The present and future of post production business and technology

Lumberjack System is Live

Around two years ago I was preparing for a trip to Florida to start a journey producing a reality TV series on a solar powered boat trip. There were some challenges: specifically the lack of time to log footage and then edit (and still get some sleep). I need my sleep so I had the idea of logging real-time as we shot. Finally, the outcome of that challenge is available to everyone: Lumberjack System is live.

Thanks to a team of beta testers, and some practical shoots of our own, we have continually developed Lumberjack System to the point we feel it is ready. With the release of Final Cut Pro X 10.1 we were able to use folders to clean up the interaction between the two applications and we believe Lumberjack System is ready.

Until we can automate the input of metadata, making it easy and doing it as early in the production process as possible will have to do, and I believe Lumberjack System does that.

In developing and using Lumberjack System, we realized that we could do even more than translate the information from the shoot directly to Keyword Ranges in Final Cut Pro X: we could create keyword-based string-outs of those keyword ranges (a.k.a. selects). Not having to start with an empty Timeline gets me to creativity so much faster.

I also honestly believe that if you are using Final Cut Pro X then you can get way, way more than $9.99 a month value out of Lumberjack System. Check it out. Watch the demo video. Read how we used it on our own shoots.

 


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2 responses to “Lumberjack System is Live”

  1. Congrats!
    I would love to see Lumberjack used in every single commercial I have to edit.

  2. This is just unbelievably cool. I wish I had it on my last shoot. I will have to try it out on a future shoot… it could save us days of waiting for an assistant editor to log, and be more accurate as they are doing it as it happens.