaves it off and analysis runs faster.
Shooting deliberate whip pans or creative motion? Choose Stationary so those moves are kept rather than filtered out.
One sequence holding a locked-off angle and a roaming one? That is the normal two camera event rig. Answer Moving so the pass runs on the moving angle, then set the shaky threshold in Selects (around 35 for handheld). If you want the two angles treated differently, split them into separate sequences.

Not sure how the camera was held? This is common when you did not shoot the footage yourself. Open a clip and scrub a few seconds: if the frame drifts, breathes, or bounces, answer Moving. If it sits perfectly still, answer Stationary. When in doubt, leave it alone, because skipping this question counts as Moving, so the shaky pass still runs and you can set the threshold later in Selects. Answering Stationary skips that pass, and changing the answer to Moving later re-analyzes just that sequence.

What length of B-roll selects should Spingle search for? (each sequence) The typical duration to target for each B-roll region, for example 0.5 to 2 seconds for fast cutting or 2 to 7 seconds for a slower piece. Only asked when the sequence has B-roll, and the choices adapt to your footage and deliverable. These durations do not apply to dialogue, since sentences should usually stay intact.

What types of moments should be prioritized? (project) A free-text box, prefilled from your style, describing what Spingle should favor when two moments compete: the emotion, action, detail, or story beats that matter most. Like the description box, this is worth personalizing.

Every question takes your own answer, and every question can be skipped. Pick Custom on any question to write your own answer in plain language. If you skip a question, Spingle falls back to a sensible default, so you can answer only the ones that matter and get going.

Only describe what is actually in your footage. Spingle can fixate on instructions you give it. If your footage has no people, do not ask it to find people smiling. Describe the shoot you actually have.

Write like you would explain it out loud. Spingle understands natural, descriptive language, including other languages and "or" conditions. You do not need rigid rules or perfect spelling.

You also do not need camera, lens, or lighting terminology. Describe in plain words what was shot and what you want out of it, and skip anything you are unsure about. Every question has a small information icon: hover it to see what your answer changes.

Attachments

Attach documents on the review step: shot lists, storyboards, paper edits, or scripts. You can tag A-roll and B-roll inside a script PDF.
Label faces: put screenshots of key people in a PDF with their names and roles. Then Spingle knows who "the commissioner" or "Bob" is, and you can later prompt when Bob speaks, focus on the topic of budget.
Keep it to a handful of concise, relevant files, and mention them in your description.

Your Context Carries (and Still Respects New Prompts)

This is the part editors ask about most, so it is worth stating plainly.

Your setup answers are the persistent foundation. They are baked in during analysis and inform every later step. Each Selects or Create prompt then layers on top and takes precedence for that run. You can change creative direction from one run to the next without re-analyzing: Spingle keeps your project rules and applies your new instruction.

Example: Say your setup describes a fast-paced highlight. Later, in a Create prompt, you ask for a slow-paced rough cut with a 10 second opening shot. Spingle follows your latest instruction for that run while still respecting the project rules you set. Ask for the fast version now and the slow version next: each run does what its prompt says, on top of the context you established.

Changing your setup answers is the one exception. Editing them after footage is analyzed does not re-run analysis, because your results are cached. To fully re-apply new answers, clear that project's cache (Settings > Manage Cached Projects) and analyze again. This is the heavier path, so get your answers close before your first analysis, and use Selects and Create prompts to steer everything after. (Flipping a sequence's camera-motion answer to Moving is handled for you: Spingle re-runs just that sequence to measure it.)

Selects: Precision

Selects finds and isolates the usable regions of your footage. It is where Spingle is most precise, and for many editors it removes 50 to 80 percent of the raw footage, turning an hour of rushes into the best 10 to 15 minutes.

Two ways to run it:

Use Spingle's Picks. No prompt required. These are the selections Spingle made during analysis, driven by your setup answers. Export is near instant because the thinking is already done. Spingle even shows an estimate of how much footage it will keep, with a per-sequence breakdown.
Refine with a prompt. Re-reason over the picks for more control, without re-analyzing. A few examples:
- Use Spingle's Picks, but remove any select under half a second.
- Use Spingle's Picks. For B-roll, make each select no longer than 3 seconds.
- Only keep shots of the outside. Remove anything indoors.
- Cut out crew members, but if a crew member is only on the side of the frame and the shot can be cropped, keep it.

What a refine prompt acts on. Refine does not read the clips in your exported Selects sequence, and it does not re-watch your footage. It reasons again over Spingle's picks from your saved analysis, so write fresh criteria (keep only the strongest moments, no select longer than 2 seconds) rather than an edit to the last export like reduce the number by 40%.

Because it works inside the picks, it narrows them. To bring back a moment the picks left out, lower the shaky threshold or the score, add what you want to your setup answers and analyze again, or use Create with From Raw.

Output: selected regions land on the track above; rejected regions sit on the track below, so you can disable the whole rejected track in one click. Selects uses both your visuals and your audio transcript, so it can cut on shake, camera resets, and what is being said.

Clearing out the junk, or picking the highlights? Say which. The same footage gives very different results depending on how you ask.

Delivering a full length film, a full ceremony, or a documentary: choose any applicable shot for the full length film. Remove bloopers, camera resets, focus hunting, and heavy shake. Ignore shot length. This keeps everything usable and only clears out the junk.
Delivering a highlight or a social cut: find all the highlights. This keeps only the strongest moments.

If your project description was written for a short highlight and you then run Selects over a long form edit, the picks come back highlight tight and it looks like Spingle threw away good footage. Say which job you are doing.

Dial in strictness:

Shaky threshold. Higher is stricter (cuts more), lower keeps more. Around 35 suits handheld; 60 to 70 gives a clean tripod or gimbal look; drop to 20 to 35 if it is cutting too much. Click the shaky control to turn it off entirely for whip pans, action, or intentional motion, and Spingle will use context to keep deliberate movement and cut only genuine junk. Changing this value re-exports instantly.
Score. Spingle assigns each segment a confidence score from 0.0 to 1.0. Set a threshold in your prompt to control quality strictness: keep shots above a score of 0.8 (stricter, fewer) or above 0.3 (looser, more to review).
Singular vs plural. choose the best 1 to 4 second region picks one moment per clip; regions allows several. That one word changes how Spingle decides.

Create: Rough Cuts and Ideation

Create assembles rough cuts for you to react to. It is an ideation tool, not a finisher: expect a strong baseline to build from, not a delivery-ready edit. It shines on audio and story-driven assembly (interviews, vows, speeches) and on churning out social variations.

What is new and powerful:

Pool multiple sequences into one cut. Select several sequences as your sources and Create combines their data into a single rough cut, for example five B-roll sequences plus one interview into one comprehensive cut.
From Selects or from raw. Build the cut from your Selects picks, or from all the raw footage. Use "from raw" when you want footage that Selects filtered out, like a shaky but meaningful moment.
Batch several variations at once. Press Batch, then Add Prompt to queue multiple prompts, each with its own text and settings. Spingle generates them one after another instead of you prompting, waiting, and prompting again. Perfect for delivering many reels or a cut per speaker. You can stop a batch mid-run.

Duration and pacing go in the prompt text:

Overall length: create a 90 second reel or keep this under 2 minutes.
Per shot: each cut 0.5 to 2 seconds; hold hero and establishing shots for 2 to 3 seconds. Ranges give the model room to choose well.
Structure: open with a 5 second speed ramp of cuts getting faster, then three interview moments about the mission, then a slower B-roll section emphasizing hero shots.

Divide and conquer. Spingle does better with fewer tasks per prompt. For scripted or interview projects, get the story or A-roll cut right first, then handle B-roll in a separate pass.

Each Create output gets a green marker at its start: double-click it to see the exact prompt and settings used. Your full Selects and Create history also lives in the Progress table.

Advanced: Audio and Visual Synergy

Spingle analyzes audio content alongside the video, so for dialogue-heavy work like podcasts, interviews, and documentaries it can make nuanced, natural selections. It considers:

Dialogue content: what is being said.
Visual cues during speech: is the speaker looking at the camera, engaged, or running a practice line?
Facial expressions: smiling, emotional, or flat, in sync with the words.

For multi-mic and multicam work, label each audio channel with who is on it, and describe any complications in plain language, for example "one shared mic passed between the bride, groom, and officiant." Spingle merges the channels into one master transcript and uses it to drive Selects and Create.

Audio-visual prompt examples (Selects):

From this interview, keep segments with clear speech above a score of 0.5. Remove silences over 1.5 seconds, filler words, and any take where the speaker looks away or is clearly a practice line.
Find the best soundbites about the product launch. Prioritize takes with confident delivery and eye contact. Trim silence at the head and tail.

Example Prompt Sets

Expand a scenario to see a tested combination you can copy and adapt.

Interview / Documentary (dialogue plus B-roll)

1. Project setup

This is a documentary interview with our founder, Jesse, about the company's origins, plus supporting B-roll of the workspace. Deliverables: a 2 to 3 minute web cut and a set of short vertical clips. For A-roll, cut silences, filler, false starts, and the interviewer's questions, and keep the strongest takes on the founding story. For B-roll, select the best 1 to 3 second regions and remove camera resets.

2. Selects: Run each sequence with Use Spingle's Picks, then refine, for example: For B-roll, keep only regions under 3 seconds.

3. Create (select the interview and B-roll sequences as sources)

Build a 2 minute story cut from the interview about how the company started. Use the strongest soundbites in a clear order, and keep the pacing steady. Prefer confident, on-camera takes.

Tip: use Batch to also generate a 60 second teaser and a 30 second hook in the same pass.

Real Estate / B-roll showcase

1. Project setup

This is a luxury property showcase for social media, shot on gimbal and drone, interiors and exteriors, no dialogue. The goal is a cinematic 60 to 90 second reel. Select the best 1 to 5 second regions with smooth motion and strong composition. Remove camera shake, resets, out-of-focus moments, and any shot before it has started.

2. Selects: Use Spingle's Picks with the shaky threshold around 60 to 70 for a clean look. Refine with only keep the exterior and pool shots if you want to split deliverables.

3. Create

Create a 75 second cinematic reel. Start on a drone establishing shot, move through the entrance and main living spaces, and end at the pool at sunset. Hold hero shots for 2 to 3 seconds and keep transitional shots around 1 second. Choose vertical-friendly framing.

A teaser you run the same way every time (shot list prompt)

If you deliver the same shape of edit job after job, write that shape out as a running order and reuse the prompt. Analyze all your sequences once, then run the same Create each time.

Tick every sequence you want in the cut. Create pools them into a single rough cut.
Write your running order, with a rough duration per shot.

Create a 60 second teaser. Open on a 2 second wide of the venue, then the bride prepping for 1.5 seconds, then two 1 second reaction shots, then the first look for 3 seconds. Keep the rest under 1 second.

Shots land in the order you listed. You cannot ask for an exact number of clips today, so give the runtime and the shot list instead. To reuse the prompt on the next job, double-click the green marker on the output and copy it.

Tips for Refining Results

Test on a sample first. For a large timeline, make a 15 minute test sequence, dial in your prompt there, then apply the winning prompt to the full sequence.
Lean on the cache. Analysis is saved locally, so re-running Selects or Create with new prompts is fast. Re-add a sequence and press Analyze, and saved clips load quickly.
Two speed levers. Answer Stationary to the camera-motion question on sequences that do not need it, such as tripod or locked-off footage (analysis runs several times faster), and use Premiere proxies. Spingle auto-detects proxies and shows which file it is reading in the Progress table.
Use an AI prompting helper. Paste your creative-call transcript plus these docs into ChatGPT or Claude, ask it to "act as a Spingle prompting assistant," and have it draft your project description and Create prompts.
Use the built-in AI search. The search bar at the top of these docs answers natural-language questions instantly.
If results are off, iterate. Too few clips? Lower the score or shaky threshold. Missing something? Make your descriptions more inclusive, or add it to your setup answers and re-analyze.
Your typed text is safe from templates. Clicking a template pill under a prompt box no longer silently wipes what you wrote. If the box holds your own text, Spingle asks first and lets you Keep my text.
Paste not working? If you cannot paste into the prompt box, click off the Spingle panel and back on, then paste again.

Understanding Current Limitations

Limitations:

In and Out points: Spingle analyzes only what is in your timeline. Clear In and Out points on your clips before dragging them in so full clips get analyzed.
Exact durations: target lengths in Create are guidance, not a guarantee; the cut may come out shorter or longer.
Precision is evolving: the AI is improving fast but may miss a perfect in or out point, occasionally skip a clip, or leave a small gap. Minor manual tweaks may be needed.
Report Feedback: if something looks wrong, use the Report Feedback button in the Spingle panel so we can fix it quickly.

Your detailed prompts and your feedback via the Report Feedback button are what make Spingle better.

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