My name is Navik. I'm a documentary filmmaker, social media producer, and founder of Drua Pictures, a production company dedicated to telling stories that inspire, educate, and entertain. Over the last few years, my focus has been on creating promotional, educational, and documentary content for corporations, small businesses, and individuals.
But here's the thing that we’ve resigned ourselves to: for every day spent in the field capturing footage, there are countless hours spent in post doing the mundane work that comes before the actual creative editing begins.
The Breaking Point
Three months ago, I hit what I can only describe as a breaking point. I love being outdoors, filming incredible stories, and meeting fascinating people. I love the creative side of editing; the storytelling, pacing, and emotional beats.
But what I absolutely dreaded was the hours spent sifting through interview after interview, tagging B-roll, and organizing footage. It's boring, repetitive work that pulls you away from creative flow.
After a particularly grueling project where I'd come back from location with 400+ clips of B-roll footage, I knew there had to be a better way. I didn't have the budget to hire an assistant editor, and the thought of manually logging every single clip felt unrealistic given the budget and upcoming deadline for sharing the first cut.
Discovering Eddie AI
That's when I started googling AI tools for video editing. I'll be honest. I was super skeptical.
How could AI possibly understand the nuances of my footage?
Then, I found Eddie AI. And after trying its B-roll logging feature for the first time, I was blown away. I literally said, "There's no way it's just going to analyze my clips and tell me what's in them." But it did. Not only objects and people, but it started recognizing specific cameras and even lenses I was using.
When you're working on branded documentaries and promo content, being able to instantly find "Fujifilm GFX100S II with the GF 32-64mm lens" is incredibly valuable.
The Game Changer
What this has done for my workflow is simple but revolutionary: it's removed the barrier between me and the creative work. Now, when I'm in the flow of editing and need a specific shot, I can search for it via keywords in DaVinci Resolve's search tool in the media pool instead of scrubbing through endless bins of footage.
What really impressed me beyond the tech was the support. When I encountered a workflow issue with XML, it was resolved literally the day after. I've had direct conversations with Eddie AI founders, and having that level of direct access and responsiveness from a company speaks to their commitment to help video pros like me.
Instead of dreading the post-production process, I can focus on what I love most, crafting compelling narratives and telling stories that matter.
Looking Forward
As a documentary filmmaker, my ultimate goal is to spend more time in the field documenting undiscovered and untold stories, which can entail that they don't have huge budgets behind them. Tools like Eddie AI are democratizing the process, making it possible for filmmakers to turn around their stories faster and more efficiently despite the constraints.
The progress I've seen in just three months, including the advancements in their AI models and the NLE integrations, gives me optimism for the future. I am not worried about AI taking my job since I believe human stories are best told by other humans. What I am worried about, however, is missing out on important developments in AI that can make storytelling more accessible and efficient, no matter what budget or resources I have.
We're moving toward a world where the barriers to storytelling are falling away rapidly. And that’s incredibly exciting.
If you’re trying to streamline your post-production process for this type of work, Eddie AI might be worth exploring.
Credit: Atomos
Credit: Atomos
