Beat 2.3 · out now

Build the whole story
on one canvas.

Beat is a visual, node based space for writing stories and organizing every idea that builds them: beats, references, characters, and the look of each scene. I made it because I think in pictures as much as in words.

Download for Mac, free See it move

Completely free. Not for sale. No account, no tracking. Your files stay yours.

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Act I · Act II · Act III — every beat, as wide as it plays The shape of the film
1,466downloads and counting
SC 02The canvas

A visual way to write and build a story.

Docs, Notion, Pinterest, chats: a story ends up scattered across five apps. Beat is one infinite board that holds the whole thing, the writing and the ideas and how they connect, where you can see it all at once.

01

Think in nodes, not documents

An infinite visual board where every idea is a node. Beats, notes, characters, locations and props, all as cards you move, group, connect and @mention.

02

Beats that branch

Lay out story moments, link them into a spine, and explore alternate versions side by side, with tones, slug lines, shot type, duration and a live runtime meter. Start from classic structures: three act, the hero's journey, fifteen beats, the story circle.

03

Write it as a document

Writing Mode shows your board as a live written document, side by side with the canvas. Type in the document and the card updates; edit a card and the document follows. Add, reorder and remove beats from either side, all undoable.

SC 03From script to set

One file, from first read to wrap.

Beat carries a film from the written page to the shoot day without leaving the board. Five steps, one project.

01 — The script

Drop a screenplay on the canvas

Drag in a Fountain or Final Draft file, the same script you already have.

02 — The board

The board builds itself

One group per act, one beat per scene, and every character arrives as a card with its name woven into the text.

03 — The shot list

The shot list listens

Link a shot to a beat and its type, description, duration, cast and location flow in live, so the list and the board always agree.

04 — The call sheet

The call sheet writes itself

Give the day its date, location, call time and crew, and Beat prints a proper call sheet with sunrise, the schedule and per-person calls.

05 — The wrap

Wrap the day

One button ends the shoot, shows what is in the can, carries unshot setups to the next day, and prints a wrap report.

SC 04On set

A room for the shoot day itself.

A full screen mode built for the one day when everything happens. One operator runs it while the crew reads the board from across the room.

  • Mark shots done or skipped, step the chosen take, and type observations as they come.
  • A day clock anchors to your call time and says how far ahead or behind you are.
  • A strip on the shot list stacks every shot's estimated minutes from call to wrap, over bands of night, daylight and golden hour, so you can see whether the day fits before you are standing in it.
  • The day can run in a different order than the story without touching the film, and a printable day sheet goes to set in your pocket.
SC 05The Set Plan

The Set Plan.

A full screen, overhead scene planner you attach to any beat. There's no simple way to plan lighting and blocking visually, so I built one that thinks the way a director and DP do on set.

  • Cameras with a real field of view by focal length, and blocking paths with facing at every point.
  • Real fixtures, softbox, fresnel, LED, kino, china ball, practical, with beam falloff, color temperature and intensity.
  • Light that bounces, blocks and passes through bounce cards, flags, diffusion, walls, doors and windows.
  • Every symbol at real-world scale, all 48 of them: a car is 4.5 m, a chair half a metre. Set the room size in metres or feet and export the plan as an image.
SC 06Locations · References · Claude

Three more rooms.

Scout real places, pull references from anywhere, and let Claude work on the project itself. Pick a room.

Scout locations on a map, next to the story.

Drop a real place on a map, pull up street view, and grab the exact angle as a still. Each location lives on the board with your beats and references, so the place and the scene that happens there stay together.

  • Pin any spot on a real map and keep its coordinates with the card.
  • Open street view and capture the exact frame you want straight into the project.
  • A pinned location gets the sun's true path for any day of the year: drag the sun on the graph or right on the map, with golden and blue hour marked on the path itself.
  • A beat carries its planned moment, 16:42, golden hour, and it prints in every document.
Planned 16:42 · Golden hour
SC 07Where we are now

Completely free. Local first.

Free, and never for sale

No price, no business model, no upsell. I built it for myself and I give it away. That is the whole idea.

No account, no tracking

Nothing to sign up for, nothing watched. Open it and work.

You own your files

Every project is a folder on your Mac. Offline and yours, back it up however you like.

One honest heads up: Beat is Mac only. It is signed and notarised by Apple, so it opens like any other Mac app, and the guide below walks you through installing it in a minute.

The story so far.

Beat is young and moving fast. Here is what is live today, and this list grows with every update.

Beat 2.3currentSeptember 2026
  • You can see your selection at any zoom. The ring around a picked card was drawn inside the canvas, so it shrank with the board and vanished long before you were far enough out to want it. It now holds the same thickness on screen whatever the zoom.
  • An image that lands in a card now shows itself. Add one, drop one in from the Vault, or drag one over from another card, and it lights up for a second. In a gallery it also becomes the big picture. Images arrive at the end of the list, where nobody is looking, so a move that worked used to read as a move that failed.
  • Reordering a gallery leaves your chosen picture alone. Dragging thumbnails around never swaps out a hero you pinned on purpose.
  • The gallery grows downward. The thumbnail strip used to scroll sideways, and the only way to move it was to grab the scrollbar, because a two finger swipe pans the board instead. It wraps now and the card just gets taller.
  • The sample project, The Last Roll, exists because someone said plainly that the walkthrough got her in the door but never showed what Beat could do. — Eva Derks
Beat 2.2September 2026
  • Link to Claude actually connects. It was writing itself into one Claude app and not the other, so if you drive Beat from Claude Code it registered nothing at all, silently, with no error to explain it. It sets up both now, and re-points itself every time Beat starts, which fixes the case where you moved Beat to Applications after linking and the connection quietly died pointing at the old place.
  • There is a Test the connection button. It starts the connector for real and tells you how many tools answered. The old screen only told you a setting had been saved, which it kept saying happily while nothing worked.
  • Shift-click adds and removes a card from the selection wherever you click on it. It only worked on the header before, which is the one part of a beat card you are least likely to aim at.
  • Images can leave a gallery. Drag one onto the canvas, or onto another image in the same gallery to reorder. Until now pictures could go into a gallery and never come out.
  • The Vault scrolls down at every thumbnail size. It used to start scrolling sideways once the thumbnails were small enough to fit more columns.
  • Shift-click in the Vault picks several items at once, and dragging one of them brings them all onto the canvas.
Beat 2.1September 2026
  • macOS no longer calls Beat unidentified. The app, and every helper inside it, is signed with a Developer ID, hardened, and notarised by Apple. It opens the way any other Mac app opens, with no warning and no trip through System Settings. — Brett Terpstra
  • Nothing about how Beat works changed in this version. It is the same 2.0.10 you already had, properly signed. That was the whole point.
Beat 2.0August 2026
  • A whole new look: flat, calm surfaces in ink and amber, one rail of tools down the left, and all thirteen card types on one quiet sheet.
  • Writing Mode: your board as a live written document beside the canvas. Type in the document and the card updates; edit a card and the document follows.
  • On set: a full-screen room for the shoot day. Shots marked done or skipped, a chosen take, a day clock against your call time, and a printable day sheet.
  • The call sheet writes itself, and one button wraps the day with a report and carries unshot setups to tomorrow.
  • Drop a Fountain or Final Draft screenplay on the canvas and it becomes the board: acts as groups, scenes as beats, characters as cards.
  • The shot list listens to your beats: type, description, duration, cast and location flow live from the linked beat, so the board, the list, On set and every export agree. — Eli Jackson (Legacy Productions)
  • Sun path: a pinned location gets the sun's true path for any day of the year, and a beat's planned moment prints in every document.
  • The inspector and Elements: press I for everything about the selected card, and a panel where every character, location and prop opens a full profile. — Casey Cross
  • Audio timeline, Sketch cards with a 45-piece stamp library, checklists, and custom fields on beats. — Bert Verlinden, Casey Cross
  • Treatment and Print layout exports: a cover, one section per page, or page frames on the canvas for a print-ready PDF. — Chris Walton (Steyer)
  • Nothing gets lost: failed saves retry until they land, deleted photos survive for undo, and unused files move to a recoverable trash.
  • Claude can build a whole project through MCP: write the beats and groups, place images, build linked shot lists, dress set plans, and check its own work.
V1.5June 2026
  • Location scouting: pin a real place on a map, pull up street view, capture the exact still, and keep every location living on the board with your beats and Set Plan. — Vivien Hackenhaar
  • A big speed pass across the whole app, so it feels noticeably lighter.
  • The Set Plan gets a built in image editor.
  • Production breakdown sheets, and a Fountain screenplay export.
  • A clearer first launch walkthrough, including a zoom tip that now names the mouse gesture, hold Control and scroll. — Dale Dunbar
V1.1June 2026
  • Redesigned node connectors: cursor accurate dragging, correct ports, reliable snap to any beat or group, one to many links, and Resolve style rewire handles, each coloured to its own line.
  • Customize Beat Nodes: choose which fields show on your beats, per project. — Casey Cross
  • A new dark theme, matched to this site: cool slate with a warm amber accent.
  • Smarter Link to Claude: Claude can lay out your canvas and it updates live as Claude edits. Native File and Edit menus restored.
  • Authorship: put your name and a credit line on every export cover.
  • Editable outline: drag to reorder groups and beats, with Auto or Custom ordering.
  • Fuller Word exports: choose what to include, and every card type exports now, notes, galleries, characters, locations, props, palettes and Set Plans. Cleaner, professional pages.
  • 10 new director prompts for AI development: shot lists and coverage, blocking and camera, lighting and mood, shooting order, production breakdowns, continuity audits, comparables, pitch decks, and a full screenplay pass.
  • Import spreadsheets: drop an .xlsx or .csv onto the canvas and read it as a table.
  • Faster, more reliable Set Plan: native offline rendering, a redesigned subject icon, and a fixed Word export freeze.
  • Cleaner toolbar: grouped controls with a tidy overflow menu.
V1.0June 2026
  • First public release of Beat.
  • Universal build: runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
  • Shared as a .dmg, and free from the first day: no account, no tracking.
  • The full canvas: story beats that branch, references from almost any link, characters and locations.
  • The Set Plan: an overhead lighting and blocking planner with real cameras and fixtures.
  • Works with Claude through MCP.
  • Local first and free: no account, no tracking, your projects are folders you own.
  • Exports to Markdown, Word and PDF.
Get in touch, tell me what's missing

Beat is for the community, and the best version of it comes from the people who actually use it. I want your honest take: what helps, what breaks, what's missing. Send it my way and it gets better for everyone.

“I built this tool entirely for myself, and it's completely free. I'm sharing it because I think other people like me could use it too.”

— João Lutz

Beat will always be free. If it helped you, you can buy me a coffee.

Get in touch Instagram
Questions

Common questions.

What Beat is, what it replaces, and how to start, free.

Is Beat really free?

Yes. Beat is completely free, with no account, no tracking, and no upsell, and it is never going to be for sale. I built it for myself and I give it away. It does cost something to stay free: Apple charges 99 dollars a year for the developer account that lets me sign and notarise Beat, which is what makes it install cleanly instead of throwing a warning at you. I pay for it. There is nothing to buy here and there never will be, but that is where the money goes.

Is Beat a free alternative to StudioBinder, Shot Designer or Milanote?

Many people use it that way. Beat puts story beats, references, characters, locations, a shot list that reads from your beats, call sheets, an overhead lighting and blocking diagram and a full shoot-day mode on one visual canvas, and it imports Fountain and Final Draft screenplays, so it covers a lot of what people reach for paid tools like StudioBinder, Shot Designer or Milanote to do, without a subscription.

There is another Mac app called Beat. Which one do I want?

Both are free, both are Mac, and his came first. Beat by Lauri-Matti Parppei is a screenplay editor. You write the script in it, in Fountain, and it does that properly. If writing the screenplay is what you need, that is the one to get.

This Beat starts after the script exists. It plans the production around it: the story as connected cards on a canvas, a shot list that reads live from those beats, set plans drawn at real world scale, locations that know the sun’s path on any date, call sheets that write themselves, and a full screen mode for the shoot day. It reads Fountain and Final Draft so a script written anywhere, including in his Beat, becomes a board here in one drop.

Different jobs, same unfortunate name. Plenty of people will want both.

What is the Set Plan?

An overhead scene planner you attach to any beat. It has cameras with a real field of view by focal length, real fixtures like softbox, fresnel, LED and china ball, and light that bounces, blocks and diffuses through cards, flags, walls and windows. Every symbol is drawn at real-world scale, a car is 4.5 m and a chair is half a metre. It is a proper lighting and blocking diagram you can export as an image.

Does Beat use AI?

It connects to Claude through MCP, so the AI works on your real project rather than copied and pasted text. In 2.0 it can build a whole project: create it, write the beats and groups, place images, build linked shot lists, dress set plans and export treatments, and it checks its own work for errors. It is optional, and Beat works fully without it.

What can I export?

A zip of all your media in tidy folders, a Markdown file of the whole project with prompts built in for any AI chat, a Word document organized exactly as you built it, and PDF overviews and storyboards. Version 2.0 adds call sheets, wrap reports, printable day sheets, a treatment export and a print-ready page layout, alongside the shot list, production breakdown sheets and Fountain screenplay export from before.

Does it run on my Mac?

Yes. Beat is a universal app that runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, on modern macOS. It is signed and notarised by Apple, so it installs the way any other Mac app does: download, drag to Applications, open. No warning, no right click, no trip through System Settings, and no Apple account needed.

How do I plan a film shoot for free with Beat?

Download it, then drop your story beats onto the canvas, or drop a screenplay and let the board build itself. Pin references next to them, add your characters and locations, build a Set Plan for the shots you want staged a specific way, and let the shot list read from your beats. Beat writes the call sheet, you run the day from On set, and one button wraps it with a report. It is all free.

Partnerships

Free for filmmakers. Open to partners.

Beat is free for everyone who uses it, and it always will be. Beyond that, I am looking for partners, sponsors and investors to help it grow, I am open to building custom versions of Beat for the institutions and teams that want them, and I would love to connect Beat with the tools filmmakers already use. If any of this sounds like you, let's talk.

Education institutions

I would love to build custom versions of Beat for film schools and education programs, shaped around how you teach and made for your students.

Production companies

A custom Beat for production teams, with cloud based project storage where anyone on the production can explore the board, gather insights and stay in sync.

Integrations

If you run a tool filmmakers already use, from reference and image libraries to design and storyboard apps, let's connect it with Beat so they work together. I think there is something good here for both of us.

Sponsors and investors

If you want to back where Beat is going, as a sponsor, an investor or a partner, I would love to hear from you.

If that sounds like you, write to me directly and let us figure out something good.

SC 08Download

Get Beat. It's free.

Native macOS · no account · always free, never for sale.

Download Beat for Mac Free · universal app for Apple Silicon and Intel · downloads straight from this site, then follow the steps below 1,466downloads and counting

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Installing it takes about a minute

Installing Beat

Beat is signed and notarised by Apple, so it opens like any other Mac app. It is free, it runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, and there is nothing to work around.

Step 1. Download Beat and drag it to Applications

  1. Click the button above. Beat.dmg downloads straight from this site, about 60 MB.
  2. Open your Downloads folder and double click Beat.dmg. A window opens showing the Beat app next to an Applications shortcut.
  3. Drag Beat onto the Applications folder in that window.

Step 2. Open it

Double click Beat in your Applications folder. That is it. No warning, no right click, no trip through System Settings. Beat is notarised by Apple, so your Mac simply opens it.

Something went wrong?

If your Mac says the file is damaged, the download did not finish, or something re-compressed it on the way. Download Beat.dmg again. A fresh copy fixes it almost every time.

Still stuck? Email me at beat@joaolutz.com and I will personally help you get it running.