One of the problems with digital film is that it’s too damn easy to just shoot and shoot and shoot.

Great! But then, when it’s time to edit, you’re faced with hours and hours and hours of footage.

Just logging it can take days.

A new technology promises to revolutionize this and more: Hyperaudio Pad.

Twenty-two final round winners in the Mozilla Ignite Challenge were just announced. One of them is Hyperaudio Pad by Mark Boas et al.

The creators think they’ve built a language learning tool. I think it’s a whole new way to edit video.

What’s so cool about it?

• It transcribes footage and automatically makes transcripts.
• You can cut and paste the words to create visual sequences.

See the web page and the pitch video.

Most importantly, see the application they made for Al Jazeera English. Search for ‘nuclear’ and then click on each of the 35 tiny red and blue squares.

My take: imagine letting Hyperaudio Pad loose on your footage. How great would your next documentary be?

Note: AVID has something similar called ScriptSync.