Way back in 2007 I speculated on what I thought would be a cool feature in Final Cut Pro  (via a Software from the Future post): the ability to designate a folder as a Watch Folder. The idea was that if you moved a new piece of media into the folder FCP was watching, say a new piece of music in your music folder on a media drive, FCP would automatically import the music into your FCP project.

It appears that may finally be a reality. A company called e-Postprod has just introduced a product they call e-Watcher. From the looks of their YouTube demo, it sort of provides that FCP watch folder I was after.

I wish this had come out a few years ago, before FCPX came along and started to push many editors away from FCP altogether. Version 2.1 of e-Watcher, however, only works with Final Cut Pro 7 (and Mac OS X Snow Leopard or higher), so if that’s still your editor of choice, this could be a very useful tool. The price for e-Watcher on its site is 69 Euros, so you’ll have to do that conversion if buying in the States. Unfortunately, there’s no free demo available either. There’s a FAQ that provides a few more details about e-Watcher, though I must say I don’t really agree with the list of file types “that are commonly handled by Final Cut Pro.”  I wouldn’t say it commonly or properly handles things like MP3s, AVIs, and 3GPs. That says to me that e-Watcher will throw pretty much any file into FCP regardless of FCP’s ability to properly play it back. Even so, it looks like it could come in very handy in a lot of situations. Version 2.1 works with Mas OS X

The company, e-Postprod, says it makes “innovative plugins for Final Cut Pro editing software…thinking as editors, developing as engineers.” As of this writing e-Watcher also appears to be the company’s first and only product. But with tag lines like those, I sure hope they produce more. Let’s just hope they branch out beyond Final Cut Pro 7.