#
2025
#
June
#
2nd June 2025
Wow - it's June already. That went quick.
ATEM Exporter v1.0.2 (Build 4) is out now!
This release has zero improvements or bug fixes - sorry!
However, it does have an INCREDIBLY cool new icon but the insanely AWESOME Matthew Skiles. 🥳
Matthew has made some KILLER icons for me over the years...
...but I think this one may be near the best!
You can buy and learn more about ATEM Exporter on its website.
A few days ago, I posted the following on our CommandPost Discord:
Back in 2016, I introduced FCPX Hacks into the world. It originally started off as a little proof of concept project to make finding the browser playhead easier for Scott Simmons. Once I solved that annoying problem... LOTS of other Final Cut Pro editors had other ideas and suggestions, myself included. FCPX Hacks grew and expanded. Eventually, a random Queenslander called David Peterson emailed me, and said my code was basically rubbish (he since disputes this accusation, haha) and I desperately needed help. He introduced me to GitHub, and my single Lua file, eventually become hundreds. David and I are now great friends, who catch up in person whenever we're in the same state. FCPX Hacks evolved into CommandPost.
In the last 9 years, there's been well over 244 releases of CommandPost/FCPX Hacks. It's been downloaded over 258 thousand times. It's been used for projects at Netflix, Pixar and the BBC. People at companies such as Apple, Avid and Adobe use it daily. All of the 2024 Apple WWDC videos were graded using Tangent panels in Final Cut Pro controlled by CommandPost.
CommandPost has always been free and open-source. We've had some awesome financial contributors via GitHub Sponsors and PayPal. Over the last 9 years, CommandPost has brought in AUD$26,374.12 of revenue - basically AUD$2,930.46 per year. A lot of that money has been spent on buying new control surfaces (such as the DaVinci Resolve Editors Keyboard) so that we can add and maintain support in CommandPost.
As you will have seen... I haven't been able to spend as much time on CommandPost as I used to. I now have kids to feed, mortgage to pay, a Film & Television production company with staff (that also have kids and mortgages) to keep afloat. As many have experienced, in the last couple of years, our bread and butter of corporate/advertising jobs have dramatically decreased, and budgets have shrunk. I'd LOVE to spend more time on CommandPost, but it's super hard when it doesn't bring in a lot of revenue.
So I'm proposing a change... I would like to ATTEMPT to try and bring CommandPost to the Mac App Store. I have zero idea if Apple will ever allow it - but I'd like to give it a shot.
In a perfect world, I'd like to just make it a one-off cost (i.e. lifetime/perpetual only) - but I know that times are tough, and some people actually prefer the smaller monthly/yearly costs than a more expensive one-off cost - so I'm open to your ideas and suggestions.
There's currently 471 things on the CommandPost todo list on GitHub, that I would LOVE to action. If CommandPost actually paid my wage, I could spend my time ticking off all of those items - but to do that, I need decent income from CommandPost.
CommandPost would remain open-source (although to be honest, there's only been a tiny handful of contributors to the code), so you could always build it yourself. Old versions would still work. But if you wanted to use the latest and greatest, you'd need to pay, to basically maintain the support. It's actually a LOT of work to keep up with Apple's Final Cut Pro and macOS changes - we're not on the Final Cut Pro beta program - so each time they do an update it's a mad rush to fix things. I would give free licenses to EVERYONE who was a GitHub/PayPal Sponsor prior to today.
I'm not sure about prices. I'm still not sold on a subscription option. I still have no idea if Apple will even allow it. But if we want CommandPost to keep being updated, SOMETHING needs to happen.
Anyway... here's food for thought. What do YOU think?
After posting this on Discord, and sharing the link to the post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I've been FLOODED with DM's, messages, emails, voice mails, etc.
The feedback has been INSANELY overwhelmingly positive and excited. People seem to genuinely love CommandPost, and want to see it updated and improved.
Whilst there's lots of differing opinions and views, the GENERAL consensus seems to be that people would prefer perpetual/lifetime licenses (as opposed to subscription), and would be ok with around USD$50.
So... that's what we're going to do. Over the coming days and weeks, we'll attempt to bring CommandPost to the Mac App Store for a single fee of USD$50.
The core CommandPost Lua code will remain open-source with an MIT license. We'll continue to merge any CommandPost-App changes back into the Hammerspoon repository.
Given CommandPost v1.5.2 has over 14,312 downloads (noting that a lot of users are still running very old versions of CommandPost for a variety of reasons - I still get bug reports from users on version CommandPost v1.0.6!) - there's certainly potential that it could generate enough income to keep me fully on CommandPost for a year!
There will also be other changes/improvements/additions...
After building Jumper for Avid Media Composer, I fell in love with the Avid PanelSDK - it's so good. The documentation is great, the API is great, the team behind it are great.
Compared to DaVinci Resolve's Python/Lua API, Premiere's Extensions API, and Final Cut Pro's very basic and lacking Workflow Extensions - the Avid PanelSDK is fricken awesome.
As a result, over the coming weeks/months, I plan to release a CommandPost Panel for Avid Media Composer on the Mac App Store for USD$50. This purchase would just be for the Avid panel - you'll still need CommandPost installed - so it'll be USD$100 for Avid users.
There's almost infinite possibilities of what we can do here - so it's super exciting! Your ideas are certainly welcome!
We will also continue to "spin out" toolboxes from CommandPost and make them standalone apps.
The Sony Timecode Repair Toolbox will eventually become the Timecode Toolbox on the Mac App Store - we already have an epic icon for this:
I started building this not long after BRAW Toolbox was shipped, and I even employed someone to try and build it for me at one point, but it's never been finished. It's on the todo list!
The Titles to Keywords/AutoSequence Toolbox will eventually be "spun out" as a standalone paid called SyncScript Pro (previously referred to as Assistants Toolbox on FCP Cafe).
I'm also currently building another app called SplitTake - a simple Swift/Swift UI application for capturing your screen, webcam and external microphone to ProRes for editing in Final Cut Pro.
So, as always, there's a LOT to do, and not enough hours in the day. But hopefully the more people that eventually buy CommandPost, the more time I can spend on it.
And if enough people buy it, maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to drag David Peterson away from his "real job" so he can work on CommandPost full time!
Onwards & Upwards! xx