July 2, 2025
Article
Our Story: Built in Chaos, Forged for the Set
Set Tracker didn’t start in a Silicon Valley incubator.
It started in Budapest. In Vancouver. In Yukon. On active sets across the globe — on high-stakes productions for Netflix, Apple, and the world’s largest film studios. Hundreds of crew. Dozens of departments. A six-figure cost for every lost hour. Zero room for error.
We were there. We saw the chaos firsthand: the 11th-hour call sheet email that half the crew missed; the costly reshoot because an actor had old sides; the 30-minute morning roll call to figure out who was actually on location.
We didn't just watch the chaos — we built the tool to end it.
The Set Tracker Story: Built on Set, For the Set
Before it was a platform, Set Tracker was our own operational survival kit. In film, everything must be accounted for. Every crew member, every document version, every location pin. Failure isn't just an inefficiency—it’s a $10,000 mistake before lunch, a blown schedule, or a shutdown production.
We built a system that gave us one source of truth. A live crew roster you could see at a glance. Call sheets and sides, locked down and watermarked, in every pocket. Digital timecards that flowed from set to payroll without a soggy piece of paper in sight.
We solved our problem. Then we realized it was everyone's problem.
Across hundreds of productions, one pattern screamed at us: the world's most creative, fast-moving industry was being strangled by analog tools and digital clutter. Legacy systems were built for offices, not for the controlled chaos of a live set.
The core need was universal: Operational clarity under extreme pressure.
So we made the call. We took the rock-solid, field-tested backbone we built for ourselves—and refined it into the platform we wished we’d always had.
Set Tracker was born.
Why "Set Tracker"?
The name is the mission. It’s not abstract. It’s the direct answer to the two most urgent questions on any production:
Where is my set? (Locations, logistics, the "Take Me There" button).
Who is on my set? (Live crew status, accountability, payroll certainty).
It’s the operational heartbeat. Track your set. Control your set.
The Problem We’re Solving
A modern production is a pressure cooker. Budgets are tight. Timelines are tighter. The margin for error is zero, yet teams are forced to rely on error-prone tools: chaotic email threads, paper timecards, and radio calls to locate people.
This "dark data"—the gap between who should be where and who actually is, between which document is final and which is being used—is the single biggest silent cost on set.
You can't scale a $200 million production with clipboards and CC-all emails. You need a system. A system that works in the rain, at 4 AM, on the side of a mountain. A system for the set.
That’s why Set Tracker exists.
What Set Tracker Does
We’re not a generic file-sharing app or a glorified calendar. We are the operational intelligence platform built from the ground up for the unique demands of film & TV production.
Set Tracker gives your production:
Live Crew Visibility – Know who’s on set, who’s en route, and their status. At a glance.
The Single Source of Truth – Distribute final, watermarked call sheets, sides, and maps instantly. Kill version chaos forever.
Digital Workflow Automation – Crew submit timecards digitally from their phone. Production gets clean, instant data.
Location Intelligence – One-tap "Take Me to Set" navigation for the crew, and a clear geographic dashboard for the office.
Offline-Ready Reliability – Built to work in the dead zones, warehouses, and remote locations where you actually shoot.
In short, Set Tracker turns operational control from a daily struggle into your greatest advantage.
The Shift: Control as Strategy
The best productions in the world no longer see on-set operations as a necessary evil. They see control as a competitive edge.
Finishing on schedule? That requires every crew member starting their day in minutes, not hunting for an address.
Protecting your budget? That requires eliminating the mistakes that cause six-figure reshoots.
Keeping the creative energy focused? That requires removing all the petty logistical friction.
Set Tracker helps productions recover:
Hours of lost time each day in roll calls, document hunts, and payroll admin.
Thousands of dollars in preventable, communication-based mistakes.
The creative focus of your key leaders, by taking the chaos off their plate.
But the real value? We give the Production Office and 1st AD command-level clarity — so they can make better decisions, faster, and lead a calm, focused set.
Who We Serve
Set Tracker is trusted by productions of all scales:
Studio Tentpoles & Streaming Series where complexity is a given and the cost of stoppage is extreme.
Independent Features & Commercial Shoots where every person wears three hats and efficiency is survival.
Every Production Manager, 1st AD, and Line Producer who is tired of being a human router for information and wants to run a tight, professional set.
Our Commitment
We’re not a tech company dabbling in entertainment. We are filmmakers who built a tech solution.
That’s why we:
Support every production with onboarding that speaks your language.
Iterate based on real feedback from working sets—not hypothetical boardroom ideas.
Are built to be crew-friendly first, because adoption is everything.
The Future We See
We believe a future is possible where:
Every crew member starts their day informed and located in under 60 seconds.
No production ever wastes a dollar on a "missed email" mistake again.
The operational platform is so intuitive and reliable, it fades into the background, letting the real work—the storytelling—take center stage.
Set Tracker is building that future. One set at a time.
Set Tracker means control.
We’re here to give it to you.