# How to review dialogue takes and pick the best one Read every take as a timed transcript, play each from the line, and keep the best as a clip, without scrubbing through hours of footage. Canonical page: https://grain.photo/guides/review-and-select-dialogue-takes Last updated: 2026-11-10 To compare takes of a line, search for the words, play each result from its first word, and add the one you want as a clip. Grain Photo transcribes every recording on your Mac, so a line said six times across three cards appears as six passages you can read and hear side by side, with nothing to scrub, log or rename first. ::video moments | A recording open in Grain, with its timed transcript beside the player. Expanding a suggested moment and adding it as a clip takes a few seconds. ## Before you start This works for interviews, pieces to camera, voiceover, scripted scenes and the dialogue in any recording where someone says something you need. Add the drives or folders with your footage as sources. Transcription starts by itself once a recording is indexed: there's no button to press, and it pauses and resumes around your work. It runs on macOS 26. See [how automatic transcription works](/guides/automatic-transcription) for details. ## 1. Find every take Type a few words of the line into the search field and press Return. Search what you remember: an exact phrase or a keyword. Dialogue search finds every passage where those words are said, closest matches first, so "lost the boat" finds each take of the line. ::cards ### One shoot - Select its folder or drive under **Sources** first - Search stays inside that shoot ### Every day and card - Search **All Media** - Compare takes from different days or cards ::end > Tip: If you know who said it or roughly when, add a date range in **Filters** to cut the list down before you start listening. ## 2. Read before you listen Open a result. **Moments** shows the recording's transcript in order, with the matching passages highlighted and everything around them still visible. That context matters: a take often lives or dies on the line before it, the false start, the laugh, the breath. Reading first is faster than listening first. You can usually rule out half the takes on the page: - wrong wording - a stumble - a line cut short ## 3. Play from the line Click a passage to play it in the original recording. Playback starts a little before the line and pauses at its end, so you hear the delivery without hunting for it. Use previous and next to step through every moment in the recording, then move to the next result to compare another take. To look beyond the passage, scrub the video timeline. A reaction shot, a cutaway or the moment after the line is often the reason to choose one take over another. ## 4. Keep the best take When you hear the one, add it as a clip. ::cards ### The suggested moment - Choose **Add Clip** on it - The clip covers the moment's range ### Your own range - Press I and O to mark your in and out - Then choose **Add Clip** ::end A clip is a range linked to the original recording. Nothing is copied, so adding clips costs no disk space, and you can keep a second-best take as a clip too. ## 5. Tighten the in and out Double-click the clip in **Moments**, or choose **Edit Clip**, to open the clip editor. Drag the handles, or type In and Out timecodes, and the video and the in and out frames follow. Choose **Update Clip** to apply the change, or **Cancel** to keep the clip as it was. > Tip: Leave a few frames of air on both ends. It's easier to trim in the edit than to find more. ::video clip-editor | Adding a take as a clip, then setting its in and out exactly in the clip editor. ## 6. Fix a misheard word Transcripts are good, not perfect. Names, jargon and mumbled lines are the usual misses. Double-click a moment's words to correct them. Search, captions and exports all use your correction, so the next search for that name finds it, and the exported SRT is right. ::video transcript | Correcting a misheard word in Moments. Search, captions and exports use the correction. ## 7. Hand off to the edit Choose **Export Clips…** to write each clip as an MP4 with its own SRT caption file, timed to the clip. The original recording stays untouched. Drop the clips into your editor, or [let an agent assemble a rough cut](/blog/agentic-video-editing#one-request-end-to-end) from them. Every control is in [add, trim and export clips](/guides/add-trim-export-clips). ## Review takes with an agent With hours of interviews, ask a connected agent to do the first pass. It can search dialogue across a source, read every timed transcript, and come back with the strongest takes of each line or theme, with timecodes. You listen to its picks and add the clips you agree with. > Prompt: Search the dialogue in the "Harbor interviews" source for every take where Maria explains why she started the co-op. List each with recording, timecode and the full line, and say which delivery is cleanest and why. ## Shortcuts | Keys | What they do | |---|---| | {{Space}} | Play and pause | | {{,}} {{.}} | Step back or forward one frame | | {{I}} {{O}} | Mark the start and end of a range | | {{⌘Return}} | Add the marked range as a clip | | {{Esc}} | Cancel a range you're making or editing. Otherwise, leave the video | Every shortcut in Grain is on one page: [keyboard shortcuts](/guides/keyboard-shortcuts). ## A quick checklist - Search the words, not the filename. - Read the takes before you listen to them. - Play from the line, and scrub for the cutaway. - Add the best take as a clip, and keep the runner-up. - Fix names in the transcript before you export. - Export MP4 + SRT for the edit.