Build a Video to Shorts Pipeline
Step 5 of 9 · About 2 minutes per clip
Run the Coherence Gate
Three tests that decide whether a clip survives. This is a pass or fail gate, not a score, and it is the reason our clips make sense to someone who was not on the call.
A go or kill decision on every clip plan, with the failures named specifically enough to fix or abandon.
Everything else in this pipeline is scored on a scale. This is not. A clip either passes all three tests or it does not get rendered. Scoring lets a bad clip through on the strength of its other dimensions. A gate does not.
The three tests
| Test | Fails when | Example of a failure |
|---|---|---|
| Complete thought | The clip enters or exits mid sentence | Opening on "and that is why the whole thing falls apart" with no preceding clause |
| No orphaned pronouns | A pronoun refers to something defined off clip | "This changes everything" where this was explained two minutes earlier and is not in the clip |
| No inside references | The clip assumes context a cold viewer cannot have | Names of people not introduced, callbacks to earlier in the call, running jokes |
Run it
Run the coherence gate on every clip plan in episodes/<date>/plans/.
For each plan, read the exact words in its segments from
work/ep-test.words.json, in the order the plan specifies, and evaluate the
result as if you are a cold viewer who has never heard this call.
Three hard tests, all must pass:
1. COMPLETE THOUGHT. Does the clip enter and exit on complete sentences? No
mid sentence entry, no mid sentence exit.
2. NO ORPHANED PRONOUNS. Does every this, that, it, they, he, she, and them
have a referent INSIDE the clip? A pronoun pointing at something defined
off clip is an automatic fail. Quote the offending pronoun.
3. NO INSIDE REFERENCES. Any name, callback, or shared context a cold viewer
will not have. Quote it.
Output a table: clip id, pass or fail, and for failures the exact test that
failed and the exact words that caused it.
For each failure, tell me which of these applies:
- FIXABLE by extending a segment to include the referent, and by how much
- FIXABLE by adding a text overlay that supplies the missing context
- NOT FIXABLE, kill the clip
Do not soften a fail. A clip that half passes is a fail.Fix or kill, and be quick about it
- Extend the segment. If the referent sits two seconds before your in point, move the in point. Cheapest fix, use it first.
- Add an overlay. If the missing context is a number or a name, a text overlay can supply it without touching the audio.
- Kill it. If the idea only makes sense to people who were there, it is not a short. Note it and move on.
Questions
Why is this a gate and not part of the score?
Because coherence is not a matter of degree. A clip that does not make sense does not make sense, no matter how strong its hook or pacing is. Folding it into a score lets those other dimensions carry an incoherent clip over the line.
How many clips typically fail?
Roughly a third on the first pass, and most of those are orphaned pronouns that a slightly earlier in point fixes. The ones that fail on inside references are usually the ones you kill.
Talk it through
Stuck on this step?
Free 30 minutes. Bring the error, the transcript, or the clip that will not pass the gate, and we will work through it.