6th November 2024

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+### [6th November 2024](/news/20241106)
+
+Introducing **Jumper** by Witchcraft Software in Sweden. 🇸🇪
+
+**A powerful AI search engine for your footage.**
+**No clouds. No uploads. All on device.**
+
+Please watch this launch video on YouTube:
+
+[![](/static/jumper.jpg)](http://ltnt.tv/jumper)
+
+I’m very biased, but it’s amazing. I basically describe it as **Spotlight for your NLE**.
+
+You should stop reading this and go download it now from [here](https://getjumper.io).
+
+Let me explain...
+
+Now, firstly, this isn’t a [LateNite](/latenite/) project - this isn’t my (Chris Hocking’s) baby.
+
+Jumper is the brainchild of [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ArthurMoore) and [BadAss FX creator](https://arthurmoorefx.sellfy.store) Arthur Moore.
+
+But before I get into that, let’s jump back to **1st February 2023**.
+
+On Richard Taylor’s [FCPRadio Episode 134](https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/final-cut-pro-radio/id1061415673?i=1000597468348) podcast, [Iain Anderson](https://iain-anderson.com) explained:
+
+> I'm really excited by what's happening with the AI stuff, with stuff like Whisper...
+> But the problem with captions in Final Cut is they only go on a project...
+> I want them on clips as well, to make them searchable to a time so that you could search for a phrase you know somebody said and instantly find it in your rushes.
+> You could do that today, I'm sure with Lumberjack... but I think there's room for Apple to add a whole lot more AI smarts...
+> So the auto-tagging, you know, Apple should do that. Apple should be able to find where there's water in a shot, where there's a cat in a shot, where the shot is mostly red.
+> It should be able to detect all of that and just do it for you on the fly.
+
+I was on that podcast, and what Iain asked for isn’t something new or groundbreaking - every video editor I know wants to be able to just search for "guy wearing green t-shirt" in their NLE and it gets found.
+
+Over the years I’ve reached out to countless companies and developers to try and convince them to build something exactly like this - but never really got any bites. Machine Learning and AI is **really hard** - and I was already personally juggling so many things, I didn’t want to start learning machine learning myself, so I never even attempted to add any ML or AI features to CommandPost or standalone apps - I left that for people like the amazing [Alex Raccuglia](https://ulti.media/about/).
+
+Avid’s had [ScriptSync](https://www.avid.com/products/media-composer-scriptsync-option) and script-based editing for decades. Resolve’s got face recognition. Final Cut Pro’s had the ability to "analyse video" for a decade - with options to automatically balance colour and find people. Ulti.Media has [Transcriber](https://ulti.media/transcriber/) and [FCP Video Tag](https://ulti.media/fcp-video-tag-automatic-keyword-generator-for-final-cut-pro/). [Kino AI](https://kino.ai) got people very excited for a few months (and I offered many times to help them get Kino AI working with Final Cut Pro!), until they decided to concentrate on Enterprise customers rather than freelance video editors. [Strada](https://strada.tech) is working on some incredible stuff - but it’s all cloud based - which is not an option for a lot of people due to privacy, but also slow internet (like we do in parts of Australia). There’s all this tech around, with so many options and possibilities - but there’s still no easy way to just search for "guy wearing green t-shirt" locally on your Mac... well, until now.
+
+I first discovered [Arthur Moore](https://www.youtube.com/@ArthurMoore) back in **June 2019** when he posted an incredible video about using the Loupedeck+ with CommandPost in Final Cut Pro:
+
+[![](/static/arthur-moore-loupedeck-plus.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNMdDGtIoR0)
+
+This wasn’t sponsored, he never contacted me in advance, and I had no idea he was doing it until I saw it shared online. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the video, and how exciting it was. I was so humbled and amazed that someone was willing to do such an incredible video showcasing my silly little free and open source application - especially as I consider myself a filmmaker, not a programmer or developer.
+
+Then a few months later in **September 2019**, Arthur did another video about [CommandPost](https://commandpost.io):
+
+[![](/static/arthur-moore-commandpost.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IkCYS9Svrw)
+
+Again, I was simply blown away by the quality of his videos, and basically just really happy that people were getting something out of [CommandPost](https://commandpost.io) - because it originally just started out as a way to make the playhead more visible for [Scott Simmons](https://latenitefilms.com/blog/final-cut-pro-hacks/)!
+
+Jump forward to **December 2019**, and Arthur sent me an audio message asking for help building an installer for his BadAss Fx apps.
+
+Whilst this was something I was super interested in helping with (and eventually years later, I ended up helping [BretFX](https://www.bretfx.com) bring their apps to the Mac App Store), alas, this never happened, as I went down the giant rabbit hole of adding Loupedeck CT support to CommandPost, with Arthur beta testing it.
+
+This was a pretty massive job, as the Loupedeck CT hardware is insanely powerful - with knobs, touch screen buttons, physical buttons, LED buttons, vibration, an internal hard drive, etc. By **February 2020** though we had a pretty reliable beta, thanks to Arthur’s feedback and testing.
+
+Finally in **January 2021**, a massive [CommandPost v1.1.0](https://github.com/CommandPost/CommandPost/releases/tag/1.1.0) update was released to the world with Loupedeck (original), Loupedeck CT, Loupedeck Live, TourBox, Stream Deck XL and Stream Deck Mini support. It was such a popular release that Loupedeck actually reached out to me to start building an official Loupedeck plugin for CommandPost (i.e. within their official Loupedeck app).
+
+For the next few years, I didn’t really hear much from Arthur - but as a video editor, I continued to use BadAss FX on hundreds of projects. Then in **March 2024**, he reached out again:
+
+> Hey Chris! I'm developing something really cool with my friend. It's a local running AI that helps users search for footage. We got pretty far with Premiere and we are starting to move to Final Cut soon. I wonder if you would be interested in looking at what we have done and maybe joining us?
+
+The timing couldn’t have been worse - at the start of this year I was totally burnt out, exhausted and overwhelmed. I declined the offer, but said I’m happy to offer help and advice as needed, as I do for lots of people and companies in the Final Cut Pro space (hence this website).
+
+A few months later in **June 2024**, Arthur sent me a tutorial video for what they’d built in Adobe Premiere - it was super cool, but to build something like that in Final Cut Pro would be a big challenge, as unlike Premiere, Final Cut Pro has no official API for doing the stuff they needed to do... without CommandPost at least.
+
+I was already juggling all my own apps on the Mac App Store, [Arctic](https://hedge.co/products/arctic) for Hedge, this website, two kids and a [film and television production company](https://latenitefilms.com), so I didn’t really want to take on yet another crazy project - however, I agreed to help offer advice, we set up a Slack for Jumper... and before long, I got fully roped in.
+
+Jump forward to **November 2024** - and after 4 months or so of some crazy hours in-between other jobs and commitments, as well as lots of long and sometimes loud discussions, we have something that’s pretty incredible.
+
+There’s basically four core team members in Team Sweden, and then I’m helping out from Melbourne, Australia - so timezones have been fun. Arthur and I are the crazy Final Cut Pro editors, and then Max and two of his best mates are the coding geniuses behind the scenes - who don’t actually have any background in film & television, or post production. It’s been super interesting and collaborative, getting feedback from people who have never even opened Final Cut Pro before, and don’t have decades of background (and baggage) when talking about fun things like Drop Frame Timecode, FCPXML DTDs, etc.
+
+But at it's heart, Jumper really is a tool by video editors, for video editors. Arthur, myself and a giant team of amazing early beta testers have pushed hard to make the tool the most useful it can be in real-world scenarios for video editors. We’ve battle tested it on real jobs, with real deadlines and real pressure - sometimes it failed miserably, so we went back to the drawing board, iterated and improved.
+
+Going back to **March 2024**, my original advice was to do everything with FCPXML, however for various reasons, the first betas of Jumper for Final Cut Pro were reading the Library files at the file system level - which worked great... until you have to support Multicam & Synchronised Clips. Jump forward to today, and Jumper now have exceptional support for Multicam & Synchronised Clips thanks to the feedback of beta testers and the Jumper community. It really has been a team effort by some incredible supporters, including some amazing business mentors and advisors in Sweden, and Australia.
+
+Whilst this site, and my interests, mainly lie in the Final Cut Pro universe - Jumper is not just for Final Cut Pro editors - it originally all started in Adobe Premiere, and Witchcraft plan to release for **DaVinci Resolve** and **Avid Media Composer** soon. They are also working on **Jumper Enterprise**, which allows you to analyse all your footage on a local server, and then have unlimited clients all access that data over your existing shared storage and network - it’s super exciting.
+
+The thing I love most about Jumper really is that it’s just like **Spotlight for your NLE**. I was editing a fast turnaround corporate job earlier in the year, and I had a client over my shoulder saying things like "find the footage of the guy with a purple shirt and a funny hat" - Jumper could just find that shot instantly, and the client was pretty blown away. You don't even have to get the spelling correct.
+
+Whilst there’ll be some video editors that use Jumper all the time (i.e. documentary, nature, sports, etc), for others in the scripted world (i.e. scripted film & television), it may be less frequently used, because assistant editors will have already logged and organised the footage by scene, for example. However, just being able to open the Jumper Workflow Extension and instantly find ANYTHING in your Library is pretty insane. It’s a very handy tool to have in your toolbox - and I say this as someone who has built a lot of toolboxes over the years!
+
+Whilst I have no ownership in Witchcraft (the newly formed company behind Jumper), and it’s not my baby - I’m super proud of Jumper, and all the work that myself and Team Sweden has put into it. It’s entirely possible that Apple, Blackmagic or Adobe will Sherlock it at some point in the future - but for now, it’s the only tool on the market that can do what it does... all locally, all on device.
+
+I’m very glad Arthur took me along for the ride!
+
+You can buy and learn more [here](https://getjumper.io).
+
+Onwards & Upwards!