The Master Guide / 01 How a production runs · The quality bar
The gate report
Every stage ends with a short gate report. It keeps apart what was measured, what was seen, what a tool said, and what only watching and listening can judge.
Every stage ends with a short gate report. It keeps apart what was measured, what was seen, what a tool said, and what only watching and listening can judge.
What a gate checks (decided): the work against the brief and the core it locks, every approved decision so far, the references the stage relied on, and every client note and note of yours. Each known issue is either resolved or listed as open, with what it blocks.
Never claim a check that wasn't made (decided). A check that couldn't run is written "not checked", with the reason. A report that says "looks good" about a clip nobody has watched is rewritten.
Who checked what, in four parts (decided):
Part | What it holds |
Measured | Numbers from a measuring tool: a tracker's curves, a loudness meter, a transcript, a frame count. They report; they don't judge taste |
Seen and read | Checks on still frames at 100%, contact sheets and documents, each compared with the anchor, the plan, the brand artwork or the brief |
Reported by a tool | A video-understanding tool's report, quoted as the tool's words |
For you to judge | What can only be judged watching and listening at speed: motion, acting, voice, music, the mix, dialect by ear (only a dialect that is your own, and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA); any other goes to its native reviewer, see The brief and research → Dialect rules), and the final approval |
The format (decided):
Gate: {stage or asset}, {date}
Checked against: {brief · project decisions · references · client notes, round N · your notes}
Measured: {tool}: {result with numbers}, {pass / fail / reported, no pass mark}
Seen and read: {what, at what size, against what}: {verdict}
Reported by a tool: {tool}: "{short quote}"
For you to judge: {motion, acting, voice, music, mix, your own dialect by ear; on a rough cut, the four jury lenses}
Failed and fixed: {what failed, the named cause, the change, the re-check}
Still open: {issue: what it blocks: proposed fix}
Not checked: {check: why}
Hard stops: {hands and touch points · faces · lips · labels · Arabic}: {pass / fail / not applicable}
Save it beside the stage's work, named by stage number and date (gate-05-2026-11-20.md for Stage 05).
Example (a perfume film's anchors). Seen and read: six character-sheet panels cropped at 100% beside the casting close-ups, profile included, pass except panel 3, where the ring she never removes is missing. Reference bar: the rooftop master beside the treatment's light reference is weaker on light (flat, no fall-off), so it was remade with a low sun raking from frame left. Failed and fixed: the ring, which the prompt's keep list had left out; one model edit added it, with the close-up re-attached, and the re-check passed. For you to judge: the three voices by ear. Not checked: the voice wording by transcript, because transcription was not set up.
When a gate fails (decided): name the failure and its level (the anchor, the prompt, the method or the plan) before changing anything, and change one named thing per attempt. Then apply the stop rules (see Planning, budgets and takes → The stop rules):
the same failure twice means the diagnosis was wrong;
stop at the shot's budget ceiling;
never spend a take on the same unresolved problem;
a shot that keeps failing waits for the next batch review, with its diagnosis and the budget left.
A method problem that tempts a change to an approved decision is a decision, not a fix: the project file changes only by your decision or the client's.
Sources
This Guide's own method.