UK production technology firm Deep Fusion has expanded its software team and product line in one move, appointing Sam Hodgkinson as head of software and releasing four tools aimed at the manual chores that slow film and television production.
Hodgkinson joins creative lead Christian Darkin and UI/UX developer Emmanuel Obi-Akwari in the company’s 18-month-old technology division and reports to founder Benjamin Field. His background includes seven years in the British Army and later work as a full-stack engineer building scalable web platforms.
What the new tools do
The additions sit inside Deep Fusion’s “creative-first” suite, which first appeared a year ago. ScriptedPlannR converts scripts into structured shoot plans; MusicQ identifies music in final deliveries and creates cue records with composer, publisher and usage details; BabbL and BabbLPro generate timed subtitles and closed captions.
Each product targets a familiar production pinch point: translating a script into a workable schedule, reconstructing music cue sheets for rights and royalties, and preparing accessibility deliverables for different platforms.
Why it matters for the business
For studios, post-production houses and streamer operations teams, these are not glamorous problems, but they are expensive ones. Manual data entry and fragmented records create delays in prep and delivery, and they multiply compliance risk around music and captions. Tools that automate the extraction and documentation can shorten turnarounds and free production capacity. For media teams downstream, faster script and caption turnarounds can compress promo and localisation timelines as well.
Parent company John Gore Studios is explicit about the positioning. John Gore, its exec chairman, said the technology is designed to work with human expertise rather than replace it, giving teams “more capacity to focus on the creative work that matters.”
- Script-to-shoot planning can start sooner when breakdowns are generated automatically.
- Music cue records become easier to reconcile for rights holders and distributors.
- Timed captions are built for the deliverable itself, not bolted on later.
The takeaway
Deep Fusion’s hire is a signal that the company is investing in product leadership as much as in individual tools. The next test is whether production teams adopt these tools inside their existing edit and finishing workflows, or treat them as another dashboard. Buyers should pilot one task—script breakdowns, cue sheets or captions—before rolling out the whole suite.
Source: C21media
