Problem[01]
“Do we have a shot of…”
The editor asks, then the producer, then the director. You are the search engine, and the answer depends on how well you remember a week of dailies.
For Assistant editors
The log is done before the editor sits down
Point Prewatch at the footage folder and it transcribes, flags and logs every clip on your Mac, writing plain files beside the media. Your time goes to the prep that needs judgment.
14 days free, then $59 a year or $7.99 a month. Works with your Claude or ChatGPT plan; timelines need DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1+. Clip descriptions are optional and use your own API key, billed by Anthropic or OpenAI.
Works withA Mac with Apple silicon · macOS 26+
ClaudeClaude Desktop and Claude Code
ChatGPTThe ChatGPT Mac app and Codex
DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1Timelines through its own MCP server
Any drive or NASThe Prewatch folder travels with the media
Problems
What slows Assistant editors down
Problem[02]
Logging eats the prep days
Transcribing interviews, noting cameras and lenses, catching soft takes and black frames. It has to happen before the cut, and it takes the days meant for bins and stringouts.
Problem[03]
Cards Friday, cut Monday
The editor expects transcripts, a clean log and the problem clips marked on day one. By hand, that costs the weekend, and something still slips through.
What Prewatch gives you
Your footage, already watched
Prewatch indexes every clip on your Mac, so Claude or ChatGPT knows what is in your footage and can build the cut with you in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
| What you get | Where it runs | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Transcripts with timecode | On your Mac | Whisper on the Mac's GPU. Every line carries seconds, frame and timecode from the clip's own start timecode, drop-frame included, as JSON, WebVTT and SubRip. |
| QC flags on every clip | On your Mac | Black head and tail, black segments, frozen frames, under- and overexposure, flat log and soft focus, each noted where in the clip it happens. |
| Camera and lens data | On your Mac | Make, model, lens, ISO, shutter, aperture and white balance where the camera writes them. Read from each clip's metadata, never guessed from file names. |
| Shoot days and speakers | On your Mac | Clips grouped into days and scenes by capture time and place, not by script scene. Voices told apart within each clip and recognized across clips; name them once for the whole folder. |
| Roles and moments | Claude or OpenAI | Each clip's role, such as interview, dialogue or b-roll, and moments with in and out points rated 1 to 5. With your own Claude or OpenAI API key. |
| One log for the whole team | On your Mac | Markdown, JSON, TSV and JPEG contact sheets beside the media. One Mac indexes; every Mac on the share reads them, with or without Prewatch. |
Prewatch · ClipsMac app
The screenshot arrives with the app
Ask it
One question instead of a day of scrubbing
You ask in Claude or ChatGPT. Prewatch answers with the clips, the seconds and the timecode, and your assistant builds the timeline in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
01
Which clips from today's cards are soft, black or frozen?
Each flagged clip with the problem, where in the clip it starts, and the folder it sits in.
Your AI app02
The producer wants the line about the second factory. Where is it?
The clip, the speaker label, the line and its source timecode, plus any other clip where it comes up.
Your AI app03
Build a stringout of day 2's b-roll, shaky clips left out.
A timeline in DaVinci Resolve Studio with the steady and locked-off b-roll of day 2, in capture order.
Your AI appWe don't cut in Resolve. Is it still useful?
Yes, for the log itself. Timelines are built only in DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1 or later, but the transcripts, flags and clip list are plain files with timecode on every line, so you can find the shot in whatever you edit in. A file handoff for other editors is planned.
Can several Macs use the same index on shared storage?
Yes. One Mac indexes a folder and any number of Macs read its Prewatch folder, even with the share mounted at a different path on each. Clips are identified by their content, not their file path.
Which cameras and formats does it read?
MOV and MP4 files macOS can decode, including H.264, HEVC and ProRes, and the proxies DJI, GoPro and Resolve's Proxy folder provide. Camera metadata is read from Fujifilm, GoPro, DJI, Canon and iPhone files, not yet from Sony, Panasonic or Nikon. Blackmagic RAW and REDCODE are listed but not analyzed.
How does the free trial work?
Prewatch is an App Store subscription with a 14-day free trial: $59 a year or $7.99 a month after it. You manage or cancel it in your Apple Account's subscription settings; cancel before the trial ends and you are not charged.
Try it on your own footage
Point Prewatch at a folder you have already shot, then ask about it in Claude or ChatGPT.
14 days free, then $59 a year or $7.99 a month. Works with your Claude or ChatGPT plan; timelines need DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1+. Clip descriptions are optional and use your own API key, billed by Anthropic or OpenAI.