Paper Edit vs Mosaic

When to reach for which, and why most projects use both

Paper Edit and Mosaic do related jobs from opposite directions. Knowing which one to start in saves you the most time of any choice in the app.

Use a Paper Edit when

• You know which clips you want.
• You roughly know the order.
• You need to see the words and trim them sentence by sentence.
• You're comfortable adding clips one at a time.

The Paper Edit is the tool for "I have my selects, let me build the order." You add a clip, trim its words back with two drag handles, add the next clip. The script reads top to bottom in the order you added it. Untick a row to drop it from the cut without losing the trim.

It's the closer-to-FCP workflow. You're working in the language of clips and timeline rows. The matcher isn't doing anything for you; you're driving every choice.

Use a Mosaic when

• You have a deep pile of footage.
• You know what you want to say, not which clips contain it.
• You're willing to write a script and let the matcher find the takes.
• You want alternates surfaced automatically when the same line exists in multiple clips.

The Mosaic is the tool for "I have hours of interviews and I need a 90-second answer to a question." You write the sentence, hit Submit, the matcher splices verbatim word and phrase matches into a finished cut. When the same phrase exists in multiple clips, the alternates surface automatically.

This is also the tool for "I want to build a sentence nobody actually said." Pull words from anywhere across your transcribed clips and the matcher will assemble them as if they were always together. Honest framing: this isn't a deepfake, it's an editing tool. The words have to exist somewhere in your footage.

Mix and match

Most projects use both. The working pattern:

1. Build the spine in a Paper Edit. The interview answers, the moments you know are in. Trim them down.
2. Drop a Mosaic into the same project for the connective tissue. The bridges between answers, the lines that didn't quite happen but need to exist.
3. Send both to Final Cut Pro. They land as separate events, prefixed Paper - and Mosaic -, so you can see what came from where.

The reason this works: a Paper Edit is great at honoring what was actually said and the rhythm someone said it in. A Mosaic is great at constructing what should have been said. A real cut has both kinds of moments.

If you're picking one to start, start with the Paper Edit. It's the more familiar tool and the one that translates cleanly into FCP. Reach for the Mosaic when the Paper Edit feels like it can't get you to the line you want.