The idea actually started much earlier than most people know — around 2003, twenty-three years ago. I was sketching UI concepts in CorelDRAW 7, the first version that could export to HTML. Even then, working in broadcast television, I could see the problem clearly: the gap between the person who knows the story and the person who knows the editing software was costing everyone time, money, and sometimes the story itself.
The tools to bridge that gap simply didn’t exist yet.
Seven years ago, I had a problem.
I was a freelance videographer working on a news piece. I had the footage, I knew the story, but getting from raw clips to a Final Cut Pro timeline meant hours of writing timecodes on paper, retyping them into a script, and handing it to an editor who would then retype everything again into the NLE.
Double work. Triple work sometimes.
So I built AVScript. A simple browser tool that let me mark IN and OUT points, build a playlist, and export FCPXML directly into Final Cut Pro. No server, no upload, no account. Just open the HTML file and work.
In May 2019, FCP.co wrote about it. The response was overwhelming. Editors and journalists from around the world reached out. The problem I had was universal.
Then life happened. The project sat dormant for years. Until now.
What we built
Over the past months, we rebuilt AVScript from the ground up. JKL navigation. MediaInfo analysis. Drag and drop timeline. FCPXML 1.13 export. Autosave. Multi-format support. A proper cloud infrastructure with user accounts, storage, and AI transcription coming soon.
And we made a decision.
The core player — the offline, browser-based editor that started all of this — goes open source. Free. Forever.
Because the idea was never to lock journalists and editors into another subscription for basic tools they need to do their job. The idea was to give them something that just works, anywhere, even on a train with no internet.
What stays paid
The cloud. The transcription. The collaboration. The things that cost real money to run and that make AVScript genuinely powerful for teams and newsrooms.
If you’re a solo editor working locally — AVScript Player is yours, free, open source, no strings attached.
If you’re a team that needs cloud storage, AI transcription, and real-time collaboration — that’s AVScript Pro.
A gift to the community
BION.TV was founded to serve the film and television production community. That’s what we do — registered in Croatia, working with broadcasters and production houses across the region and beyond.
This year marks our tenth anniversary.
For that milestone, I wanted to give something back to the community that shaped everything I know about storytelling and production. Not a press release. Not a discount code. Something useful. Something that solves a real problem.
AVScript Player — the offline, browser-based editor — is our gift to the global film and television community. Free. Open source. No strings attached.
Happy birthday, BION.TV. This one’s for you.
For builders
If you’re building something on top of AVScript Player — a product, a service, a workflow for your team — we’d love to hear from you.
No legal threats. No demands. Just a conversation.
The world is small and life is short. It’s always better to know who’s building in the same space than to stumble across each other on the internet one day. Maybe we collaborate. Maybe we simply cheer each other on.
Reach out: hello@avscript.tv
For the FCP community
This tool was born in the Final Cut Pro ecosystem. It will always be home there first.
If you build on top of AVScript Player, we’d love to know. If you have feature requests, open an issue on GitHub. If you want to contribute — welcome.
The story isn’t over. It’s just getting started.
→ avscript.tv
→ github.com/avscript-tv/avscript
— Tomislav Brdjanović, BION.TV