A media authoring application can be configured to use metadata associated with a media presentation to generate a score which serves to identify the interesting portions of the presentation and may thereby streamline the editing process. A method can comprise accessing metadata indicating at least one characteristic of a media presentation comprising a plurality of video segments, determining a qualitative score for at least one segment of the media presentation based on the metadata, and providing a user interface displaying the plurality of segments of the media file, the interface including a visual effect for at least one segment of the media file based on the segment's qualitative score. The method may comprise removing one or more segments based on comparing the score of the segment(s) to a parameter, such as a score threshold.