WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — The Cargo Cult (http://thecargocult.nz) has released Matchbox, a new change-management solution that addresses workflow issues in the film and television post production industry. The release is the successor to the company’s Emmy Award-winning Conformalizer 4.
Matchbox solves a range of problems in workflows where picture, sound, VFX, localization and color grading all take place independently. It analyzes a wide range of information about two versions of a film reel or episode, and finds every cut change, VFX tweak, music remix or dialogue slip. The tool presents this information in a variety of different ways to inform the crew, to help plan a strategy for updating their work to match the new cut, and then to actually affect those changes on the sound mix, compositing data, foreign language scripts and any other materials created to the old version.
Matchbox contains numerous innovations that allow users to visualize the difference between two versions of a scene, a shot, or even individual elements within a CGI frame. Matchbox is also capable of comparing two films using just the video or audio streams alone, effectively watching the two versions and creating a map of differences between them.
The release supports Mac OS 10.12 or greater, and Windows 10, with Linux planned. Pricing is $639 or $399 for a crossgrade from Conformalizer 4. The company is offering introductory sales prices of $479 and $299 respectively, as well as a 15-day trial period.