How to Edit Long Videos into YouTube Shorts with Claude

One interview can give you enough material for several YouTube Shorts. But turning an hour of conversation into those clips is no easy task. You'll be scrubbing through the recording, finding the moments worth using, and cutting each one so it makes sense on its own. Then you still have to reframe the shots, add B-roll and captions, and finish the sound for every Short.

Today, Claude can take on much of that work, but it can’t make those edits on its own. To edit these videos, you need to connect it to a video editor through MCP. You can then ask it to review the recording, find moments around particular topics, and turn selected passages into edited Shorts.

If you’re looking for a free option, invideo Editor provides an MCP connection that lets Claude work on a professional-grade timeline. You can chat to select footage, tighten cuts, reframe shots, add captions and sound, or make manual adjustments yourself.

Editing through MCP does not consume invideo credits; your requests use your Claude allowance. Generating new images, video or audio, however, consumes invideo credits separately.

For this guide, we’ll use a forty-minute interview with a former scammer turned fraud investigator about how scammers build trust, create urgency and get people to overlook warning signs. The goal is to create multiple Shorts that hold viewers’ attention and deliver useful answers without requiring them to watch the full conversation.

1. Connect Claude to your video editor

Open invideo’s connection page, choose Claude, and follow the setup instructions for your client. Sign in to your invideo account when prompted and make sure the connection is available in the conversation you’ll use for editing.

You can also use another editor that offers a compatible MCP connection, though its setup and available editing tools may differ.

Keep your project open in invideo Editor so you can see the timeline take shape, review Claude’s changes and make manual adjustments as you go.

2. Upload your interview and explain what you want to create

Upload the interview directly to invideo Editor, or use Claude’s desktop app to ask it to add the footage to your project for you. If the footage is already in a project, give Claude the project link or identify it by name. Specify the source timeline if the project contains more than one.

Start by explaining the material, audience and intended result. This gives Claude context before you ask it to select or assemble anything.

For our example:

This project contains a forty-minute interview with a former scammer who now works as a fraud investigator. I want to create three YouTube Shorts for viewers interested in how scams work and the stories behind them. Each Short should offer a distinct story or takeaway and make sense without the full interview. First, help me identify suitable moments before we start editing.

You don’t need to watch the entire recording and supply every timestamp first. You can ask Claude to review the footage and bring back candidate moments for you to assess.

3. Find moments for several distinct Shorts

Give Claude a direction for its search. Asking for specific moments gives Claude more useful guidance than simply asking for the “best clips.” You can ask it to find moments around a particular incident, action or exchange.

To get more from the prompt ask for more candidates than you intend to use so you can compare them:

Find me five candidate moments for three Shorts. Look for examples like a revealing incident from one of his fraud investigations, a story from his scamming days or a practical warning sign viewers can recognise. For each candidate, give me the source timestamps, a possible opening, the story or takeaway, and any context we need to retain. Choose passages that offer different stories or insights rather than repeating the same advice. Don’t assemble the Shorts yet.

Review the candidates in the footage. Check whether each passage delivers something useful on its own. An answer that begins with “That’s when I realised” may need the preceding setup. A longer story might contain a shorter sequence that still preserves the incident, turning point and outcome.

For this walkthrough, suppose the recording supports three selections:

• The Investigation: An incident where a detail helped the guest understand what was happening.

• The Turning Point: A story from his scamming days that builds towards an unexpected development.

• The Warning Sign: A specific behaviour or detail viewers can learn to question.

Each selection gives the Short a different purpose: uncovering something, following a story, or learning what to notice. The actual passages and outcomes should come from the interview.

4. Build each Short on a separate timeline

Once you’ve chosen the moments, ask Claude to assemble a separate timeline for each Short. This keeps the full interview available and lets you review each cut independently.

Create three separate timelines named “The Investigation,” “The Turning Point” and “The Warning Sign,” using the selected passages. For “The Investigation,” keep enough setup to understand the incident, the detail the guest noticed, and what it revealed. For “The Turning Point,” preserve the sequence leading to the turning point and its outcome. For “The Warning Sign,” keep the example and the explanation of what viewers should question. Aim for roughly 45–60 seconds per Short where the material supports it. Remove retakes, repeated points and unnecessary pauses, but retain the context needed to follow each story or explanation. Leave the full interview unchanged. We’ll add captions, B-roll and music later.

The duration is a creative target for this batch. Don’t force every story into the same length if doing so removes the setup or payoff that makes it worth watching.

Watch the first cuts on your fully editable timeline. You can make manual adjustments whenever you want, such as trimming a pause, restoring part of a story or moving a clip, then continue directing Claude from the updated edit. For example, you might keep an extra beat before the guest reveals what they noticed in the investigation because the pause helps the moment land.

5. Explore different hooks for each Short

The strongest opening may sit halfway through the selected passage. Claude can help you explore ways to introduce the story before you commit to one.

Ask for alternatives grounded in the footage:

Suggest three hook options for each Short. Include the exact source quote and timestamp where you propose using interview audio. Show me the options before changing the timelines. Don’t invent quotes or exaggerate what happened.

Compare the options against what follows. For “The Investigation,” an opening could tease the detail that caught the guest’s attention. For “The Turning Point,” it could introduce the situation just before something changed. “The Warning Sign” might work best with a question the guest answers directly.

A question-led opening should receive a clear answer in the Short. A revealing quote should retain its meaning when moved to the beginning.

You can then choose an opening for each timeline:

Use the question-led option for “The Investigation,” the guest’s statement for “The Turning Point,” and the text-led opening for “The Warning Sign.” Adjust the following cuts so each opening flows into the story or explanation without repeating it.

Using different openings across the batch also lets you tailor the treatment to each passage rather than giving every Short the same structure.

6. Refine the cuts with precise feedback

After the openings are in place, review how quickly each Short reaches its point and whether the story or explanation is easy to follow.

Name the timeline and use timestamps to target your feedback. For example:

In “The Investigation,” remove the repeated setup around 00:12–00:17, but keep the detail that explains why the guest became suspicious. In “The Turning Point,” hold the pause just before the unexpected development. Leave “The Warning Sign” unchanged.

Use the timestamps from your actual cut. You can also identify a moment by what the guest says or what is visible in the shot.

Be clear about what should remain untouched, especially when asking for several changes together. “Tighten the opening but preserve the setup needed to understand the reveal” gives Claude a more useful direction than “Make it punchier.”

You can keep refining through chat or adjust the clips directly on the timeline.

7. Reframe the Shorts for a vertical screen

Once the cuts work, adapt the three timelines for vertical viewing.

Make all three Shorts 9:16. Keep the active speaker comfortably framed and adjust the framing when the speaker changes. Preserve relevant gestures and leave room for captions without covering the face.

Check the result shot by shot. A wide interview composition may need different framing for the guest and interviewer. If a reaction matters to the story, you could retain both people in a stacked layout rather than cropping one out.

Ask for specific corrections where needed:

In “The Turning Point,” keep both speakers visible during the interviewer’s reaction, then return to a closer framing of the guest as he explains what happened next.

Review the framing during movement as well as on still frames. Someone leaning forward or gesturing can change what needs to stay visible.

8. Add or generate B-roll that supports the story

B-roll can make an abstract explanation easier to understand. In a scam story, a fictional message exchange, an incoming call or a sequence of increasingly urgent notifications can help viewers follow what the guest is describing.

Start with what the passage needs to communicate, then ask Claude to source or generate supporting visuals and place them on the timeline.

For a visual example, Matt Penny’s walkthrough shows supporting imagery layered above a talking-head edit in invideo Editor, with the underlying footage and other layers still visible on the timeline.

For a passage that describes a suspicious message exchange, you could ask:

In “The Investigation,” add illustrative B-roll where the guest describes the messages he examined. Generate a close-up of a phone receiving messages, then add readable fictional message overlays based on the details he describes. Time the relevant detail to his explanation. Keep the interview audio underneath and return to his face when he explains what it revealed.

For a different Short, you might want a simpler treatment:

In “The Turning Point,” add one brief supporting shot to establish the setting the guest describes. Keep the turning point itself on his face so his expression and delivery carry the moment.

Ask for the visuals where they help, rather than covering every sentence. The guest’s delivery may be the strongest image at an important moment.

Use fictional details and make reconstructions clear so viewers don’t mistake generated visuals for actual messages or evidence from the case. Generating new images, video or audio uses invideo credits.

9. Add captions and opening text

With the framing and B-roll in place, add captions that work across both the interview shots and supporting visuals.

Add captions to all three Shorts using the same font, size and placement. Keep the phrases short and readable on a phone. Avoid covering faces or important details in the B-roll, and check the transcript against the interview audio. Add the opening text we selected for each Short where needed.

This walkthrough from The Future Of AI shows a vertical talking-head edit with captions in invideo Editor, illustrating how the speaker and text share the portrait frame.

Review names, unusual terms and any wording that changes the meaning of a claim. Also check line breaks and timing: a caption should stay on screen long enough to read without revealing the guest’s conclusion too early.

You can ask Claude to apply a shared style across the batch, then make individual adjustments:

In “The Investigation,” move the captions above the fictional message overlays during the phone sequence. Keep their usual placement for the interview shots.

The captions and titles remain editable, so you can adjust them manually or request further changes.

10. Finish the sound, review and export the batch

Start with the interview audio. Smooth the joins between cuts, reduce distracting background noise and keep the dialogue level consistent.

Clean up the dialogue across all three Shorts and smooth the audio at the cuts. Keep natural breaths and pauses that support the delivery. Make the speaker levels consistent across the batch.

Then add music or effects where they support the story:

Add a restrained background track to each Short, keeping the dialogue clear. In “The Investigation,” add subtle notification sounds during the phone B-roll and stop them when we return to the guest’s explanation. In “The Turning Point,” let the music drop back before the reveal so the guest’s delivery carries it. Avoid effects that distract from the story.

Watch every Short from beginning to end. Check that the opening leads into the answer, the visuals match the account, and each clip delivers a different story or takeaway. Watch once without sound to check the captions, then listen closely for abrupt edits or music that competes with speech.

When the batch is ready:

Export “The Investigation,” “The Turning Point” and “The Warning Sign” as three separate vertical videos. Use the timeline names for the filenames.

Check the exported files before uploading them to YouTube. Keep the editable timelines so you can return to a particular Short, change its opening or create another version without rebuilding it.

For the next batch, you can refer Claude to the styles and timelines you’ve already approved while asking it to find new material from the interview.

Frequently asked questions

Can Claude find moments for Shorts without me providing timestamps?

Yes. Once the footage is available in the connected editor, you can ask Claude to review it and suggest passages around particular topics. Ask for source timestamps and a short explanation of each candidate so you can review the selections before it assembles them.

Can Claude create several Shorts in one request?

Yes. Define the source material, the number of Shorts you want and what should distinguish them. Ask for separate timelines and specify any shared instructions for captions, framing or sound. You can review the candidate moments first, then have Claude assemble the selected batch.

Can I use a long video I’ve already edited?

Yes. You can import an edit from DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro into invideo Editor using an XML project file and its source media. All your layers land on an editable timeline, so you can ask Claude to continue working on the existing edit.

Will creating Shorts change my original interview?

Ask Claude to create the Shorts on separate timelines and leave the original unchanged. Name the timelines clearly so later feedback applies to the right version.

Can Claude generate B-roll for the Shorts?

Through invideo Editor’s MCP connection, Claude can generate supporting images or video and add them to your edit. Explain what the visuals should illustrate, where they belong and how they should work with the interview audio. Media generation uses invideo credits.

Can I manually adjust the Shorts after Claude edits them?

Yes. You have full access to invideo Editor’s professional editing timeline, so you can manually edit any part of the Shorts, including clips, framing, effects, animation, captions and sound. You can switch between manual editing and directing Claude whenever you want, with Claude working from the updated timeline.