How I Use Cocreate on Set

My on-set workflow usually involves a lot of looking back at what we’ve already shot. Especially in the commercial world, we’re often picking up pieces of scenes across different days, sometimes even splitting actors’ coverage over time. I’m constantly referencing previous setups just to make sure everything stays consistent.

On bigger projects I’ll have a team helping manage that, but on smaller shoots it’s pretty scrappy: I end up digging through drives, opening a bunch of files until I find the right setup, and grabbing screenshots to use as reference.

Reviewing footage has always been the toughest part for me. DITs don’t always have time to turn around synced dailies, so when we’re moving fast I’m stuck watching muted clips straight off a drive and jotting notes in my phone to keep track of things for later.

What’s been helpful lately is using Cocreate to process footage while we’re still on set. Once media is backed up, I can run it through and, within a few minutes, have synced dailies ready to watch and start leaving notes on right away. It makes a big difference just being able to review clips properly, with sound, and keep everything organized in one place.

Labeling footage is also a lot faster now. Instead of doing it all manually, I can pull from transcripts and slates, then just fix anything that didn’t come through correctly. Being able to search shots by name and have things organized by scene, with notes attached directly to them makes on-set review way more straightforward.

By the time the shoot wraps, everything’s already organized enough that I can jump into the edit without that usual delay of sorting and labeling. More than anything, it’s made the whole process feel less chaotic. I have a clearer sense of what I’ve got, and I can get into the edit quicker without second-guessing.