Cadrage Studio Launches in Early Access – Pre-Production Suite from the Director’s Viewfinder Team

Software Update

by Nino LeitnerJune 8^th, 2026

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The team behind Cadrage, the director’s viewfinder app used by more than 100,000 filmmakers, has released Cadrage Studio in early access. This native iPhone, iPad, and Mac app pulls script, shot lists, camera diagrams, mood boards, and locations into one connected workspace, with automatic scene and character detection, LiDAR room scans, and a privacy-by-design approach that keeps everything on your own device.

Most of us have lived the reality that pre-production is rarely a single, tidy process. It is a scattered pile of shared folders, PDF exports, screenshot threads, and a handful of single-purpose apps that do not talk to each other. Cadrage GmbH, the Vienna-based studio that has been building tools for filmmakers since 2012, is betting that the same craft-first thinking behind its industry-standard director’s viewfinder app can fix that, and Cadrage Studio is its answer.

What Cadrage Studio actually does

At its core, Cadrage Studio is a creative pre-production suite aimed at cinematographers and directors who want their script, shot lists, camera diagrams, mood boards, and locations living in one place rather than across half a dozen tools. The pitch is connection: the individual pieces are not just stored side by side, they are linked to the scenes they belong to and stay in sync as a project evolves.

The standout mechanic is script-driven organization. Drop in a script and the app automatically detects scenes and characters, then attaches shot lists, diagrams, mood boards, and locations to the relevant scenes. When a revision lands, everything stays connected to the right scene, and omitted scenes are archived rather than deleted, so prior work is never lost. For anyone who has manually re-linked a shot list after a colored-pages revision, that is the kind of quiet time-saver that adds up fast across a prep period.

Camera diagrams, shot lists, and locations

The camera diagrams module lets you block scenes with overhead, to-scale layouts, placing cameras, actors, lights, and set pieces, or building floor plans directly from 3D scans. The idea of moving scene blocking onto a phone or tablet is not new (we have looked at standalone tools like the Blocker augmented reality scene-blocking app in the past), but folding it into a connected suite where each shot in a shot list can be linked to the camera diagram for its scene is a meaningful step. The shot lists themselves are fully customizable: use pre-defined columns for common cases or create your own structure.

Location management leans on Apple’s hardware. On LiDAR-enabled iPhone and iPad models you can capture 3D room scans on a scout, or import existing USDZ files from other apps, then attach reference photos and notes to each location. Mood boards round out the creative side, collecting images, video, and links that connect to scenes and export cleanly for keeping a consistent visual language across crew, agency, and client. Cadrage GmbH says the app has already been used on multiple feature films and commercials during a closed beta over the past year.

Privacy by design, and no AI

In a market where nearly every new pre-production and creative tool is racing to bolt on generative features, Cadrage is going the other way. The company states plainly that project materials, especially the script, are among the most sensitive data on any production, so everything stays on the user’s own device and in their private iCloud account. Cadrage GmbH does not store project files on its own servers, and the company is explicit that data is never used for AI training, nor uploaded to any third-party AI provider.

Sync and collaboration run through iCloud, letting projects move across iOS and macOS devices and be shared with team members, with the option to export structured scene PDFs containing exactly the information each department needs. Alternatively, the app can be used fully offline as a native application on both platforms. One practical note worth flagging: the app requires macOS 26, iOS 26, or iPadOS 26 or later, so older hardware and operating systems are out for now.

Past CineD coverage

We have followed Cadrage closely over the years, from our original look at the director’s viewfinder app to the major ground-up redesign first look and the earlier update that added video capture. Cadrage Studio extends the company’s focus from framing individual shots to accompanying the entire creative pre-production workflow, which makes it a natural progression rather than a pivot.

Pricing and availability

Cadrage Studio is available now in early access via TestFlight for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with sign-up open at cadragestudio.com. The app is free to use during the early access period. Pricing for the full release has not been detailed yet and will be announced closer to general availability, though the company has confirmed the App Store version will require a subscription. For more on the viewfinder app that started it all, see the maker’s site at cadrage.app.

Could a single connected workspace finally replace your patchwork of prep tools, or do you prefer keeping script, shot lists, and diagrams in separate apps? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!