Video is a powerful medium for communication and storytelling, yet reauthoring existing footage remains challenging. Even simple edits often demand expertise, time, and careful planning, constraining how creators envision and shape their narratives. Recent advances in generative AI suggest a new paradigm: what if editing a video were as straightforward as rewriting text? To investigate this, we present a tech probe and a study on text-driven video reauthoring. Our approach involves two technical contributions: (1) a generative reconstruction algorithm that reverse-engineers video into an editable text prompt, and (2) an interactive probe, Rewrite Kit, that allows creators to manipulate these prompts. A technical evaluation of the algorithm reveals a critical human-AI perceptual gap. A probe study with 12 creators surfaced novel use cases such as virtual reshooting, synthetic continuity, and aesthetic restyling. It also highlighted key tensions around coherence, control, and creative alignment in this new paradigm. Our work contributes empirical insights into the opportunities and challenges of text-driven video reauthoring, offering design implications for future co-creative video tools.

翻译：视频是交流与叙事的重要媒介，但现有视频素材的再创作仍具有挑战性。即使是简单的编辑操作也通常需要专业知识、时间及精心规划，这限制了创作者设想和构建叙事的方式。生成式AI的最新进展预示了一种新范式：如果编辑视频能像重写文本一样简便，会带来怎样的改变？为探究此问题，我们提出了一项技术原型及关于文本驱动视频再创作的研究。我们的方法包含两项技术贡献：(1)一种生成式重建算法，可将视频逆向工程为可编辑的文本提示；(2)交互式原型系统"Rewrite Kit"，使创作者能操控这些提示。对该算法的技术评估揭示了人机感知层面存在关键差距。针对12位创作者的原型研究挖掘出新颖应用场景，例如虚拟重拍、合成连贯性及美学风格重构。该研究也凸显了在此新范式中关于一致性、控制及创意对齐的核心矛盾。我们的工作为文本驱动视频再创作的机遇与挑战提供了实证洞见，并为未来协同创作视频工具的设计提供了启示。