Guide
Organize documentary footage without logging it all.
Hundreds of hours, a dozen people, one story. Here’s a way to stay oriented that doesn’t start with a spreadsheet.
In short: Index everything once, name your main people, and build Selects groups as you watch and search: interviews by theme, B-roll by scene. Sift’s Visual, Spoken and People search let you find footage when you need it, so you log selects, not everything.
No editor needed. Sift works on its own as a desktop app on Mac and Windows: search, preview, build Selects and share footage by link without opening an editor. The editor panels are optional.
Why logging breaks down
Full logging is right in theory and rarely survives a real schedule. A lighter approach is to search first, log only what you keep.
A workable structure
- Folders by shoot day, not by topic. Topics change; dates don’t.
- Name your subjects once in People so every future clip of them is findable.
- Selects groups by theme: “childhood”, “the flood”, “B-roll: harbor”. Add a note to each moment about why it’s there; notes are searchable.
- Search the spoken word for recurring phrases and names to find where themes appear across interviews.
- Send groups to your editor as bins and cut from the bins.
Sharing selects with a collaborator
A Selects group can be shared as a .sift file. It lists clips and notes, not footage, and finds the same clips in the other editor’s copy of the footage. For a producer who only needs to watch, share it with Link sharing.
What this doesn’t replace
Sift isn’t a transcript editor or a full asset manager: no export of transcripts as documents, no custom metadata schema. If your team needs those, look at the tools on our comparison page.
Step by step.
- Index all drives
Add every folder with footage. Search works on what’s done while it indexes.
- Name your people
Open People, click each main subject’s face and type their name.
- Build Selects as you search
Save moments into themed groups; add a short note on why.
- Send to the edit
Send a group to Premiere or Resolve as a bin, or share it as a .sift file or a link.
Questions
Can I search notes I write?
Yes. Notes on clips and moments are searchable.
Can I search across interviews for a theme?
Yes, by the words people said. Search finds the words you type, so try a few variants.
Does it replace a transcript?
No. It finds moments; it doesn’t export transcripts as documents.
Updated 2026-10-22
Keep reading.
Try it on your own footage.
Free for 3 days or 25 searches. No card. Then $99 a year for one computer, Mac or Windows. Everything in Sift, including the optional editor panels and one free link to share footage.