About Developing Tank

Post-Production suite of tools Built by an Assistant Editor for Avid Media Composer Automation.

Developing Tank started as a script, then another, and another, just so I could get back to the tasks I enjoy.

See What We Built →Sign Up
The Origin Story

Will Smith is an Editor and Assistant Editor with 10+ years of experience in film and television post-production, specializing in Avid Media Composer workflows. He built Developing Tank to solve the exact problems he faced daily: repetitive manual work, metadata management, and coordinating between teams.

Over his career in the editing room, Will encountered the same frustrating workflows repeatedly: re-edits that meant completely re-doing dailies organization, manual timecode entry, dropped markers in VFX sequences, and hours spent updating continuity documents and turnover packages. He realized that the solution wasn't better spreadsheets or manual processes-it was software built specifically for Avid Media Composer workflows.

Constantly trying to eliminate any place I could make a mistake, I constantly work to find ways to make the computer work FOR ME, not the other way around.

The scripts I have created over the years became Developing Tank.

The Problem We Lived
🌅
Dailies Prep Dread
You don't want to spend HOURS clicking and dragging to get dailies ready first thing in the morning just to be able to do the fun part.
⌨️
Re-entering Timecodes
After every recut. Frame counts, markers, metadata. EDLs don't carry much of the information needed. Good luck if your tracker got deleted.
🔧
Being the Only Person Who Knew How to Fix Things
You know how the spreadsheet formulas work, but one person mistakenly changes it and the whole workflow grinds to a halt.
🌙
The Cut Goes Out
After the cut is ready to go out, you are stuck updating the tracking documents and continuity just to hit send on that email.
📊
Managing VFX in Spreadsheets
Every shot, every frame count, every change tracked manually in a spreadsheet. One person leaves, and nobody else understands the system. The spreadsheet gets out of sync with the edit.
📖
Combining PDFs to Make a Digital Editor’s Binder
Clicking and dragging each page of a lined script and facing pages to create a digital editor’s binder to email to the editor. This paperless version sure feels like it takes twice the time.
What We Believe
"Manual work is the wrong way to spend a career."

Assistant Editors are skilled professionals. The hours spent on repetitive data entry aren't just inefficient - they're wasted talent.

"Your tools should work for you."

Developing Tank works with Avid, not against it. It reads your files, respects your workflow, and exports formats you can use immediately.

"Post-production professionals deserve better software."

Most of the tools we use - Google Sheets, Airtable, and FileMaker - are general-purpose tools and require multiple steps to get our data into them. Developing Tank is built for the person who knows what a framerate is.

What We're Building

Developing Tank is a post-production automation platform that eliminates manual repetition from every stage: dailies prep, VFX tracking, paperwork generation, and delivery. We start with the hardest problems (scene bin creation, retime conforming, change detection) and solve them completely, so your team focuses on creative work.

What makes us different:

  • Deleted Marker Memory: We remember VFX shots even after editors delete them. Learn about VFX Tracking →
  • Enhanced Detections: Human review layer for ambiguous VFX interpretations, so you catch edge cases before they become problems.
  • Google Sheets Sync: Your producer's tracker updates automatically. Learn about Google Sheets Sync →

These features are uniquely ours - you won't find them in competitors' tools.

The Principles
🎯
No AI Guessing

Deterministic automation only - calculated, not predicted. Your timecodes are parsed from actual file data. Your metadata is exact. No hallucinations here.

📤
Files In, Files Out

You upload what you have. We give you back something usable. AVB in, CSV out. EDL in, clean pull out. No surprises, a file you can actually use immediately.

🔗
Workflow Compatibility

Doesn't replace Avid or Google Sheets (or even your FileMaker) - works alongside them. You keep your pipeline. Developing Tank just makes the manual parts disappear.

Proof / References

If you’re evaluating Developing Tank for a show, a feature, or an enterprise team, these pages answer the most common trust and rollout questions.

Trust

Data handling, what we do (and don’t) track, and how deletion works.

Legal

Terms, privacy, and the plain-language commitments behind the product.

Help Center

Operational guides and workflow explanations for day-to-day use.

Tutorials

Short walkthroughs that show exactly what you’ll get back from your files.

If any of this sounds familiar, you're our user.

Try a free tool or sign up. No commitment. No credit card.

Try a Free Tool →Sign Up

Or join the newsletter to stay in the loop.

Concerned about data privacy? Read how we handle your data.