What tools manage post-production workflows, like who is working on what?
It depends on which question you mean. Booking tools like farmerswife schedule people and rooms. Pipeline trackers like Autodesk Flow Production Tracking and ftrack assign VFX and animation tasks shot by shot. General boards like monday.com and Airtable can be shaped into any tracker. Frame.io tracks review status on media. Baton answers where each episode is and who has it on episodic unscripted shows, and works that out from what people do rather than from a status somebody types.
“Who is working on what” sounds like one question. In a post department it is usually one of four:
- Who is booked, and in which room? That is scheduling.
- Which shot or task does each artist own? That is pipeline tracking.
- What did people say about this cut, and is it approved? That is review.
- Where is each episode, and who has it right now? That is coordination.
Each tool below is strong at one of these. Pick by the question your office asks most.
| Tool | Built for | Answers best | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| farmerswife | Facilities and post departments | Who and which suite is booked when, and where the clashes are | A scheduling tool first. Episode status lives alongside the bookings. |
| monday.com | Any team | What each person has on today, on boards you design | General purpose. Every status is one somebody has to keep current. |
| Airtable | Teams that want their own tracker | Episodes, people and deliverables linked however you like | Flexible, and someone has to build it and keep it up. |
| Autodesk Flow Production Tracking (formerly ShotGrid) | VFX and animation | Which artist owns each shot and asset, and its review status | Deep and detailed. More than an unscripted cutting room needs. |
| ftrack Studio | VFX, animation and multi-department post | Tasks, schedules and versions across departments | Same family as Flow. Built around shots and tasks. |
| Frame.io | Review and approval | Who owes notes on a cut, and what was said | Tracks the media. It is not a schedule. |
| Baton | Episodic unscripted TV | Where every episode is and who has it right now | Does not book rooms, store media or collect notes. |
Which one fits
A facility juggling suites and freelancers usually wants a booking tool. farmerswife is built for that.
A VFX or animation pipeline wants shot-level tracking. Flow Production Tracking and ftrack are the standards there.
A small team that wants a clear daily list often starts on monday.com or Airtable. They work, as long as somebody keeps every field true.
An episodic show with dozens or hundreds of episodes in flight is where Baton fits. The question in that office is “where is episode 62, and who has it?”, asked many times a day.
Where Baton is different
Most trackers hold what people type into them. Baton works status out from what people do. A card moves when somebody opens the cut. Initials on each card show whose spin it is. Assistant work goes to a shared bench, and whoever starts a job owns it.
Every fact on the board also says where it came from. Either a connected system saw it, or it was worked out from the schedule. A projected date never looks like a confirmed one. When nobody has checked something, it says so instead of showing it as missing.
It does not replace the others. Most shows run a review tool beside it, and a facility may keep its booking tool. Baton reads from the systems you already have rather than asking you to move into it.
Last reviewed