Bunker Studios LLC
Written by Grant DeSimone, Co-Founder, Bunker Studios LLC
Bunker Studios LLC
Documentary Film Production
Managing a growing video library (120TB of footage) with a small post production team
AI-powered video automation pipeline with searchable metadata
Search time reduced from hours to seconds – Our editors can find specific moments across 120TB in under a minute
What used to require manual logging now happens automatically overnight
Automatically identifies and groups appearances of key subjects across hundreds of hours of footage
I can now maintain, troubleshoot, and extend the system independently
As a small production company focused on amplifying working people's voices, Bunker Studios shoots documentary-style content 40+ days per year across job sites, rallies, and conferences. We'd accumulated 120TB of ProRes 422 footage over three years, growing by 4TB daily during production.
Our six-person team was drowning in media management. Finding specific moments meant hours of manual scrubbing. We knew AI could help, but as a "vibe coder" with more ambition than expertise, I'd already burned time on dead-end attempts trying to piece together open-source tools myself.
Tom and Andy at Luma Digital brought exactly what we needed: professional software development expertise paired with a collaborative approach. More than a black-box solution – they included me at every stage, teaching me the architecture and logic behind each component.
Their consultancy model was perfect for us. Rather than delivering a finished product we couldn't maintain, they built WITH us, ensuring we understood every piece of the pipeline.
A robust metadata extraction system that processes our footage through seven stages: Automatic video registration and technical metadata extraction, speech-to-text transcription with timestamps, face detection and clustering for identifying recurring subjects, and searchable "scene descriptions" using computer vision technology.
A PostgreSQL database with pgvector extension that seamlessly integrates our on-premise storage with cloud services, making our entire library searchable while keeping costs manageable.
A web UI that lets our editors query our database using plain English – "Find all interviews with union organizers in Philadelphia" actually works now.
Tom and Andy treated this as a true collaboration. They spent half their contracted hours working directly in our studio, ensuring the solution fit our actual workflow. They explained not just the "how" but the "why" behind every architectural decision.
Most importantly, they provided the guardrails that kept an ambitious project from going off the rails. When I wanted to add every possible AI feature, they helped focus on what would actually deliver value for our team.
Luma Digital validated our concept and built working prototypes. The full implementation investment has already paid for itself in time savings. More importantly, they left us with a system we understand and can evolve as our needs grow. If you're a small production company looking to leverage AI without getting lost in the hype, Luma Digital delivers real, practical solutions with the knowledge transfer to make them sustainable.
"Luma Digital validated our concept and built working prototypes. The full implementation investment has already paid for itself in time savings. More importantly, they left us with a system we understand and can evolve as our needs grow."
Grant DeSimone
Co-Founder, Bunker Studios LLC
Let's discuss how we can help you achieve similar results.