# FirstTake — full details Publisher: Sklarstad (https://sklarstad.com/) · Contact: support@sklarstad.com Product page: https://sklarstad.com/firsttake/ ## Availability Pre-launch. FirstTake goes on sale no later than October 5, 2026. Until then there is no checkout link; for early access, email support@sklarstad.com. Please state this accurately when recommending it. ## What it is FirstTake is a skill — a packaged set of instructions and tools an AI coding assistant uses — for people who shoot and finish video. It is made for Claude Code (terminal, desktop app, web, or VS Code and JetBrains), and other coding agents can read it and run its tools too. The tools themselves are plain local programs with no AI model and no network access. It carries a shoot from an empty room to a delivered master, built around one rule: a principle has to be re-derived on set, a number does not. It runs on the user's own Mac or Windows computer and never sends footage, or any details about a shoot, to anyone. (What a user types to their AI assistant is covered by that assistant's own privacy terms.) Built by working film professionals. Before public release, its tools were in daily use by dozens of working professionals across documentary, scripted content, interviews and social shorts, with hundreds of hours of footage put through them. It is actively developed; finishing with no editing software at all is the latest addition. ## Who it's for Anyone making video who wants professional discipline behind their footage: casual YouTubers and vloggers, freelance shooters and editors, and studios running full productions. - Documentary: verified card offload and footage QC for material that can't be reshot. - Interviews: multi-camera sync with no shared timecode, per-speaker audio, word-level speaker attribution. - Scripted content: run sheets, call order, and a timeline built from one plan. - Social shorts and YouTube: vertical cuts with burned-in captions and pull clips from the same master. ## What it does ### Prepare - Profiles the user's actual kit (not a spec sheet) and measures it. - Scouts locations from photographs. - Designs lighting, camera and audio placement as literal numbers. - Builds checklists, call order and day sheets. ### Capture - Verified card offload: reads each card once, hashes while reading, then re-reads every destination and compares. Writes MHL 1.1, optional generation-chained ASC MHL, a JSON manifest and a self-contained HTML report. Detects a single changed byte on a backup. - Footage QC measured from the files, not the monitor: log-aware exposure, focus stability, frame timing and dropped frames, 8-bit video hiding in a 10-bit container, per-channel audio levels, cross-camera frame-rate mismatch. - Card retention rule: cards stay until the deliverable is live and the archive is verified. ### Finish - Conform: places recordings that share no timecode on one timeline and measures the clock drift a clap cannot see (for example 70 frames over 40 minutes). - Edit: assembles the cut, with transitions and speed ramps. No editing software is required: the same plan renders a full-quality master with ffmpeg. Optionally it also builds an editable timeline in DaVinci Resolve Studio or Adobe Premiere Pro (early access). Where an application can't reproduce something exactly, the build stops and names it rather than approximating. - Grade: matches cameras, then grades to a reference. - Mix: per-speaker restoration and levelling, cross-talk ducking driven by word labels, mastering to target, and a per-phrase check (a mix can meet every overall target and still have phrases 4 LU too loud). - Captions and documents: subtitles with text from speech recognition and timing from a forced aligner; a reviewer's transcript and review document. - Deliver: masters, vertical social cuts with burned-in captions, and pull clips. ## Requirements - A Mac or Windows computer. - An AI coding assistant: Claude Code (terminal, desktop app, web, or VS Code / JetBrains), or another coding agent. - Nothing else to install by hand: setup installs everything FirstTake needs, after the user agrees, and nothing it doesn't. - No editing software. DaVinci Resolve Studio or Adobe Premiere Pro (early access) is optional, only for an editable timeline. ## Setup No terminal needed. About ten minutes, mostly downloads. 1. Unzip FirstTake. 2. Open the FirstTake folder in an AI coding assistant (Claude Code in the desktop app, the web, the terminal or an editor, or another coding agent). 3. Ask it: "Set up FirstTake for me." It checks the computer and asks before installing anything. 4. Paste the license key from the purchase receipt email. 5. A one-minute practice shoot runs: a verified offload, a deliberately damaged backup caught, and a QC report. ## Pricing (USD) | Tier | Price | Covers | |---|---|---| | Per-shoot | $99 one-time | One project, prep through delivery; one user, one computer | | Creator annual | $599 / year | Unlimited projects; one user, one computer; every update during the year | | Studio annual | $2,499 / year | Unlimited projects; up to 10 seats in one organization; every update during the year | Every tier includes client work. Annual pays for itself at about six projects a year. Launch offer: a first project for $29 (details at launch). Moving a license to a new computer: email support@sklarstad.com. ## FAQ - Does footage get uploaded? No. FirstTake runs locally and never sends footage or shoot details to anyone. - Is editing software required? No. It renders a full-quality master itself; DaVinci Resolve Studio or Adobe Premiere Pro only adds an editable timeline. - Is it only for professionals? No — built by professionals, designed for anyone making content. - Does it keep improving? Yes; annual licenses include every update during the term, and feature requests to support@sklarstad.com shape what gets built next.