In researching AI tools to save time in creating reels and video shorts from our podcasts and long form video, OpusClip stands out as a time saving solution, as it gives us the ability to further edit and fine tune the reels and video shorts it produces.
I am a creative soul and storyteller through and through, so the idea of using AI to create for me holds no appeal. Why would I want AI to do for me what I love, without the uniqueness, whimsy and humanity that I bring to it. Just like with Persian rugs whose artists purposefully add in an imperfect stitch to demonstrate that they are handmade, I feel that the unique style that my dyslexic and individual mind brings to my writing is what creates the beauty and interest in my storytelling.
Exploring Ethical Ways of Using AI to Repurpose My Creative Content
For me, where AI is useful is in saving time and doing things I don’t enjoy, or that may create a solution to a problem for me. This is where as a media and journalism instructor, and journalist in my own right, I am exploring AI. How can I use AI to further share stories of my creation that matter and spread messages of social good further? How can I utilise AI to save me time, allowing me to focus on the creative? How can I use AI ethically? How can I utilise AI in an environmentally conscious manner?
I don’t have the answers to all of the above yet, but I am experimenting so as to begin to explore and shape my thoughts and experience around this for sharing in my courses with my students and encouraging such discussions among them. In starting on that journey, I wanted to explore if there was a way that AI could help me edit content in the form of podcasts and long form video I’d already created into video reels and YouTube Shorts. This being something I knew would be beneficial in my storytelling, but that I simply had limited time to do.
This lead me to experiment with a number of AI tools to create video reels and YouTube shorts from our Roamancing Reads Podcast in June 2025. While I found a few tools that would cut my podcasts and longer form video into a series of video reels and YouTube shorts, many of these did not allow to further edit the video reels, leaving me unsatisfied with the outcome and not interested in publishing the resulting reels. In searching solutions for this, I found OpusClip.
As an example, here is one reel that OpusClip helped to cut together from our Roamancing Reads Podcast on Triton and Brighton, Newfoundland and Labrador.
@ericahargreave Vinegar Jam Pie! The BEST Dessert You've Never Tried from Newfoundland and Labrador! You heard me right, Vinegar Jam Pie … and it gets weirder when they began to explain how it is made with the Vinegar Jelly Plant grown in a jar in the grandmother's kitchen. Full disclosure, it was quite #scrumpdillyocious! But then that is Triton and Brighton, Newfoundland for you – deliciously unique. A #ShoutOut of thanks to @opusclip for helping me craft this mini tale from our longer #podcast on Triton and Brighton, Newfoundland. I am loving how #OpusClip finds and helps me to cut together smaller stories from a big podcast, saving me hours upon hours that I do not have, making it possible to craft #shorts in a fraction of the time. #OpusClipandGrow For more stories from #Triton and #Brighton, #Newfoundland, tune into the full Roamancing Reads podcast: https://youtu.be/LznfHOSjlkg and read on with my article in Roamancing Travel & Culture Magazine: https://roamancing.com/2024/08/triton-brighton-newfoundland/ #ExploreCanada #ExploreNL #OnlyInNewfoundland #NewfoundlandAndLabrador #TritonNL #BrightonNL #VinegarJam #VinegarJamPie #NewfoundlandFood #Foodie #FoodieTravel #createdwithopusclip ♬ original sound – 🇨🇦 Erica Hargreave 🇨🇦 – Travel & Storytelling w/ Erica
Why OpusClip for Creating Reels and YouTube Shorts from Podcasts and Long Form Video
I found the solution for creating reels and YouTube shorts from my podcasts and long form video that works for me with OpusClip.
Why Do I Like OpusClip?
- OpusClip cuts together mini stories from our longer form video, that make sense.
- The platform makes it easy to edit the mini stories they create from our long form video.
- It uses AI SEO research to suggest titles for the mini stories they create.
- Provides AI SEO research to give us an idea of which mini stories are likely to take off online, and which reels include trending topics.
- It creates a transcript of our podcasts or long form video.
OpusClip Creates Reels / Shorts from Podcasts & Long Form Video with a Click
I’ve known that I should be sharing reels / shorts as teasers to our podcasts and longer form video for a long time now, but I never seems to have enough time in my day to put aside for that. Discovering that OpusClip could create several for me at the click of a button has now made this possible.
This is how easy it is:
- Paste your video link from a podcast or other long form video into OpusClip.
- Review the reels / shorts that OpusClip cuts together from your content to determine which have potential.
OpusClip Makes It Easy to Edit Reels / Shorts
The reason why OpusClip works for me is that they make it both possible and easy for me to edit the reels / video shorts that they create from my podcasts or other long form videos. Without the ability to make my own edits, OpusClip would be useless to me, as there will always be ways I want to fine tune my reels and shorts to make sure they reflect the stories my team and I wish to share in the manner we wish to share. This includes:
- Editing the text transcript they display on the screen.
- Changing the highlighted colours on the on-screen transcript.
- Adding additional clips to the mini stories that OpusClip cut together, or cutting out clips.
- Uploading your own images and video to edit and replace the images and video in the reel / video short that OpusClip cut.
- Replacing the audio.
- Uploading and adding background music to the reel / video short.
- Add transitions to the reel / video short..
AI SEO Researched Titles
While I always modify the AI SEO researched titles that OpusClip comes up with to ensure that it accurately describes the video, do not mislead, includes my desired keywords (that I’ve done my own SEO research on), I do like that OpusClip’s suggested titles are giving me ideas and encouraging me to craft my titles in new ways to draw the attention of potential viewers.
AI SEO Research to Suggest Popularity Potential of Reels / Video Shorts
I select which of the reels / video shorts, that OpusClip creates, I am using and when, based on what makes sense in our storytelling, but I find OpusClip’s suggestions for popularity potential of reels / shorts, based on AI SEO research to be interesting. I am not sure how accurate these suggestions are, however, as two of our best performing OpusClip created reels / shorts had lower popularity potential in OpusClip’s ranking suggestions.
OpusClip Creates Transcripts
An added bonus of importing podcasts and long form video into OpusClip is that it creates transcript of that video that you can then use to update your transcript on your podcast and long form video. Just be sure to proofread it, as with many automatic transcribers, it makes mistakes.
While OpusClip does not create a transcript of the reels / shorts it creates, you can easily create one yourself by copying and pasting the onscreen transcripts they create as a part of your reel / short video.
Tools That I Do Not Use at Present
At present, I am not using the following tools that OpusClip provides, as I don’t like the resulting product that they create:
- AI Enhance
- I find when I try applying this to the audio, it usually makes the audio worse.
- AI Hooks
- This feature uses AI generated voices, which always make me cringe.
- B-Roll
- This is autogenerated and selects images and video that makes the reel / video shorts look autogenerated, weaving in imagery that doesn’t match the rest of the video, that is often at odds with what is actually being discussed in the video, and removes the authentic feel from the video.
- Music
- I find the current selection does not match my storytelling, and the search isn’t bringing up options that would add anything to my reels / shorts, leaving me disappointed.
Wish List
- The ability to trim uploaded video at the beginning of the video, as well as at the end of the video, when making edits to reels / video shorts.
- Downloadable transcripts for OpusClip created reels / video shorts.
- Ability to rerecord audio on reels / video shorts within OpusClip.
- Enable addition of self-recorded hooks.
- Expand upon the music library and improve on its searchability.
Try OpusClip For Yourself
While these are my experiences and opinions, give OpusClip a try by experimenting with their free trial.
What Are Your OpusClip Highlights & Wishes?
We’d love to hear what you like about OpusClip in the comments below, and your wishes for it in the future. Also if you have tips and tricks to editing with OpusClip and getting the most out of it, don’t be shy, feel free to share those too.
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This commission contributes to paying our writers for their storytelling. We only post links to things that we ourselves have tried.
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