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textbased.video for Premiere editors

One file out, one file back, full resolution at the finish — and your content under your control the whole way.

The extension is the paid side of textbased.video (free during alpha). The desktop app your journalists use is free — they never pay.

In Premiere, before you send

  • · Pick a sequence on your timeline. The extension reads the rushes that touch it and generates web-friendly proxies of just those clips. Your full-resolution media stays untouched on your drive.
  • · Provide the transcript by exporting it from Premiere's Text panel and pointing the extension at the file. Built-in transcription is on the roadmap.
  • · Hit Send. Secure Send packs proxies, transcript and project structure into one file on your machine. Nothing uploads anywhere.

You hand the file over — and that's deliberate

There is one step in this workflow that other tools hide from you: moving the file. We leave it in your hands on purpose. You deliver the send file however you already move footage — your cloud, your SSD, your USB stick, or your newsroom's file-transfer system. That single manual step is what makes the guarantee real: your rushes travel on infrastructure you chose and control, and our servers never see a byte of them. When the story is sensitive, the source is protected, or the embargo is real, there is nothing about us you have to trust.

What your journalist does

They open the file in the free desktop app — no account to create, and the app is signed and notarised, so it installs like any normal Mac app. The transcript sits front-and-centre with the video next to it, and they cut by working with the words: copy the lines they want into their edit, strike what they don't, record a voiceover, drag b-roll over the sentences it should cover, and trim any overhangs right on the monitor. A built-in two-minute tour teaches all of it.

Back in Premiere

  • · Their finished edit comes back the same way it went out: as one file, handed to you on your terms.
  • · Open it with the extension and the cut lands in your project as a new sequence, labelled with the edit's name so you know what you're importing.
  • · The extension swaps the proxies back to your full-resolution rushes automatically — no relink dialog, no offline-media triage.
  • · Pick up where you would normally: take it from rough cut through to the finished edit.

They can also start without you

The desktop app doesn't need a project from an editor to be useful. A journalist in the field can drop their own phone footage straight in — it's transcribed on their machine — and build an assembly cut on the spot: interview lines, voiceover, b-roll, trims.

Then they finish one of two ways: export an MP4 (matched to their footage, up to 4K) for socials or a fast web publish — or bundle the whole edit into one file for the office. Bringing field bundles straight into Premiere as a sequence is part of 1.0 — the goal: field cut by lunchtime, finished package by air-time.

Coming after 1.0 — Server Send

For teams that want the handoff automated, an optional cloud path is coming after 1.0: the extension uploads the bundle to your own Google Drive and emails your journalist an invite link; their return travels back through our plumbing end-to-end encrypted on their machine — we never see plaintext media, transcripts, edits or notes, and access is revocable per project. Early versions of this exist in the alpha today, but 1.0 is focused on the private path above. More clouds (Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint) and DaVinci Resolve support follow on the same roadmap.

▸The two send modes, in detail

Secure Send (the default)

  • The bundle (proxies + transcript + project structure) is written to a local folder you choose.
  • Nothing is uploaded. No cloud copy, no share link, no project code minted, nothing sent to our servers.
  • You deliver the file yourself — your cloud, an encrypted USB stick, an SSD, in-person handover, whatever your security posture requires.
  • The recipient opens the file in the free desktop app. No invite email, no account.
  • Right for everything from routine stories to whistleblower interviews, embargoed material, and IT-locked-down orgs.

Server Send (coming after 1.0)

  • The bundle uploads to your own Google Drive, shared per project with an unindexable anyone-with-link ID.
  • The recipient gets an invite email; one click opens the project in the desktop app.
  • Returns travel back end-to-end encrypted on the recipient's machine — we never see plaintext.
  • Early versions exist in the alpha today; the polished release follows 1.0.

Both modes use the same in-app cutting experience for the recipient. The difference is only in how the file gets to them.

Video walkthroughs for alpha editors are coming soon — short clips covering the send, the journalist's cut, and the import. Posted here when they're ready.
Back to the overview

textbased.video is in private alpha. Vendor certification is partial: Google Drive OAuth verification is in preparation (users see an “unverified app” consent screen on first sign-in until it's granted), a Windows build is coming (early Windows installers may be unsigned — SmartScreen will warn), the Premiere extension ZXP is self-signed and installed via a third-party manager, and the macOS desktop app DMG IS signed with an Apple Developer ID and Apple-notarised (Gatekeeper opens it cleanly). Remaining vendor certifications arrive with the paid launch. See Privacy and Terms for the full picture.