Vicuda

You already shot it.

Vicuda finds B-roll in your own footage, on your Mac.

A visual match. The result opens on the frame that matched the words, so the shot is already cued. Captured from the app on a demo card of stock clips.

Measured

What the app’s own log says.

Search
133 ms, median. 7,668 searches logged over one week of development, 235 shots in scope. Results re-rank on every keystroke.
Indexing
9.6× realtime. 68 clips, 18 min 43 s of 1080p60, indexed in 1 min 56 s. Frames and speech together, release build, 3 September 2026.
Machine
MacBook Pro, M1 Max, 64 GB. macOS 26. A newer Mac should be faster; an M1 Air will be slower. Both numbers above are from this one.
Budget
25 seconds a shot. Typed query to range in the stack. This is the design target. Every action is timed so the app can be held to it.

Ownership

You own the app and the index.

The index is one SQLite file you can open yourself, and the footage stays on whatever drive it’s on. Unplug that drive and you can still search and skim what’s on it; plug it back in when it’s time to export.

  • One price

    Buy it once and keep the version you bought. There is no subscription and no account.

  • A standalone app

    Vicuda runs in its own window next to your editor and hands the finished stack to whichever one you cut in.

  • Nothing uploads

    Indexing and search run on your Mac’s Neural Engine. The footage stays on your drives.

  • Files untouched

    Vicuda writes to one database file of its own. It never moves, renames, or rewraps a clip.

Details

What it is, exactly.

Requires
macOS 26 on an Apple silicon Mac.
Search
What’s in frame and what was said, from one field. Filters narrow by camera, time of day, duration, orientation, and whether a shot has been used; type them or pick them from a menu.
Speech
Apple’s on-device speech engine. Every transcribed word is a seek target.
Storage
One SQLite file per studio; your projects live inside it. Detaching a project stores small frames and mono audio beside that file.
Export
Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. Resolve later.
Formats
Tested against Sony XAVC S and H.264. Anything AVFoundation decodes should play, including ProRes and HEVC. BRAW and R3D aren’t supported yet. If you shoot something else, I’d like a card from it. Write to hello@vicuda.com.
Internet
Not needed after the download.
License
One-time purchase.
Status
In development. Search, indexing, stacks, and Final Cut export work today. Premiere export, detach, and voice notes are being built.
Not
An editor or an asset manager. It finds shots and hands them to the editor you already use.

Who’s building it

Brandon Young.

I’m building Vicuda on my own, as a native Mac app, because the footage I want to search sits on a drive next to me and I don’t think it should have to be uploaded anywhere to be searched. Everything on this page was captured from the build I use every day.

If you shoot with a camera I haven’t tested, I’d like a card from it. Write to hello@vicuda.com.

Waitlist

One email, when there’s a build to try.

Not shipping yet. One email when there’s a build to try, and nothing else.