The first assembled version of the video: all the best footage edited together in roughly the right order, but without polish, colour grade, or finishing touches.

The rough cut is ugly by design. It shows the structure and pacing of the video, not how it will look when finished. Do not panic when you see a rough cut, that is exactly what it is supposed to look like at this stage.

Rough cut in the real world

When the rough cut of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983) was first shown internally, it was reportedly considerably longer than the final 13-minute and 42-second version. The editing process between rough cut and picture lock involved significant structural decisions about pacing and which scenes to tighten or remove. The rough cut stage is where those decisions get made.

Related terms

Picture lock, Editor, Colour correction, VFX, Director