Handling notes

A note is acted on exactly as far as it reaches. Everything it doesn't mention stays as it was.

Client rounds (decided):

1. As many rounds as the project needs. Each send's cover message says what the next step includes and how many rounds were agreed for it.

2. Read the send log before any note, so each note is matched to the version the client actually saw (see The stages and gates → Approvals and the send log). A rough cut carries "ROUGH CUT — Version N" on the video, so every screenshot maps to a version.

3. Log every note before acting on it, one row per point, numbered as the client numbered them: who and when, their exact words (or the voice-note transcript), your plain reading, the exact element it touches, and its type. The element is a thing you can point to: a scene, a frame by position ("scene 3, second frame"), a line, a department, an asset. Never "the look" or "the edit".

4. Types: clear (one reading); unclear (it needs a question); conflict (with another note, the brief, an approved decision or one of your standing rules).

Acting on them (decided):

• Clear: change only the named element. Angles, lenses, blocking, light, shot count, timings and wording stay exactly as they were.

• Unclear: send one short question with your suggested reading ("We read this as … Is that right?"). Never act on a guess.

• Conflicting, or clashing with a standing rule ("less movement" against the moving-camera default): you decide, with each reading and what it would change written out side by side. Nobody on the team settles it alone, and a client note never silently outranks a standing rule.

• A partial approval ("approved except scene 3") locks the named parts only; the rest is worked and the approved parts are not touched.

Your own notes [proven for the scope line]. When you note your team's work, or your own, write the scope in one line before anything changes: "Change only {element, by name and position} in {asset, version}: {what changes}. Everything else, including {the nearest things not mentioned}, stays as it is." Then change exactly that asset, panel or place. Never widen a note to other assets, and never rebuild approved work. If a note can be read two ways, settle the reading before work starts.

Notes from a batch review (decided): one scope line per note, grouped by shot in plan order. A note that names a scene or the whole film ("more camera life in every interior") applies to exactly those shots. If a note touches an approved decision (a scene's length, the look, a casting choice) or clashes with a standing rule, settle that first, before any spend. A shot you mark as kept is a keeper: nothing more is made for it. At the next batch review, check every note off: done, or why not yet.

Before the new version goes out: check it against every logged note and against the last version sent, page by page and frame by frame. From the second send of a stage, add a "Your notes" page: each client point, in their numbering, beside what changed; points they marked OK listed as kept; with a partial approval, the open parts listed and the approved parts stated as kept. Then run the pre-send check and write the gate report (see Client presentations → The rhythm check and the pre-send check and The quality bar → The gate report).

Sources

• Marketing Week on the BetterIdeas Project.

• The IPA's tips for tissue meetings (show at the next stage how each piece of feedback was acted on).

• Antfood on element-level feedback.