Prologue

You're not shooting the bullet. You're catching it.

In Tenet, the bullet is caught because the event has already happened. Likewise, a Shot List Database presents the scene as already decided, and Shot Data turns a locked stills timeline in Final Cut Pro into that ordered list.
In Tenet, the bullet is caught because the event has already happened. Likewise, a Shot List Database presents the scene as already decided, and Shot Data turns a locked stills timeline in Final Cut Pro into that ordered list.

Some directors follow a distinctive workflow: they pre-cut the movie or project in Final Cut Pro as a stills timeline, locking the shooting sequence before a single frame is captured on set. It is a practice close to what we call Sound Lock: the sequence is edited and locked in pre-production, often against a locked track, long before principal photography begins. From that timeline, each still can become a PNG so a Shot List Database visualises the scene even before cameras roll, reviewed, shared, and optionally uploaded into Notion with clarity, without wrestling with the Terminal or the intricacies of raw FCPXML.

What if turning a pre-cut stills timeline into a professional Shot List Database could be executed effortlessly with a mere drag and drop? That question underpins the core objectives below.

Application Objectives

  • Deliver a nearly seamless experience, from a locked stills timeline in FCPXML to PNG stills and a Shot List Database, with a single drag and drop.
  • Facilitate a native, graphical macOS interface, sparing users from having to touch the Terminal.
  • Support optional in-app Notion upload and Notion Queue for extract-first, upload-later workflows.
  • Build upon an open-source Shot Extraction framework, ensuring the logic behind every extract remains transparent.
  • Remain affordable, with no subscription and no recurring cost attached to continued use.
  • Prioritise time efficiency, sparing directors and cinematographers from manually assembling a shot list from a pre-cut sequence by hand.

Enter Shot Data!