Questions, answered plainly.
What the product does today, and what it does not. If your question is not here, write to us.
The product
- What is ReelStorage?
- Asset management for film and TV stills and video. Photographers upload from set, the cast is tagged and approves their frames, and the press kit goes out with every download logged. One place, from the shoot to delivery.
- Who is it for?
- Studio photo labs and publicity teams, the unit photographers who shoot for them, and the talent reps who approve the frames.
- How is it different from cloud storage?
- Cloud storage holds files. ReelStorage knows what a frame is: who is in it, who approved it, what the credit is, and who downloaded it. Approvals, kill rights, watermarks and IPTC credit are built in rather than handled over email.
- Can I try it first?
- Yes. Free is 5 GB to try it. Rosie and the API are on paid plans.
- Which file formats work?
- Stills in JPEG, PNG, TIFF and RAW, with the RAW, JPEG and sidecar kept together as one frame. Video uploads play in the browser as a 1080p copy with thumbnails and a scrub preview.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. The app runs in a phone browser, and the approval pages for talent are built for it.
Plans
- How does pricing work?
- By storage, billed monthly. Starter is 500 GB, Professional 2 TB, Studio 5 TB, and Enterprise starts at 20 TB on its own contract. The three plans differ by storage, nothing else.
- Is there a charge per person?
- No. Plans are priced by storage. An organization can have up to 100 members.
- Can I change plans?
- Yes, from billing settings. Moving up applies at once. Moving down applies at the end of the billing period.
- What happens when I reach my storage limit?
- You get a notice at 80 and 90 percent. At the limit, uploads pause until you move up a plan or free some space. Everything already uploaded stays available.
Security
- How are the frames protected?
- Encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is by project, with granular permissions per member. Downloads, approvals, permission changes and shares are logged with who did it and when.
- Is there two-factor sign-in?
- Yes, with an authenticator app or a passkey. An organization can require it for every member, with a grace period to set it up. Organizations can also sign in through their own identity provider and require that instead.
- Who can download originals?
- Download is a permission you grant per member. Delivery links carry a passcode and expire after 7 days. A visible watermark with the viewer's name can be turned on per member or per approval link.
- Is there an audit trail?
- The activity log records uploads, downloads, approvals, metadata edits, permission changes and shares. Downloads are logged; views are not.
- Where are the files stored?
- Encrypted at rest with the storage provider listed on the sub-processors page, along with every other provider that touches your data.
- Are uploads scanned?
- Every image is scanned before it appears in the project, and anything flagged is quarantined. Video is not scanned.
- Is ReelStorage certified?
- TPN Gold Shield certified, and aligned to MPA Content Security v5.3.1. Talk to us for the details a studio security review needs.
Approvals
- How do talent approvals work?
- Pick the frames, set the share a cast member must keep, and send the link. They sign in with a code and a passcode, approve or kill each frame, and finalize. A kill that would break the floor is stopped on screen.
- Does talent need an account?
- No account to create. A code and a passcode, sent in two separate emails, so one leaked email is not enough.
- What happens to a killed frame?
- The kill is recorded against the frame and shows wherever it appears, with who killed it and when.
- Can I send approvals to several cast members?
- Yes. One link per cast member, each with its own code and its own progress.
- Can talent download the frames?
- No. Talent see the stills you chose for them, with no download and no video.
Tagging and filing
- How do I organize thousands of frames?
- Folders by day, one level deep. Collections for picks, without copies. Tags for people, objects and locations. IPTC fields on every frame, applied at upload from a template or in bulk later.
- How does face tagging work?
- Faces in photos are grouped by person. Name a group once and every frame in it is tagged. Later uploads join on a clear match and the rest wait as suggestions. Nothing is tagged until you name the group, and it is photos only.
- What can I search?
- Inside a project: names, keywords, creator, description, tags, approval status, folder, camera, lens and ISO. A plain description of the shot is ranked by what is in the frame. The URL is your saved search.
- Can I edit in bulk?
- Yes. Select the frames and change metadata, apply tags, rename or move them in one pass. There is no undo; the log records what changed and who ran it.
- What is IPTC metadata?
- The standard press and archives read: title, caption, credit, copyright, location and more. ReelStorage embeds it in JPEG, PNG, TIFF and DNG exports and writes a sidecar for other RAW files.
Delivery
- How do I send frames to people outside the team?
- Export a collection or a selection. Each recipient gets their own link and passcode by email. The link expires after 7 days, and each download is logged with a count and the last time.
- How do watermarks work?
- Visible text with the viewer's name, tiled over the image. Off by default; turn it on per member or per approval link. Originals are never changed. Photos only.
- What are upload links?
- A link for one photographer with a six-digit passcode. They upload without an account; your team still signs in. Images are scanned on the way in.
- When do links expire?
- Approval and upload links expire when you choose, or never. Delivery links expire 7 days after the export.
- How do I build a press kit?
- Collect the approved frames and export them. Credit and copyright travel in the files unless you choose to strip metadata.
Rosie
- What is Rosie?
- A chat-based asset manager inside ReelStorage. Ask in plain English to find, organize or bulk-edit frames in a project. Rosie shows the proposed change before anything runs, and every action lands in the activity log.
- Does Rosie train on our photos or video?
- No. Only metadata is sent: filenames, tags, descriptions, IPTC fields and folder structure. The provider is contractually barred from training on it. Photos, video and audio never leave ReelStorage.
- What does Rosie see?
- Metadata for the project you have open, your active filter and the frames you have selected. Never the pixels, and nothing outside that project.
- Can we turn Rosie off?
- Rosie is off until an organization owner turns it on, and is not on the free plan. Once on, each person's existing permissions apply.
- Does Rosie change things without asking?
- No. Every write is proposed first with the count of frames, the field and the new value. Nothing runs until you confirm.
- What can Rosie not do?
- Delete anything, generate or restyle images or copy, reach outside the open project, or send email. Those stay in the regular interface.
- How long are conversations kept?
- Thirty days, then deleted after a short grace window. The log of what Rosie did stays with the project.
Technical
- Which browsers work?
- Current Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, on desktop and phone.
- Can I take my files out?
- Yes. Export any selection as a ZIP with the metadata embedded. The frames and their metadata are yours.
- Does it handle video?
- Upload, play in the browser, thumbnails and a scrub preview. No watermark and no face tagging on video.
- Does ReelStorage have an API?
- Yes, on every paid plan. An organization owner issues a key and narrows it to the actions it needs. Scripts can list, upload, tag and send for approval the same frames the app shows, and the changes a key makes are in the activity log. The reference and guides are at reelstorage.com/docs/api.
Tell us what you're shooting next.
Start with one title. Upload a shoot, bring its metadata in from a CSV, and confirm the cast. Then decide.
A person on our team reads it and writes back.