These are the 5 tools I use to get the work done of 5 people

If you’re like most of the filmmakers I’ve been speaking with all this past week - you’ve been feeling the crunch and want to bring in more revenue, YET you also feel like there just isn’t enough time.

Lots of you are feeling that way and the insidious part of it, is that this often leads to us working IN our business far more than ON our business…

…and that means nothing changes.

And so you stay stuck.

My mantra for the year is ‘processed, pruned, or pass‘ which is all about automating, delegating, and removing what I can to be hyper-focused on the high-leverage things I should be doing.

Today I want to take you through 7 tools I use that help me do the work of several people. I am OBSESSED with process and efficiency and so these tools I bring you have been the game-changers for me.

I hope some of them help you take your time back and be able to use it in areas that will add far more value for you.

1. Superhuman - Anybody else hate email, like me . This changes the game.

Superhuman your email turbo-charged. It’s a bit steep at a $30/mo subscription but it saves me hours a day, so I’ll take that deal.

Why you should know about Superhuman:

• It has AI integrated that learns your voice by seeing your past emails. You can then hit COMMAND + J and give it a command of what you want to write, and it drafts the whole email

• It includes ‘snippets’, which are chunks of copy you might share often - say, explaining creative to a client. I am building a library of snippets and it means never writing the same thing twice ever again. And you add them to your email in one keystroke (;)

• It has advanced business features such as unsend, check read status, scheduled send, and even follow-up reminds for yourself

• Now, note it does take a beat to get up to speed on how it works, but give it a few hours and you’ll massively cut down the time you spend on email.

• Learn more about Superhuman here.

2. Davinci Resolve Studio - Hollywood level finishing almost on auto-pilot

I have been a Premiere fan for years but recently switched to Davinci. With how they have tackled AI, it has been a massive time-saver. Some of these things are also in Premiere, but this is why I love and am currently using Davinci. The studio version is $300 one-time payment, but it’s saved me days… so well worth it in my case.

Why I switched to Davinci:

• Their AI tools for fixing dialogue, auto leveling dialogue, and doing face refinement and object tracking are literally a click away

• They have long been masters in the color space, and they still are. The AI interactions have made secondary and more advanced tracking - things that could take hours or days before - happen in seconds. Click to select a person, it auto tracks them, and then you can apply a correct just to them, or to the background.

• Master Bins - These little suckers are a systems powerhouse that way too few people know about. Setting up a Master Bin allows you to make media available across projects. So I have a top 100 soundtracks, SFX, VFX, stock footage, and our top broll ALL sorted and available at a click across ANY project. No importing and you can find it in seconds.

• Text-based editing and subtitles are also seconds away, very similar to how Premiere does it, but I prefer the UX and Davinci workflow here

• Learn more about Resolve here. Note they do have a free version of the software to get testing things out.

3. Notion - The ultimate place to store and organize everything.

To be honest, I never really got Notion in the beginning. But after spending some considerable time inside the app, I can see how it lets you organize and track everything across your business. It’s free plan offers a ton of value and it’s only $10/mo to start on a paid plan.

*Why Notion could revolutionize (and no, that’s not hyperbolic) how you do business this year:*

• Notion lets you integrate documents and databases together, which seems rather blah… until you start to get how that can come together.

• I currently have a Notion for our team that tracks:

Yearly financial projections and broader business strategy

• An overview of our Mission, Vision, Values, and all key initiatives

• Connects initiatives to tasks and tracks them by team member weekly

• ALL our resources - templates, processes, contracts, etc in ONE database so anybody can quickly find and access what they want

• It wouldn’t be too much to say that Muse is now run in Notion and it’s not only quicker and cheaper than the 5 disparate systems before, but it’s also way more connected so the team has more clarity and can be more effective

• It has AI integrated to summarize a page (such as a discovery call) or find action items. The AI can also create workbooks or give you a list of your top items for the week

• I’m currently building a Filmmaker’s Second Brain template that would help you track clients and projects and build creative all in one space. *Email me if you want to be a part of the private beta.* This is paid, but all funds go to the development of the template, and you get to offer feedback as we go.

4. Opus Clip - A top AI editor to take your hero film and create solid social cut downs automatically.

You know the thing I hate more than emails and meetings…creating social cutdowns. OMG the time lost in reframing, changing ratios, etc, etc, etc. Opus Clip uses AI to find the best, most ‘viral worthy‘ segments and make edits for you. In the screenshot above, I took our 90 min AI webinar and uploaded it to Opus and it generated a dozen ready to air social clips… in minutes.

Why Opus Clip could be an additional revenue stream for you as a filmmaker:

• So Opus Clip works best with longer pieces (say a full interview, webinar, or longer edit). But within that, it edits the clips, writes a social caption, and even gives you a viral score for each piece

• If Opus Clip generates a dozen options for me, I find 5 of them are usually awesome and need very minimal tweaking to download and air.

• You can add brand templates so the style of captions (which are also automatic) is already a brand fit for you or your clients. You can even download the premiere pro file for extra editing. AND they just added an auto broll feature (which is stockish, and not for most of us… but this could be wild in 12-24 months)

• So now imagine going to your clients and offering them a social package - a handful of clips for $2,000. That is a steal for many companies if they are well-produced. Drop the main edit AND the top interviews into Opus Clip - then find the best ones, download, and deliver. Of course you could fitness more, but this is enough to add value for your clients.

• Learn more about Opus Clip here. It’s pretty darn insane at

5. Athena EA - Imagine a full-time remote assistant with AI superpowers all at $3k/mo.

My executive assistant is from Athena, and let me tell you, I have tried a handful of services like these - but Athena is different. They only accept the top 2% of candidates, empower them with AI tools, and do an intensive interview to pair you with the right assistant. Full-time admin support at $3k/mo. It’s unreal how much time they can give you back.

Why Athena could be a viable option as your next hire:

• Know that they offer unparalleled matching along with no commitments, so you’re free to cancel anytime. That said, they are designing everything for long-term partnerships, and you can see that in their attention to details

• More than just an awesome EA, you get coaching on how to best delegate and your EA has a coach to ensure they are always growing and adding more value.

• Rae, my EA from Athena, is the front-lines of my email inbox (look at that compounding value when paired with Superhuman), she can run all of our AI tools, our templates, and internal systems to help me focus on the highest-leverage areas possible.

• To show you just how far processes and systems can push things, I gave Rae 4 hours to develop the creative for a story using our process and templates. Evan would then have a day to bring it to life in a powerful film. We documented the whole thing, and you’ll be shocked at what the team was able to make without me touching a camera or driving the creative…all in less than two days from scratch to finished edit. Stay tuned for that one.

• We have a couple community members with assistants from Athena already which we did as a pilot program of a partnership where we train your EA on Science of Storytelling and the AI Masterclass so they come ready to be able to take so much of the admin work of filmmaking off your hands.

• If you want to know more about our partner program - which is the same cost for you, but just includes our story and AI training for your EA, j*ust shoot me an email and I can intro you to the Athena team.*

Quick recap and final thoughts:

I’m about $3,200/mo for all of these tools (and people), including a full-time executive assistant. When you realize that your EA can then run these tools, you have your team able to generate more revenue for you on the projects you currently have while massively cutting down on the time you’re spending in low-value areas.

I hope these tools are helpful to you, and if you try one out and also get some killer results, I’d love to hear about it. Let’s continue to take our time back and ensure we’re hyper-focused on what will get us the biggest gains this year.

• Patrick