Post-Production Management Software
The Story Maker's post-production tools plan your post schedule, sound and music design, and VFX timeline together — grounded in your actual production rather than a generic post-production template disconnected from what you shot.
Before you upload anything
Nothing changes until you Merge
Every edit opens an A/B compare — nothing changes your scene until you Merge.
Your script is never used to train AI
Zero Data Retention on every model — your script is never used to train AI. Zero Data Retention means the model providers we send your pages to are contractually barred from storing them: your script is processed to produce your result and then it is gone from their side. Read the policy.
You stay the author
These tools read your script and tell you what they found. Where they suggest a change, it arrives as a proposal beside your original, never in place of it.
Your work stays yours, and you can delete it
Your projects stay in your account for as long as you use it. An account left completely inactive for 2 years is notified before anything is removed, and you can delete a project or your whole account at any time. Full terms in the privacy policy.
What “A/B compare” means in practice
- Character Voice
- “Rewrites only this character's dialogue — action and other characters stay untouched.”
- Alternate Takes
- “Two contrasting rewrites of this scene, compared side-by-side — pick one, or blend the best of both.”
Both quoted from the editor itself. Every suggestion lands next to your original with a Merge button; declining it leaves the scene exactly as you wrote it.
What's included
One timeline, not three disconnected schedules
Post Schedule, Sound & Music Planner, and VFX Budget work from the same production data — so picture lock, sound design, and VFX delivery dates can actually be planned against each other instead of managed in separate documents.
Planning post before you wrap
Post is where indie schedules quietly collapse, usually because it was treated as what happens after the film rather than as a phase with its own dependencies. Picture lock gates sound; sound gates the mix; the mix gates delivery; and festival deadlines do not move because your colourist was booked.
Building the post schedule while you are still shooting means the dependencies are visible early, when there is still room to reorder them.
The delivery chain nobody budgets for
Finishing a film is not one task. Offline edit, VFX turnovers, colour grade and DI, sound design, ADR, foley, the mix, mastering, and then deliverables in whatever formats the distributor or festival specifies — each with its own lead time and its own cost.
Mapping that chain against real dates is what separates a film that makes its festival deadline from one that misses it by three weeks. VFX costing connects here too, since VFX is the post line most likely to be underestimated at script stage.
Working backwards from the delivery date
Post schedules are best built in reverse. Start from the date the film must be delivered — a festival deadline, a distributor's window — and work back through deliverables, mastering, the mix, sound, colour and picture lock, each with its real lead time.
Built forwards from wrap, post always appears to fit. Built backwards from the deadline, it usually reveals that picture lock needed to happen three weeks earlier than anyone planned.
Sound is the half of post nobody schedules
Picture gets the attention and sound gets the leftover weeks, which is backwards — audiences forgive a rough grade far more readily than bad dialogue. Sound is also a chain rather than a task: dialogue edit, ADR where production sound failed, foley, atmospheres and effects, then the mix that balances all of it.
Each stage gates the next and each has a real lead time. ADR in particular needs the actor available, which on a film that wrapped four months ago is a scheduling problem rather than a technical one.
Colour, DI and the deliverable spec
Colour grading is where the film finally looks like itself, and it sits late enough in the chain that any upstream slip lands directly on it. A grade compressed into three days because picture lock moved is a grade you can see.
Delivery specs then vary by destination — a festival DCP, a distributor's master, an OTT platform's requirements — and they are not interchangeable. Confirm the exact spec with whoever is receiving the film rather than assuming a standard, because remastering to a spec you missed is both slow and avoidable.
Frequently asked questions
Does post-production planning connect to what I shot in production?
Yes — the post schedule is grounded in your actual production data rather than a disconnected generic template.
Can I plan sound design and VFX timelines together?
Yes — Sound & Music Planner and VFX Budget both work alongside the Post Schedule so delivery dates can be planned against each other.
When should I start planning post?
Before you shoot. The dependencies — picture lock, sound, mix, deliverables — have lead times that determine whether a festival deadline is achievable, and that is worth knowing while the shoot schedule can still be adjusted.
Does this do the editing or grading?
No. This is the planning and scheduling layer — timelines, dependencies, cost and deliverables. The creative post work happens in the tools built for it.
What about delivery formats?
Deliverable requirements vary by distributor, platform and festival, and they change. Plan the chain here, and confirm the exact spec with whoever is receiving the film rather than assuming a standard.
Why plan post backwards?
Because the deadline is the fixed point. Planned forwards from wrap, post always looks like it fits; planned backwards from a delivery date, the real constraint — usually picture lock — becomes visible while it can still be moved.
How much time should I allow for post?
More than the schedule usually does, and it depends on the chain rather than a rule of thumb. Working backwards from the delivery date through deliverables, mix, sound, colour and picture lock gives a real answer; forwards from wrap gives an optimistic one.
Does this handle VFX turnovers?
VFX sits in the post chain and is planned alongside it. Costing VFX is handled separately, at breakdown stage, because that is when the estimate can still change what gets written.
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