The director's cut and the client's rough cut

Judge the cut and the music yourself first, on an internal page; then send the client one rough cut with the chosen music (decided).

The director's cut (internal, never sent)

• the cut once per music option, each a finished film with that option mixed in, fitted to 14 MB or less, with a switcher so one plays at a time;

• under the player, one line per option: its direction, length, measured hit points and level under speech;

• a private page marked "working, never send". No PDF.

Work your own notes exactly as scoped: change only what you named (see The stages and gates → Handling notes). Repeat the assembly, the editorial pass and the checks until you approve the cut and the music.

The client's rough cut

• the chosen music only, labelled "ROUGH CUT — Version N", where N counts the sends of the rough cut to the client; a new file name per send;

• 14 MB or less on the page; if it can't fit at good quality, a poster with a Drive link;

• a page in plain English, under your name, with nothing internal: no takes, options, music switcher, prompts, tools or costs. Say "approve the edit", never "picture lock";

• a new link per send, with a PDF of the same version as the record (see Client presentations → A new link per send); the cover message stays a draft until you send it yourself (see The stages and gates → Approvals and the send log).

Before it goes, run the checks for any video page (see The quality bar → Per-stage gates and the four jury lenses), and confirm the render's frame count equals the sequence's length.

The approval line, in these words: "When you approve this cut, the shots and their timing are fixed. Next we finish the colour, sound and graphics." Silence or an emoji is no answer.

Client notes are worked as The stages and gates → Handling notes sets out, each matched to the version and timecode the client saw (the "ROUGH CUT — Version N" label on the video names the version). A note that changes a core element of the brief is the client's right (see The stages and gates → Writing for the client). After the client approves the edit, any change to shots or timing is your decision before anything moves.

Sources

• From standard agency approval practice: one version per send, notes matched to what the client saw.