One Mac app for the work other tools leave to spreadsheets: documentaries written and heard before the edit, consent that keeps footage out of the film when permission changes, channels planned like productions, pitches built for the person in the room, and crew passes that update with every call sheet.

West Hollywood, Ca. — 09/28/2026 — JamesWorks Entertainment today announced First Read Studio, a Mac app that brings screenwriting, production planning, documentary editing, performance, pitching and video-channel production into one project that stays on the user’s Mac. First Read Studio will be available on the Mac App Store this October for Macs running macOS 15 or later.

Filmmaking software has grown up in pieces. Screenwriting apps stop at the page. Production suites connect the script to a schedule and call sheets, mostly in the cloud and mostly for scripted work. Documentary teams use transcription tools that cut video from text, then track releases in form builders and check facts by hand. Creator tools focus on ideas, search and analytics, while the channel itself is planned in a spreadsheet. Pitch decks get built in general-purpose slide software, with comparable titles pasted in by hand. First Read Studio puts that work in one project, 129 tools across nine areas, and adds tools for the jobs those products leave out.

“Every project I have made has been assembled twice: once in the field and in the edit, and once inside a pile of software that was never built for what I was doing,” said James Kicklighter, filmmaker and founder of JamesWorks Entertainment. “Documentary makers write the film before they cut it. Creators run their channels like productions. Actors rehearse off drafts nobody agrees on. I couldn’t find software for any of that, so we built it.”

For documentarians: write the film, then hand it to your editor

Transcription tools let editors highlight quotes and cut video from text. Writing the film itself, and tracking who agreed to what and which claims hold up, has stayed on paper, in form builders and in spreadsheets.

• Paper Edit and Watch & Listen. Write the documentary before you edit it. Pick lines from interview transcripts and arrange them with narration, titles, archive footage and music in the order of the film. Then press play and hear it as a rough film: real interview audio, plus a stand-in voice for narration you haven’t recorded yet. The original transcripts never change.
• Records what each person you film agreed to, including when they later limit or withdraw permission. Footage they no longer allow is kept out of the cut automatically.
• Claim Ledger. Lists every factual statement the film makes next to the evidence behind it, weakest first, so you know what to check before release. It shows how well each claim is sourced; it doesn’t decide whether a claim is true.
• First Question. Write the questions for your next interview from what the person actually said before. Each question links to the exact transcript line. Attach the list to the scheduled interview and send it as a PDF or an email.
• First Impact. Plan the film’s impact campaign (community screenings, partner organizations, outreach) alongside the film, kept separate from the film’s own records.
• Hand off to your editor, and keep working together. When the paper edit is ready, send it to your editor as a timeline for Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Avid Media Composer. The timeline comes with markers, notes, a reference video, and a folder holding only the media the cut uses. When the editor sends their cut back, First Read Studio compares it line by line. It shows what was kept, trimmed, spliced, added or dropped, and nothing changes until you approve it. Paper edit, claims and consent stay in step with the real cut.
• Creator Link for documentaries. Open a linked channel project for behind-the-scenes and release promotion. Each person’s promotion rights travel with the material, and missing or withdrawn rights stop a post from going out

For creators: plan the channel, not just the video

Creator software is built around ideas, search and analytics: what to make and how it performs. The channel itself, with its series, episodes, sponsor obligations and release checks, usually lives in a spreadsheet.

• The channel slate on First Board. Plan a channel’s shows and episodes on one board. Each episode gets an ID, like US-002, that follows it through the script, shoot, edit and publishing, so nothing gets mixed up.
• Sponsor Portal. Keeps every brand deal in one place: what the sponsor was promised, the ad disclosure the video has to include, payments received and invoices to send. It confirms the disclosure is in place, and nothing is emailed without you.
• Packaging Pre-Flight. A final check before an episode goes live: the thumbnail is chosen, the sponsor disclosure is in place, everyone on camera has signed a release, and no linked film has asked you to wait. The Mark Published button stays locked until all four pass.
• Creator Link. When a film or documentary brings you on for behind-the-scenes or promotion, its approved context arrives in your channel project, and each post waits until the release date.
• Creator Casting. Cast guests and on-camera talent through a web page applicants fill in themselves. The first 50 auditions are included, with paid tiers for more.
• Shop and campaign workspaces. For product videos, link the exact item for sale to the moment it appears in the script. For political campaigns, keep every claim’s source, the required disclosures and human sign-offs in view.
• Platform connections. Connect YouTube, Shopify, Google Merchant Center, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitch — bring real results into the project, each labeled with where it came from.

For filmmakers: the whole production, and then some

Production suites already connect the script to the schedule and call sheets. First Read Studio does that too, then goes further.

• Production Pass. Each cast and crew member gets one pass in Apple Wallet on iPhone for the whole production. When a new call sheet goes out, the pass updates with the new call time and location, and it appears on the lock screen that morning. At base camp (the crew’s check-in point), a Mac scans the pass using a connected iPhone as its camera, and the scan starts that person’s timecard. The code changes daily, so yesterday’s screenshot can’t check anyone in.
• First Mark. Plan the shots on an overhead map of the set. Select a line in the script, place the camera and actors, and the shot list writes itself, with the lens, the camera sensor and exactly how much of the scene that lens will see. It warns you if a camera would flip the actors’ screen direction, known as crossing the 180-degree line.
• Storyboards on iPad. Connect an iPad as a second screen with Sidecar and draw storyboard panels with Apple Pencil. Guides, the frame’s shape and a reference image to trace sit on the canvas. Panels land in scene order and export as a PDF.
• Script Link. Send the team a locked copy of the script that can be proven unchanged. When the writer revises it, you see exactly which scenes changed, and you accept the new pages without losing the breakdown, schedule or budget built on the old ones.
• First Rights. Flags anything in the script that may need legal permission, such as a brand name, a song lyric, a real place or the title itself. It tracks each clearance and produces the reports lawyers and the art department ask for.
• Promote the release from the production itself. With Creator Link, a film can open a linked channel project for behind-the-scenes and social promotion. It shares the production’s context (shoot days, locations, script references, look references and release dates), and the promo team plans content before, during and after the shoot. The production stays in control: its release dates and promotion rights hold every post, and updates come back for review before they change anything in the production.

For writers: plan it, then check the draft against it

Screenwriting apps format the page. Planning the story and checking a draft against that plan still happen on index cards and in other people’s notes.

• First Board and Story Tracker. Plan your story on First Board as scene and beat cards, starting from a beat-sheet template if you like. Story Tracker then reads the current script against that plan. It suggests how each story choice leads to the next, ties each one to the page where it happens, and shows which planned beats the draft doesn’t support yet. You accept, correct or reject every suggestion, and it never rewrites your plan or your script.
• First Coverage. An AI-written evaluation of your script, like a studio reader’s report, scored 1 to 10. Every line it quotes is checked against your script, and anything it can’t find there is thrown out.
• First Proof. Checks formatting, spelling, repeated words and craft problems without an internet connection, and shows every suggested change before it touches your script.

For actors and directors: rehearse inside the script

Actors usually run lines in separate apps, record self-tapes on their phones and keep character work in notebooks, while table reads run off whichever draft people printed.

• First Arc. Builds an actor’s preparation notes from the script. For each scene it gives what the character wants, what’s in the way, the action to play and what’s at stake, drawn as a curve of the performance’s intensity. It never changes the script.
• Run a table read with actors wherever they are. Assign each part, invite readers by email, and everyone reads the same locked draft, following along line by line.
• Voice Studio. Record a full read of the script without getting everyone in one room. Each actor records their own lines on a Mac or phone, and takes stay private until they submit them. The app cleans the audio, evens out the volume and drops each take into script order, so the whole read (the Scratch Track) plays before everyone has finished.
• Self-Tape. Record an audition on your Mac, add a title card with your name, and export one video ready to send. Every take is saved separately, so nothing is ever recorded over.

For pitching: sell it from the project

Pitch decks are usually built in general-purpose slide software, with comparable titles pasted in by hand and recoupment modeled in a separate spreadsheet.

• The Room. Prepare and deliver a pitch to the person in front of you: an investor, producer, streamer or distributor, agent or manager, actor, funder or brand. Pick the audience and The Room shows what that listener cares about. It builds the pitch from only the project material you choose to share, and the budget appears as a range, never line items. Rehearse against the clock, then present with your notes on your screen and only the pitch on theirs.
• First Pitch. Build the pitch document (story, characters, comparable titles and the team attached) from what’s already in the project. Comparable titles come from the TMDB film database with posters and reported figures, each labeled with its source.
• Shows investors who gets paid back first, second and third if the film makes money, calculated from the real budget and labeled as a projection, not a promise.
• First Deck and First Look. Make the pitch slides and the lookbook, a mood board of the film’s visual style, from the project’s own text and images. Every image keeps a label saying where it came from, even in the exported PDF.

One project, on your Mac

Most production software is cloud-based and covers one or two of these jobs. In First Read Studio, core project work stays on the Mac, and the app can reach only the files you open, a limit macOS enforces. People you invite see only the tools you give them. AI features can run on Apple Intelligence, either on the Mac or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, or on cloud models you choose, including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. For every AI feature, you see its engine, purpose and data boundary before it runs, a log records every machine action, and productions can limit AI tools or turn them off entirely. Nothing is sent or published without you. VoiceOver, Full Keyboard Access, Voice Control, Switch Control, reduced motion and increased contrast work throughout.

Beyond the Mac

Companion apps for iPad, iPhone and Apple Vision Pro are in development and will be included for every First Read Studio user at no additional charge. On the web, Creator Casting takes auditions directly from applicants: the first 50 are included, with paid tiers for more. The Production Portal lets a production bring in cast and crew who don’t use First Read Studio for $14.99 per seat. Anyone who already has First Read Studio joins a production at no charge.

Pricing and availability

First Read Studio will be available on the Mac App Store this October for Macs running macOS 15 or later. Plans are $19.99 a month or $149.99 a year, each with a 14-day free trial and renewing until canceled, or $295 once for a Lifetime Unlock with no trial and no renewal. Companion apps are included at no additional charge; Creator Casting includes 50 auditions, and the Production Portal is PRICE for team members who don’t use First Read Studio. Visit firstreadstudio.com to get one email when it’s on the App Store.

About JamesWorks Entertainment

JamesWorks Entertainment, LLC is a film production company founded by filmmaker James Kicklighter in 2005, whose work spans scripted, documentary, commercial and branded production.

Fact sheet: what’s new in First Read Studio

First Read Studio for Mac · macOS 15 or later · Mac App Store · 129 tools in nine areas · JamesWorks Entertainment, LLC

Documentary (First String)

• Paper Edit. Write the documentary before you edit it: lines from interview transcripts arranged with narration, titles, archive footage and music in the order of the film. The transcripts never change.
• Watch & Listen. Press play on the paper edit and hear it as a rough film: real interview audio where you have it, a stand-in voice where you don’t, with transcript and picture in sync.
• What each person you film agreed to, including when they limit or withdraw permission. Footage they no longer allow stays out of the cut automatically.
• Subject Record. One record per person you film: contact history, scheduled interviews, their transcripts, consent and releases, questions, travel and payments. Edit it once and every documentary tool reads it.
• Release Generator. Produces the standard permission forms (to appear on camera, film at a location, use materials, film minors or crowds) and tracks who has signed.
• Claim Ledger. Every factual statement the film makes, next to the evidence behind it, weakest first. It shows how well each claim is sourced; it doesn’t decide whether a claim is true.
• First Question. Questions for the next interview, written from what the person actually said, each linked to the exact transcript line, attached to the scheduled interview and sent as a PDF or email.
• First Impact. The film’s impact campaign (community screenings, partner organizations, outreach), planned alongside the film and kept separate from its records.
• Archival Clearance. For every clip of archive footage: who owns it, what it costs, and what license this cut needs, settled before export.
• Funder Delivery. What each grant or funder requires, checked against what has actually been delivered and when.
• Captions and delivery files. Subtitles, caption files, a script of what’s seen and heard, excerpt lists and archive reports, all made from one record so they always match.
• Editor handoff and round trip. Timelines for Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer, with markers, notes, a reference video and only the media the cut uses. Returned cuts are compared change by change before anything updates.
• Creator Link. A linked channel project for behind-the-scenes and release promotion, built from the context the production chooses to share. Promotion rights travel with the material.

Creators (First Creator)

• The channel slate on First Board. A channel’s shows and episodes on one board, each episode with an ID, like US-002, that follows it from the script to publishing.
• First Blueprint. A shared board for rough ideas, notes, reference images and research. An approved idea becomes an episode and keeps a record of where it started.
• Sponsor Portal. Every brand deal in one place: what was promised, the required ad disclosure, payments and invoices. It confirms the disclosure is in place, and nothing is emailed without you.
• Packaging Pre-Flight. Thumbnail chosen, sponsor disclosure in place, releases from everyone on camera, and no hold from a linked film. Mark Published unlocks only when all four pass.
• Creator Link. When a film or documentary brings you on for behind-the-scenes or promotion, its approved context arrives in your channel project, and each post waits until the release date.
• Creator Casting. Guests and on-camera talent apply through a web page. The first 50 auditions are included, with paid tiers for more.
• Thumbnail Designer. Design a video thumbnail once and see it exactly as it will appear everywhere, from the YouTube watch page to the small “Up next” tile and a Shorts crop. Each size is labeled by how reliable its source is.
• Video ROI and Creator Intelligence. Shows whether an episode paid off, using real measured numbers. A missing number shows as a dash, never a guess.
• Shop workspace. Link the exact item for sale to the moment it appears in the script, and follow results without claiming a video caused a purchase.
• Campaign workspace. Candidate and ballot-issue briefs with reviewed evidence and source-cited questions. Claim sources, disclosures and human sign-offs stay in view, and it never predicts persuasion or election results.
• Platform connections. YouTube, Shopify, Google Merchant Center, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitch — keep only the connections live at launch, each result labeled with where it came from.

Production (First Unit)

• Production Pass. One Apple Wallet pass per person for the whole production. It updates with each new call sheet, shows on the lock screen the morning of a call, scans in at base camp using an iPhone as the Mac’s camera, and starts that person’s timecard. The code changes daily.
• First Mark. Plan the shots on an overhead map of the set. The shot list writes itself from where you place the cameras, with how much of the scene each lens sees and a warning when a camera would cross the 180-degree line.
• Script Link. A locked script the team can prove is unchanged. Revisions show exactly which scenes changed and come in without losing the breakdown, schedule or budget.
• First Rights. Flags what in the script may need legal permission (a brand, a song lyric, a real place, the title itself), tracks each clearance and produces the reports lawyers and the art department ask for.
• First Check. Checks cast and crew pay against the union agreements you cite, such as SAG-AFTRA and IATSE, flags rest-period and overtime problems, and sends the confirmed cost to the budget.
• First Path. Compares filming tax incentives by state or country, each with its source and date.
• First Move. Daylight hours at each location, drive times between them, and when a shooting day runs out of light.
• Reference Data. Union rates, incentives, weather and travel figures, each dated so old numbers never pass as current.
• Creator Link. A linked channel project for behind-the-scenes and release promotion, built from the shoot days, locations, references and release dates the production chooses to share. The production stays in control.

Writing and coverage

• First Board and Story Tracker. Plan the story as scene and beat cards on First Board, from a beat-sheet template if you like. Story Tracker reads the script against that plan, suggests how each choice leads to the next, ties each to its page, and shows which planned beats the draft doesn’t support yet. You accept, correct or reject every suggestion.
• First Coverage. An AI-written evaluation of your script, like a studio reader’s report, scored 1 to 10. Every quoted line is checked against the script, and anything it can’t find is thrown out. Retries happen in view, canceling really cancels, and you can compare it with a human reader’s report.
• First Proof. Formatting, spelling, repeated-word and craft checks without an internet connection, showing every suggested change before it touches your script.

Actors and directors

• First Arc. For each scene: what the character wants, what’s in the way, the action to play and what’s at stake, drawn from the script as a curve of the performance’s intensity.
• Rehearse and Table Reads. A table read with actors wherever they are, every reader on the same locked draft and following along line by line.
• Voice Studio and Scratch Track. Each actor records their own lines on a Mac or phone. Takes stay private until submitted, then are cleaned, evened out in volume and placed in script order automatically.
• Voice Analysis. Describe how each character should sound, then see how their dialogue measures up, with dialect notes that cite the page.
• Self-Tape. Record an audition, add a title card with your name and export one video. Takes are never recorded over.

Pitching

• The Room. Prepare and deliver a pitch to a specific audience: investor, producer, streamer or distributor, agent or manager, actor, funder or brand. It shows what that listener cares about, builds the pitch from only the material you choose to share, times each rehearsal, and presents with your notes on your screen and only the pitch on theirs.
• First Pitch. The pitch document built from the project, with comparable titles from the TMDB film database carrying posters and reported figures labeled by source.
• TMDB catalog, built in. Titles, comparable titles, posters, backdrops and TV stills for First Pitch, First Look, First Deck and First Blueprint. No personal API key is needed, and every TMDB image is labeled as a source reference, not rights clearance.
• Who gets paid back first, second and third if the film makes money, calculated from the real budget and labeled as a projection, not a promise.
• First Deck and First Look. Pitch slides and a lookbook of the film’s visual style, made from the project’s own text and images, with source labels that stay on every image into the PDF.

iPad with Sidecar

• Storyboards on iPad. Connect an iPad as a second screen with Sidecar and draw storyboard panels with Apple Pencil, with guides, the frame’s shape and a reference image to trace. Panels land in scene order and export as a PDF.
• Touch Workspace (macOS 27 or later). Move First Mark’s floor plan to the iPad and place cameras and actors with a finger or Apple Pencil.
• Present from two screens. In The Room, the audience sees only the pitch on one display while your notes, cues and controls stay on another.

Beyond the Mac

• Companion apps. iPad, iPhone and Apple Vision Pro apps are in development and will be included for every First Read Studio user at no additional charge.
• Creator Casting. Applicants submit auditions on the web. The first 50 are included, with paid tiers for more.
• Production Portal. Lets a production bring in cast and crew who don’t use First Read Studio, for $14.99 per seat. Anyone who already has First Read Studio joins a production at no charge.

Platform and trust

• Local-first. Core project work stays on the Mac. The app reaches only the files you open, and macOS enforces that limit.
• AI you choose and can see. Apple Intelligence on the Mac or through Private Cloud Compute, or cloud models including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Engine, purpose and data boundary are shown before any AI feature runs, every machine action is logged, and productions can limit or turn off AI tools.
• Access starts at nothing. People you invite see only the tools you give them, and you can preview exactly what they’ll see.
• Nothing sends itself. Documents open as pre-filled Mail drafts, and publishing waits for you.
• Accessibility throughout. VoiceOver, Full Keyboard Access, Voice Control, Switch Control, reduced motion, reduced transparency and increased contrast.

Pricing

$19.99 a month or $149.99 a year, each with a 14-day free trial and renewing until canceled, or $295 once for a Lifetime Unlock with no trial and no renewal. Companion apps included at no additional charge. Creator Casting includes 50 auditions, with paid tiers for more. Production Portal: $14.99 per month per seat for users who don’t use First Read Studio.

Apple, Apple Intelligence, Apple Pencil, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Wallet, Final Cut Pro, iPad, iPhone, Mac, macOS and Sidecar are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. ChatGPT is a trademark of OpenAI. Gemini, YouTube, Google Ads, Google Analytics and Google Merchant Center are trademarks of Google LLC. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC. Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer, Shopify, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitch, SAG-AFTRA and IATSE are trademarks of their respective owners. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.