Conform the cut.
Skip the all‑nighter.
ShadowCut finds every offline clip's true position in your hi‑res online footage automatically — matched frame by frame, not guessed from filenames — and hands back a conformed sequence with anything uncertain flagged for a second look.
Every trailer house knows this part of the night: the offline cut is locked, and now someone has to scrub through camera-original reels frame by frame, cross-checking timecode against a proxy that was flattened, re-timed, and color-adjusted three times since picture lock.
One clip at a time, by hand — matching each event to the right reel, the right frame, hoping the audio is still in sync after the swap. A short cut can eat an entire shift before you even get to notes.
Built for how conforms actually break.
Not a filename matcher. ShadowCut looks at the actual pixels and the actual audio, the same way an assistant editor would — just a few thousand times faster.
Feature-matched conform
ORB keypoint matching locates each clip's true frame position in the online reels, then scores the match HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW — so you know exactly which clips still need eyes.
Avid OTIO & Premiere XML
Drop in a Premiere sequence XML or an Avid-exported .otio/.otioz timeline. Either one runs through the same matching engine — OTIO is translated under the hood, nothing to configure.
Audio overcut, both passes
Single-system audio relinks automatically with its picture. Detached or double-system audio gets its own cross-correlation search against the full online track — independent of how the video matched.
Batch queue
Load a project, queue it, load the next. Run the whole slate overnight unattended — one CSV report summarizes every project's confidence breakdown and coverage.
Flags, not silent guesses
Anything under threshold is marked directly on the output timeline instead of being force-matched quietly. Review time goes to the clips that actually need it.
Per-project reports
A sidecar CSV logs the confidence breakdown and coverage percentage for every conform — something to point to when a producer asks how sure you are.
Five steps, one pass.
The same sequence runs whether it's one project or a queue of twelve.
Index
ShadowCut reads your online reels once and builds a searchable index — video and audio both.
Match
Each offline clip is matched against the index by feature geometry, not filenames or timecode metadata.
Score
Every match gets a confidence score — HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW — based on how well the geometry agrees.
Conform
A new sequence XML is written with matches relinked, filters and keyframes shifted, and linked audio carried over.
Review
LOW-confidence clips are marked directly on the timeline. Everything else, you don't have to touch.
Docs & support
Everything here is also in the README that ships inside the app.
Quick start
- Select your offline sequence — a Premiere XML export, or an Avid .otio/.otioz.
- Select the offline reference movie for that sequence.
- Select your online reels — one or more hi-res source files to search.
- Hit Start. ShadowCut indexes the reels, matches every clip, and reports HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW per event.
- Import the
_CONFORMED.xmlback into your NLE. Check anything flagged LOW before you finish.
FAQ
macOS says ShadowCut "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified."+
Right-click (or Control-click) ShadowCut.app, choose Open, then click Open again in the dialog. You only need to do this once.
Does this run on Intel Macs?+
Yes. ShadowCut ships as a universal build — native machine code for Apple Silicon and Intel in the same app, no Rosetta translation needed either way.
XML or OTIO — which one do I use?+
Whatever your NLE exports. Premiere → sequence XML. Avid → .otio or .otioz. Both run through the same matching engine.
My audio didn't relink.+
Single-system audio (sharing its video clip's file and timecode) relinks automatically. Detached or double-system audio runs its own matching pass — check the per-project report for its confidence score.
What happens when the trial runs out?+
Conforming disables until you renew. Everything you've already exported stays yours — contact your ShadowCut rep to continue.
Go home on time.
ShadowCut ships as a licensed, notarized macOS app — a universal binary that runs native on Apple Silicon and Intel. Every license includes a 90-day trial, full-featured, so you can run it against a real project before committing.
Licensing is direct, not self-serve — reach out and we'll get a copy and a key to you.
System & license
- PlatformmacOS, universal (arm64 + x86_64)
- Input formatsPremiere XML · Avid OTIO/OTIOZ
- Trial90 days, full-featured
- DistributionSigned & notarized
licensing@shadowcut-app.com — replace with your studio's real contact before sharing this page.