ShotGrid is a brilliant production database. But two everyday jobs sit awkwardly in it: conforming the renders folder against the cut, and diffing one cut against the last to see what actually changed. Cutlist Tracker is built around exactly those two jobs - so instead of replacing ShotGrid, it fills the gaps and writes the answers back.
What it syncs into ShotGrid
Point Cutlist at the editorial cut (EDL, OTIO or FCPXML) and the renders folder, run the conform and turnover checks, then push the result into your ShotGrid project:
- Shots - every shot in the cut that isn't in ShotGrid yet is created, in cut order.
- Conform flags - missing renders, range/handle mismatches and stale versions are written to a dedicated field (
sg_conform_statusby default) and posted as a note on each affected shot. - Turnover - shots removed from the cut are set to
omit(opt-in), and a single turnover note summarises what was added, removed, re-timed, re-versioned and reordered since the last cut.
Dry-run first - nothing surprises your database
Writing into a studio's production tracker is nerve-wracking, so Cutlist never writes blind. It builds the whole change set in your browser and shows you a preview - every shot to create, every field to update, every note to post - before a single call goes to ShotGrid. You read it, then approve it.
Under the hood the sync is two-phase and idempotent: shots are created first, their IDs collected, then updates and notes are resolved against the full shot list. Codes that can't be matched are skipped rather than guessed, and shots that already exist are never duplicated - so re-running a sync is safe.
sg_status_list. The only production-status change is the opt-in omit for shots dropped from the cut. Your artists' task statuses stay theirs.A companion, not a replacement
ShotGrid stays the single source of truth for shots, tasks, versions and review. Cutlist doesn't try to be your pipeline - it's the tool for the specific moment the cut changes and someone has to answer "what's missing, what moved, and what do we deliver?". That answer lands in ShotGrid as data your team already knows how to read.
| Job | ShotGrid | Cutlist companion |
|---|---|---|
| Shots, tasks, versions, review | Yes - source of truth | Reads & writes into it |
| Conform vs the renders folder | Manual | One click |
| Diff two cuts (turnover) | Not native | Built-in |
| Delivery manifest of Final shots | Manual | Built-in |
How the connection works
An admin creates a ShotGrid Script key (revocable, scoped to the projects it may touch). That key lives server-side in a small proxy - it never reaches the browser, and neither does your site URL. Field names are yours to map: if your studio uses a different conform field or status codes, set them in the panel and Cutlist validates them against your live Shot schema before it writes anything.
Setup is a few minutes: create the Script key, add a custom conform field (or map an existing one), set the connection, and run your first sync against a test project. Then the cut, the conform report and the turnover all flow into ShotGrid from one screen.
Cutlist Tracker is local-first and flat-priced - the cut and the renders never leave your machine, and the ShotGrid sync is there when you want your pipeline to know what the cut just did.