The blog

Field notes on footage you can actually find.

archive

An AI assistant for the footage on your NAS

A NAS stores bytes and folder names, nothing else. Indexing and on-device analysis are what turn forty terabytes into something you can query.

ai

AI proposes, you confirm

Wrong metadata is worse than none, so AI values stay suggestions until a human accepts them and every value says where it came from.

ai

What an AI video logger actually does

Logging means describing clips so you can find them later. AI can read every clip and propose the words, but a person still has to say yes.

ai

Analyzing video clips with AI: what works today

Signal by signal, what a model reliably reads off footage, what needs review, and what it still gets confidently wrong.

archive

The archive interview: preparing footage you will sell later

What a licensable clip's metadata has to answer, and how logging it once turns every future buyer request into a filter.

workflow

Batch-logging shorts: sixty takes, one that landed

A field setup for creators shooting near-identical verticals, so the take where the line finally landed stays findable.

workflow

Design a logging palette that earns its keep

Start with the three fields you decide on every clip and grow the vocabulary from real footage instead of a planning meeting.

field-notes

The DIT's second job: logging starts on set

Checksums protect the bytes but not what you knew about the day, so the second job is describing cards before wrap.

archive

Documentary: transcripts, logging, and the paper edit

Interview films are written from transcripts before they are cut, and an archive logged in the open stays findable for the sequel.

workflow

The file name is the only metadata that always travels

Transcodes, portals, and NLEs strip everything except the file name, so compose the name from metadata you confirmed.

pricing

One credit, one clip: why Rush pricing is flat

Per-minute and per-token meters cannot be budgeted before a shoot, so Rush charges one flat credit per clip and carries the variance.

workflow

From 400 clips to 11 selects

Selects are not found by scrubbing, they are filtered into view, and every confirmed value is another way back into the day.

workflow

Metadata debt: the shoot you will not remember in March

Unlogged footage is a loan against your own memory, and the interest compounds every week you leave it unpaid.

format

A metadata schema for logging video

The fields that actually matter for footage, why a controlled schema beats free-text tags, and why the file that holds it has to be open.

format

Metadata should outlive the app that made it

Cataloging tools die and take their databases with them, so plain sidecar files beside the footage are the only durable contract.

teams

Why teams with more than one editor need logged footage

One editor can run on memory and two cannot, so shared vocabulary and logged footage decide how fast a post team actually moves.

format

Naming conventions that survive every pipeline

The filename is the one field every tool reads, so build names that sort, travel, and never collide.

ai

On-device vs cloud AI is routing, not religion

Local analysis is free and private by construction, cloud is faster and reads harder frames, and the right pick changes per batch.

sports

Rosters, CSVs, and logging at the speed of a game

Plays are eight seconds apart, dropdown menus lose, and the front office's spreadsheet is the logging layer you need.

sports

Your game film is a dataset you are not querying

Rosters, jersey numbers, and play outcomes turn a season of game film into a dataset you filter instead of scrub.

pricing

Stop paying to search your own footage

Paying for compute is fair, paying for access to your own decisions is not, so run the exit test before you upload a season.

workflow

String-outs without an NLE

A string-out is a reading tool for the whole shoot, and the order it produces leaves as FCPXML while the metadata keeps moving.

sports

Subjects: one identity, many signals

A person is not a face, and the athlete found by face grouping in one clip and jersey number in another must resolve to one entry.

workflow

The value of logging your footage

A day-rate argument for logging footage, counting search time, avoided reshoots, faster selects, and a library that compounds.

workflow

Checksums, MHL, and never copying a card twice

Offload is chain of custody, with verification on both ends, ASC-MHL manifests, and the discipline to refuse a card you already copied.

teams

Same-day selects for wedding and event shooters

The reception edit is a clock problem, so decide the vocabulary at breakfast and run the batch pass during dinner.

ai

What privacy should mean for footage tools

Privacy is knowing where every byte goes and choosing cloud per run, not a padlock icon and a terms-of-service surprise.

format

Which metadata survives ALE, FCPXML, EDL, and XMP

A field-by-field reference for what each handoff format carries out of a logging app, what it drops on the way, and which one to send.

archive

Your back catalog is an asset you are not using

Old drives full of finished-job footage are dormant money, and batch AI logging is what finally makes them queryable.