How to edit video like another video you love, in Sharpy

How do editors use reference videos?

As a shared language. "Make it feel like this one" says more than a page of notes, so editors keep references for pace, structure, captions, music and colour, and agree them with whoever the video is for before cutting.

Then they take the reference apart. A good breakdown answers a few questions:

What kind of piece is it? A scripted talking head, a two-person interview, a montage to music.
How is it built? Where the hook sits, whether it names its points before explaining them, and whether it comes back to each.
How fast is it? How long shots hold, where cuts land in the speech, whether it punches in at a cut and by how much.
How is it dressed? Caption size, place, colour and which words get lifted; labels; graphics; the sounds under them.

What a good editor copies is the language, not the numbers. If the reference holds a shot for four seconds because its speaker pauses there, your speaker's pauses should decide yours.

What does Sharpy take from a reference video?

The same breakdown, measured. On its maker's material, Sharpy decided 33 properties of the edit against the reference: 26 copied as they were and 5 adapted to his recording, each with its reason.

What it reads in the reference	What it does with your recording
The kind of piece, its panels and who holds the floor when	Builds the same structure, with your material in each role, as in a stacked podcast clip
Whether it names its topics first and comes back to each	Lays your beats out in the same order
Where its cuts fall in its own speech, and whether it cuts or blends	Cuts your speech at the same kinds of places, and checks each join after the render
How many framings it uses, and the order it visits them	Cuts between the same framings in the same order, never by enlarging a small picture
Caption size, place and colours, and which words its editor lifts	Captions your words the same way, lifting the words that carry your point
Labels and graphics, and the sounds that land with them	Places yours where the format puts them

Captions show how this works. Sharpy reads a reference for its keyword language: which words its editor lifts, what each gets and when. On one creator's reel, of the 17 words she lifts, Sharpy's reading found 16 lifted and set all 17 apart. That language is then spoken on your script, by meaning, not by copying her words; animated captions is the lesson on styling them.

Two phones lean side by side against a fruit bowl on a kitchen counter, each playing a person talking, in front of a notebook with a row of pencil tick marks along a line. — Editors study a reference by timing it: where it cuts, how long each shot holds, and when the words come on.

How do you copy the editing style of a video in Sharpy?

Five steps, each a tool your agent can call, or Sharpy runs in order:

Read the reference (read_format). Sharpy reads its sentences and who holds the floor, and asks you one question about it.
Set the format (set_format). Your answer becomes the format's structure and the roles a recording can play in it.
Read your recording (read_recording). The same question, asked of your material in the format's own terms.
Lay out the beats (plan_beats). Your material in the format's order, a short list of words worth confirming, and a cut script.
Assemble (assemble). The finished file, every check run on it, and a verdict.

Confirm the words it raises, because a misheard name is the most visible mistake a captioned video can make. It works from a written script or from the audio alone: the same recording cut both ways passed every check. The reference's shape is offered to you as a proposal, never taken as the answer, and its loudness is shown beside the one you chose rather than put in its place.

A reference can be a file or a link. Sharpy fetches a linked reel and reads it as it lands: its panels and turn-taking, its cuts, whether there is a music bed under the voice, and how loud it is.

How is your recording fitted to the format?

By translating, and by saying where the fit falls short. Sharpy names every place your material cannot do what the reference does, for example "folders holds the floor for 18 s against the reference's longest turn of 10 s", so you can trim the line, or keep it knowingly.

Some things it does not guess. If the reference's caption colours cannot be read off its picture, Sharpy says so and asks you to state them. If too little of the reference's language can be accounted for, it refuses rather than producing a loose imitation. And it never makes up a house style to fill the gaps.

On its maker's reel, the finished file had all 21 lines of the script heard in order, none chopped or repeated. From there it is an ordinary Sharpy edit: every cut has its reason, and you change it in plain words or by hand, as your first edit in Sharpy showed.

Can you edit to a style without a reference video?

Yes: write the format down instead. Sharpy starts you from an example format, and you state only what you care about: the panels, the framing, the labels, the captions, the graphics, how shots blend, the punch-in and the loudness. Anything you leave out is recorded as unstated, and the edit is not held to it. The same plan and the same checks run as with a reference; three clips joined and cut from a written format, with no reference at all, came out with every line heard in order and subtitles written.

A written format is also how you keep a style of your own. Once the captions, labels and pacing are right, every later video can be cut to it.

Can you publish the reference video?

No, and Sharpy does not let it slip in. A reference fetched to learn from is marked as a study copy. Every render, whether from the window, the agent or the command line, and every hand-off to another editor, refuses a marked file before writing a single frame. Renaming, moving or copying the file does not get round it. A reference you got some other way can be marked by hand.

The craft side agrees. Under US copyright law, ideas and methods are not protected, only their expression, so learning a style is fair game, as editors have always done. The reference's footage, music, graphics and words are someone's work, and they stay theirs.

Frequently asked questions

How do I copy the editing style of a video?

Break it down: what kind of piece it is, how it is built, how long shots hold, where cuts land and how captions and labels look. Then cut your own footage to that language. In Sharpy, you give it the video as a reference and it does the breakdown and the cut, with a reason for each choice.

Does Sharpy copy the reference's music or footage?

No. It copies the editing language, never the material. A reference is a study copy that no render or hand-off includes.

Can I use a link as a reference?

Yes. Sharpy fetches the video from a link, reads it as it lands and marks it as a study copy.

What if the reference is a different shape from my video?

Its shape is offered as a proposal and you decide. The finished piece's shape and quality are always yours to set.

What if my recording does not fit the reference?

Sharpy names each shortfall, such as a speaker holding the floor far longer than the reference ever does, and you choose whether to trim or keep it. Shots and captions are adapted to your recording, with the reason for each adaptation.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026.

US Copyright Office, Circular 33: Works Not Protected by Copyright