Finishing and delivery

The last stage: one gentle grade and one texture for the whole film with the product's colour protected, then graphics, captions, every version, the exports and their checks, and the editable timeline that goes with the files.

The grade and texture

Most of a generated film's look is already inside its images. The grade's job is to make the shots belong to one film, add its texture once, and protect the product's colour.

• The colourists' order: Measure the balance, see the whole film, balance the outliers, then the look, then texture, then the product check.

• The balance report: Before any look, measure each shot against the film as a whole, and list the shots that sit apart.

• The colour bible, and you balance: One still per scene, in story order, on one sheet, so you see the film's colour at a glance before you touch it.

• The look as one gentle LUT: One LUT for the whole film, gentle enough to unify and never strong enough to rebuild.

• Texture once: One grain per film, applied once over all live shots, after the look.

• Gate weave, glow and halation: Two more texture choices, each made once for the film and only when the treatment asks for them.

• Protecting the product's colour: The look must not move the product's colour.

• Grade standards: What a finished grade is judged on, from a failed grade to an award-level one.

Graphics, captions, versions and delivery

The last stage turns one approved film into every file the client receives: its graphics and captions, each version, the exports, the checks on every file, and an editable timeline you can open years later.

• Graphics built in code: Every word and brand element on screen is designed and rendered as its own file, never generated inside a shot.

• Built label moments: A label the viewer must read is built from the client's own photo or artwork by default.

• Arabic typesetting and render checks: Arabic type is set by hand and checked letter by letter.

• Captions, Arabic included: Captions come from the approved lines, timed to the final mix, kept editable in the master and burned in only where a delivery needs it.

• Versions: Every version is its own edit, made from the same media.

• 25 fps TV versions by speed-up: A 24 fps film becomes a 25 fps TV version by playing every frame about 4% faster, as European broadcast does.

• Exports and the delivery check: Every file is exported from its own cut, then measured by tools and checked by eye before it leaves.

• The handover: XML and final-film page: The film leaves with an editable timeline file (XML) holding everything, a two-line note on how to open it, and, when it is sent as a page, a clean final-film page.