The Problem: Post-Production Communication Bottleneck
A common challenge for growing production companies: You’re scaling quickly, but communication with your remote editor becomes a major bottleneck. For projects that don’t follow a standard formula, details get lost in translation. Your editor wasn’t on the shoot, so they miss crucial context about what the client wants, which shots are the hero takes, or specific creative direction from the day.
The result? Endless back-and-forth calls, messages that sit unanswered while you’re on other shoots, and wasted hours on re-edits. You need a way to clearly communicate project details without spending so much time that you might as well edit it yourself.
The Solution: Fast Video Cataloger Workflow
Create a “Shoot Notes Database” that travels with your footage
Implementation:
1. During/Immediately After the Shoot:
- Import all raw footage into Fast Video Cataloger on your PC.
- Use the automatic thumbnail generation so your editor can visually scan everything without watching full clips
- Use FVC’s metadata editing to add shoot-specific notes directly to clips:
- Tag which takes are the “hero” shots
- Add keywords like “use-this”, “b-roll-for-intro”, “client-favorite”
- Write brief text notes on specific clips (“audio issue at 2:15” or “client wants this angle emphasized”)
(You might want to convert the raw footage to mp4 to save space, just use the same name of the files so its easy to find the raw source.)
2. The Key Time-Saver:
Instead of writing separate notes or having calls, you’re tagging footage as you review it (which you’d do anyway). This takes minimal extra time but creates a searchable, visual reference.
3. Delivery to Your Remote Editor:
- Share the vcat file with your editor, the vcat file contains all metadata including thumbnails.
- Your editor opens the same catalog and can:
- Search by your keywords to find exactly what clips you flagged
- See your notes attached to specific clips
- View the thumbnail timeline to understand the flow you envisioned
- Filter by metadata to separate “formulaic project” footage from “custom” footage
4. For Your Producer:
When your producer is on-site, she can add her own metadata and notes to the same catalog. Multiple people can contribute context to the same organized library.
Why This Works:
- Minimal time investment: You’re adding context while reviewing footage, not in a separate step
- Visual clarity: Your editor sees thumbnails and can reference exact moments you’re talking about
- Searchable: No digging through email chains or Slack messages
- Asynchronous: Your editor doesn’t need you available for questions—the answers are in the metadata
- Scalable: As you grow, this system can handle 10,000+ clips efficiently
Bonus Feature:
Use FVC’s Scene Playlists to create a rough assembly of how you envision the edit flowing. Drag the clips you want in sequence, and your editor gets a visual “shot list” without you writing anything.
One Caveat:
This requires your editor to also use Fast Video Cataloger (it’s Windows-only). You’d need to purchase a license, but given that it could save you hours per project in back-and-forth, the ROI would be quick at your scale. There is a 30 day free trial available, you can purchase the program once ($197) or subscribe when you need the software.