Post-Production Tools I Swear By (and Swear At)
My end‑to‑end post‑production workflow for motion pictures, distilled into a software stack gear review.
Here I provide a quick overview of my specific post workflow, then some capsule reviews of all relevant software available.
This is a long resource post intended as a reference to skim and dip into where useful.
This will live online in the FilmStack Resources section of Between Cuts.
If you know of any software that is missing… let me know!
And comment on what you think of the software if you’ve used it! I am only one opinion.
This is current as of August 2025. September 2025 (Resolve 20.2).
The TLDR summary:
DaVinci Resolve is now the one-stop shop for everything post-production. It’s currently unbeatable.
Screen is the best video player, you need this app if you work with videos.
Offshootis the fastest and safest way to make file copies.
My Workflow
The basis of my old workflow was unchanged from about 2003 to 2023:
Camera rushes into DaVinci Resolve for one-light DI (if needed), occasional processing through apps like Compressor or EditReady
Export proxies and import into Avid
Import everything into Avid Media Composer
Edit
Back to Resolve for color grading.
Pray nothing got lost in translation between applications. We’d either be using an EDL or by export/import of a master file.
Final delivery would be from Avid or Resolve depending on if the sound design was finished.
Now I don’t do any of that. I now use the same or similar workflow for everything from small projects to feature films, from quick social media cuts to cinema DCPs.
Now I:
Ingest everything directly into DaVinci Resolve from camera
Use Resolve’s media management for everything - organization, transcription, metadata
Edit entirely in Resolve using their constantly improving timeline tools
Color grade in the same Resolve project file without round trips
Deliver everything from social media to DCPs from the same Resolve timeline (and very occasionally I’ll use another app to compress video files)
Is it better? I think so. I worry less about the headaches created by round-tripping cuts. I can get editing faster. I can organize footage better. I can colour grade with more power. I can do everything cheaper. I can do everything myself without hiring anyone. But I miss a few small UI elements in Avid.
Update 9/25: With the v20.2 update BlackMagic have almost wholesale copied the Avid timeline, which is a huge improvement for edit speed on details. They’ve even improved on the Avid timeline features they copied in some areas. It’s great.
I will go into more detail on the full workflow in a future post; that will get into the details of stuff like media management and footage organisation.
DaVinci Resolve is now an unbeatable comprehensive post-production suite. Nothing comes close for depth or quality of features. You can (and I have) fully post a feature film from camera rushes to distributor delivery.
Again, I’m a Mac user. So assume everything is Apple ecosystem.
So here - organized by workflow stage - is the software that makes up my post-production tech stack and why I use them over others.
Major Editing Applications
DaVinci Resolve
For: Everything.
Pros:
Comprehensive toolset from camera rushes to distribution delivery
Has stolen the best ideas from every other editor, and added a few innovations too
Constantly improving with frequent meaningful updates
AI integration and superior media organization
Free/cheap and no subscription model
Cons:
Can look daunting with multiple tabs initially
I have been using Resolve for more than 20 years - starting in its original incarnation as pure color grading software in 2003. Over time BlackMagic have methodically added editing, audio, and VFX. Whoever’s running that team pays attention to user issues and feature requests and update it constantly.
There are certain use cases where Avid would win over Resolve, but if you’re reading this those almost certainly don’t apply to you (multi-editor TV shared workflows and news).
And the $295 essentially becomes a voucher toward their hardware, so remember that if you’re thinking about a purchase.
$295 perpetual / free with hardware purchases
Avid Media Composer
For: Large collaborative projects with assistants and shared media storage
Pros:
Best trim tool and asymmetric editing options
Professional workflows for shared storage in collaborative environments
Cons:
Cost not remotely justified by marginal advantages for most people
Far too slow to improve and update
Round-trip workflow to Resolve breaks the media management and UI benefits
UI advantages over Resolve are now very marginal
If all you’re doing is editing - putting bits of image together to tell a story - and everything else is taken care of for you by assistants then Avid’s interface is still the best. The trim tool is superior, and once you understand how to move around Avid, the interface gets out of the way in a way it doesn’t in other software.
Kind of.
This is true of being in the flow of fine cutting a scene or a section, but as soon as you have to do much more digging and organizing Resolve is just much better. The Avid interface is aging and they haven’t innovated enough.
The only real selling point I can see now is collaborative workflows with rock-solid media management in large shared storage environments. That is mainly going to be big post-houses doing TV shows.
£299/year Basic / £479/year Collaborative and AI features
Final Cut Pro
For: Quick projects where you’re not too worried about detail
Pros:
Appears approachable and easy to learn
Good for bashing things together quickly
Cons:
If you do want fine trimming and editing, the learning curve is just the same as other software
Magnetic timeline can slow you down if you are doing a lot of fine tuning
Substantially less depth than Resolve for professional features
Final Cut Pro is useful for quickly throwing stuff together. In particular the media organisation tools are the best. That said, Resolve has copied a lot of the best features, so that advantage has disappeared.
And even if you want a simplified speed-oriented experience - the Cut page in Resolve is a better tool, and you can dip into the broader power of the software if you need.
$299 perpetual
Adobe Premiere
For: Those who are happy and don’t want to change
Pros:
Round trips easily with Photoshop and Illustrator
Cons:
More clumsy and frustrating despite easy round-trips
They never have fixed the media management issues
I haven’t used Premiere much in the past five years, but from limited experience, they mostly kept up but not really innovated. If you love Premiere, then fine. Like all these bits of software, it’s good and will do the job. But there are now better options.
The key advantage of Premiere is the same as it has always been: the round trip with other Adobe apps is slick and smooth.
However... as soon as you look at the pricing vs Resolve it’s difficult to justify. Especially when you’re probably going to want to use Resolve for serious colour grades anyway.
£696.40/year for Creative Cloud
£265/year standalone - but if it’s standalone what’s the point? The key advantage is round-tripping to other software.
Lightworks
For: A different kind of experience
Pros:
Long pedigree and interesting UI concept
Designed like film editing rather than tape-to-tape
Free version is relatively fully featured
People who love it really love it
Cons:
UI isn’t as revolutionary as it once was, and it feels old
Lightworks was, before Avid, the great bit of editing software. Thelma Schoonmaker was (is?) a long time user and has cut a lot of Scorsese’s movies on it. In fact the list of classic movies cut on Lightworks is notable.
The film metaphor in the Lightworks UI is good vs modern interfaces, but modern interfaces have so many features that have evolved away from the skeuomorphism that was required in the early days. Current software has evolved beyond the uniqueness and advantages Lightworks offered.
It is free though - and fun to try something different. However, to me it feels like playing with a classic car rather than the modern tank that is Resolve.
Free / £240/year
Professional Utilities
Screen
For: Professional video review and annotation
Pros:
Timecode, notes, and professional monitoring features
Works with just about every format under the sun
Metadata display, LUT support, aspect ratio control
Can magnify, change channels, adjust exposure
Best professional video player available
Cons:
Expensive
Very expensive
Screen is hands down the best professional video player. It gives you timecode, notes, and works with every format. You can mark timecode, change aspect ratios, import custom LUTs, see complete metadata including proper NCLC tags.
If you need professional tools for video review, Screen will make your life much easier. Whether you’re doing reviews with Frame.io or just need to check footage properly, it’s brilliant software.
The price, crazy as it seems, is worth it. Nothing else will make reviewing and dealing with cuts better.
For all the flash and collaboration of something like frame.io I’d pay for Screen and share stuff on Dropbox before I paid a frame.io subscription.
$149 perpetual
Frame.io
Pros:
Lots of features
Watch from anywhere
Good integrations
Cons:
Expensive
I’m not convinced it’s an upgrade from the old collaboration tools
I’m probably being quite contrarian here. And maybe this is one of those things about age. However… I just don’t think frame.io made my life any better when I’ve used it on projects.
Yes it has really great features and sharing and video players and chat and all the rest. But…
The slack style interaction UI/UX encourages all the social media downsides of passive aggressiveness sloppiness. I’m just not sure it’s beneficial.
In some rigorous teams of close collaborators - it can be good, but it tempts you to be bad.
On my last project I used it only for sharing videos to review - but not comment on. I turned off collaboration in the way it is supposed to because it was difficult to keep everyone on the same page with changes and comments and some people had no interest in doing anything other than commenting because they felt they needed to comment - usually adversely without consideration. It actively created animosity around the team.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen this happen. In fact as an aside I’ve found Slack has a tendency to create similar problems between teams and clients. So my suggestion is skip frame.io. You are better using Screen with markers which ingest directly into Resolve - and then having people actually make notes using burnt in time code.
The mild friction and time investment required means that only the notes that people care about tend to get written down and sent through.
Random spamming notes from the pub on your phone while watching a video - which is super easy to do and encouraged with frame.io - is not something you want to encourage clients (or financiers) to be able to do.
But please tell me I’m wrong…
$15+tax per seat, per month
Off-Shoot (formerly Hedge)
For: Any critical file copying between drives
Pros:
Faster than Finder and more secure with verification
Checks everything it’s copying for integrity
Essential for critical file transfers
Cons:
Expensive
I use Hedge anytime I’m copying files between hard drives that are critical. It’s faster than Finder and more secure because it checks everything that it’s copying. Worth every penny if you’re dealing with critical files where loss would be disastrous.
Edit Ready
For: Creating rushes
Pros:
If you want a lighter app than Resolve to do Rushes, this is the best option
You can use the CLI to program it and automate things.
Cons:
Resolve does more
Sometimes can be fiddly to get exactly what you want\
I used to use Edit Ready for prepping rushes. When it works it’s very simple, but when it doesn’t it’s a little frustrating and I end up in Resolve again. Never the less if you want a standalone lightweight app for creating offline editing material this is the best one around.
$149 basic / $999 post-house level for integration into larger systems
Audio Hijack
For: Capturing any audio playing on your computer
Pros:
Records internal computer audio without quality loss
Works for web audio, system sounds, anything playing
Endless different use cases
Cons:
Tends to break as Apple updates the OS, which means paid updates
Sometimes you need to capture audio that’s playing on your computer but you can’t import it directly. Audio Hijack plugs the audio out into audio in and records as a file without quality loss. Really good little utility with more uses than you’d expect.
$69 perpetual
Red Cine-X Pro
For: Red shooters who already have established workflows
Pros:
Lightweight when you don’t want to fire up Resolve
Quick Red footage review
Cons:
Sometimes funny stuff happens between Cine-X and Resolve
If you shoot on Red, you know what Cine-X is like. It’s useful when you don’t want to fire up the full Resolve suite, though Resolve makes everything easier and eliminates surprises.
Free
Tentacle Sync Studio
For: Complex multi-camera sync when using Tentacle hardware
Pros:
Everything syncs to world time clock with 32-bit float
Integrates well with Resolve
Cons:
You need all the hardware - and bring your own lavs
The Tentacle Sync microphones sync audio recorded on the Tentacle devices to a world time clock which syncs to the footage. This is a really robust way of doing lav sound recording without worrying about radio mics.
Free with hardware
DCP-o-matic
For: DCP deliveries when you need specific tweaks beyond Resolve
Pros:
Free and has additional features beyond Resolve’s DCP export
Specific tweaks for cinema delivery
Cons:
Fidly, and not the prettiest UI, but resolve keeps improving and may incorporate these features
Free, open-source DCP creation with a few tweaks that are more functional than just exporting from Resolve.
Free
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
For: Determining drive suitability for different footage types
Pros:
Know what footage types each drive can handle
Essential for understanding storage capabilities
Cons:
None
I use this all the time for checking how fast my hard drives are so I know what kind of footage I can run off each drive. Simple, essential utility for matching storage to footage requirements.
Free
System & File Management
Duplicate File Finder
For: Finding duplicate files across multiple drives and folders
Pros:
Saves drive space by identifying accidental duplicates
Answers crucial questions about storage organization
Super useful when you’ve got footage across different drives and need to understand what’s duplicated. Helps you figure out where things are, how much space they’re taking, and whether you’ve accidentally duplicated folders. Can save significant drive space.
Claude + Automator/AppleScript
For: Custom automation when existing utilities don’t match your workflow
Pros:
Custom solutions for exact needs without buying multiple utilities
Usually works first or second time
Gets your computer properly under your control
Cons:
Occasionally needs specification clarification
If I need a utility written, I now do some quick vibe coding. I don’t code in python or automator at all. I ask Claude what I want and it writes the relevant AppleScript or Python code for me. This approach means you can have Automator work how you dreamed it should. You don’t need to learn the syntax - or even the drag and drop of Shortcuts. Just get the AI to do it. Instead of buying an app that’s not quite what you want, specify exactly what you need yourself.
Claude $20/month + Free in macOS
One Blocker
For: Eliminating ads and reducing tracking across internet browsing
Pros:
Blocks all ads across internet including Google
Blocks Facebook tracking servers
Makes everything across internet much nicer
Cons:
Google still has more information than you probably know
Is this a post production app…? Maybe. I spend a lot of time online searching for stuff in post production. One Blocker blocks all ads across the internet and stops Facebook tracking. So that makes everything faster.
While Google probably has more information about me than I know about myself, the browsing experience is dramatically improved.
Free + in App options
Project Management
Apple Notes
For: Everything - central information hub
Pros:
Central hub for all information
Checklists, PDF import with search
Syncs across all devices
Can link between notes
Cons:
Search UI could be nicer
PDF annotation could be better
I spend my life between Resolve and Notes. And this is true even when cutting. Any feedback I get I drop into notes and create an actionable to-do list from those notes. That way I have a permanent record of the exact words of the request plus a distilled tick list of stuff so I can see what needs done and has been completed.
Overall though - the system allows you to bring in lots of different assets. PDFs are searchable, you can link between notes, and it handles everything from simple lists to complex project organization.
Merlin Project
For: Managing productions with complex timelines and dependencies
Pros:
Timeline creation, dependencies, export capabilities
Gets everyone “on the same page”
Cons:
Expensive
Learning curve
Merlin Project is a fully functional project management tool. You can create your timeline, create your dependencies, and export that to everybody and everyone’s on the same page. It’s the best tool I’ve found for when you need formal project structure and collaboration.
£200/year
OmniFocus
For: Complex personal project management
Pros:
Better filtering capabilities than alternatives like Things
Handles complicated projects well
Cons:
Risk of spending too much time managing OmniFocus rather than actually doing the work
Expensive
OmniFocus works best of all the to-do list apps because it allows you to filter better and is designed around power users.
There is a balance issue though. The tool can become counterproductive because it has so many options and filters. You can end up spending too much time managing your list, or worse, missing things because you’ve not set it up correctly.
It’s particularly suited for complicated projects over time, but if it gets too intense in the moment the sophistication can trip you up. The to-do system should not become the project.
$75/$150 perpetual
Things and 2Doist
For: Personal project management
Pros:
Things looks and feels good
Flexible and quick
Cons:
Doesn’t quite have the depth of OmniFocus
I’ve found that all the other apps fail for me in the same way. They’re not complicated enough to manage things the way I want, but they’re not simple enough to replace some tick boxes in notes that auto-organise.
That said, all these apps will have appeal depending on what you’re looking for. I like the UI of Things a lot, but it just never stuck for me. For others - that’s all they need.
Have any experience working with Shot Put Pro? I wonder how it compares to Hedge?
Fairlight is still way too clunky to do full, serious audio post. Where you're dealing with hundreds of tracks of Dialog, music and SFX.