What is Slate?
The 60-second pitch and the mental model behind Slate.
- Slate is a VFX bidding tool for supervisors and producers.
- It covers both ends of a show: bid from a script before there's footage, and bid from a QuickTime once there is.
- Both roads lead to the same place — a shot list with day counts per department, priced by your rates.
- Your reusable numbers live in work types, tiers, and bid presets, so the second bid is far faster than the first.
- AI is opt-in: it drafts a breakdown, proposes days, and answers questions about your data. It never applies anything silently.
The one idea
Everything in Slate is a way of getting to the same object: a shot list where every row has days per department. Multiply days by rates and you have a bid. The rest of the product is about filling that grid quickly and defensibly.
Two stages, one grid
- Pre-production — you have a script and no footage. Slate reads the script, proposes VFX work per scene, and counts shots by work type and tier. See Script bidding.
- Post-production — you have a cut. You scrub the QuickTime, drop markers on shots, and bid each one. See Player & markers.
A bid pack is declared as PRE or POST when you create it, and Slate shows you the right tools for that stage. Read Pre vs post for the differences.
How things are organised
- Workspace — your company. Members, rates, tags, work types, presets, and AI settings live here.
- Project — one show or job.
- Bid pack — a named, self-contained bid inside a project (e.g. Studio v3, Reduced scope). Each pack is PRE or POST and has its own shot list and numbers.
- Media — a QuickTime (or several reels) attached to a POST pack.
- Shots — the rows. Days per department × rate = the bid.
So the hierarchy reads: Project → Pack → (Script or QuickTime) → Shots → Days.
What Slate is not
Slate isn't a production tracker or an asset manager. It's the estimate — the thing you hand a client before the show is greenlit. It exports cleanly so whatever you track in afterwards (ShotGrid, a spreadsheet, your own database) can pick up where Slate stops.