One of the powerful ways artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be used by media creators is to identify short clips in longer videos which are potentially engaging for audience members, and then facilitating the process of making those clips into shorter videos that can be shared on social media. In this post I’ll highlight how I use the platforms Substack and Descript to create AI powered video clips. You can check out examples in this YouTube playlist from the EdTech Situation Room.
Since January 2016, my friend Jason Neiffer and I have co-created over 340 episodes of “The EdTech Situation Room” podcast. It’s an almost-weekly podcast conversation about recent technology news “through an educational lens.” Jason and I have served in various educational roles through the years, and (perhaps predictably) we have strong opinions about a lot of educational technology related topics. In the past few years our themes have focused increasingly on AI / artificial intelligence, but we also highlight many other technology topics. We co-create an ongoing / running Google Doc with all our show notes / links, and stream our show to YouTube Live using StreamYard.com. For the past year or so, we’ve also shared our shows via a Substack newsletter, and recently we’ve been experimenting with sharing “video posts” on Substack.
Today as I continue to work on posting recent podcast episodes both to our blog and Substack, I noticed Substack supports the FREE creation of short video clips (approximately 60 seconds each) when you upload a video. Since our downloaded videos are VERY big from StreamYard (over 1 GB) I had previously uploaded a compressed version of our show to Substack, which I compress locally on my MacOS laptop using HandBrake software. (Handbrake is free and open source.) The video resolution of that version is very low (640 x 360) however, which makes for faster video podcast downloads from AmazonS3 (which I use to host the actual files of many of my podcasts) but it looks bad on Substack on a laptop or computer monitor. It looks OK on a phone, but I’d rather share a higher resolution version, especially since Substack does not charge for video hosting or (apparently) have file size limits. For our episode 334 on Substack, I downloaded the YouTube encoded video (directly via studio.youtube.com) and posted that version. After publishing the “video post,” I noticed the option to download auto-generated (and titled) 60 second clips from the hour-long podcast episode / video. Without any prompting or input from me, Substack’s AI identified 7 different 1 minute clips in our show that would make good clips or shorts, and provided a fast interface for me to download then and then use / re-purpose them on other social media platforms. Sweet!
I went ahead and posted all 7 of these to our YouTube channel, and organized them in a YouTube playlist so I could feature it on our channel homepage. I created a description which I could use for each one that references the original episode on YouTube, our podcast website, Substack newsletter edition, and has links to connect directly to both Jason and I.
I’m quite excited and interested in continuing to use these Substack AI powers to create short video clips because I know there are a lot of “good things” Jason and I talk about on our show each week, but unless people are listening to entire show (as a dedicated listener / subscriber) there are undoubtedly missed opportunities to share those ideas with others. Living as we do in an attention economy, filled with short-form content increasingly shared as “reels” on Facebook as well as other platforms like TikTok and Instagram, it’s valuable for part-time creators (like us) to have access to AI capabilities like this.
The other platform I’ve used to create AI-powered video clips is Descript.com. Unlike Substack which just auto-identified and auto-created those 7 video clips for me, Descript lets users specify how many video clips to identify and create, AND the duration of each video.
The 3 minute video, “Make Clips in Just a Few Clicks with Underlord” both makes the case about why MARKETING your podcast via clips, and the easy way AI tools like Descript’s “Underlord” streamline this process.
Do you use a different AI powered platform to create highlight video clips and reels from longer videos? If so please let me know with a comment on this post, via BlueSky, or another social media platform.
Last thought: I learned about Descript last summer when I was using ChatGPT to craft / edit / improve my “Audio Interviews” chapter of my almost completed book, “Pocket Share Jesus: Be a Digital Witness for Christ.” I asked ChatGPT to tell me what other innovative tools I should consider including in the chapter, and it recommended Descript.com.
The age of AI enhanced communication is here. There are downsides to this reality, but also big upsides. Quickly creating short video clips from longer videos is definitely an upside, IMHO.
Happy AI video clipping!
Source : AI Created Video Clips
