The Master Guide / 01 How a production runs · The stages and gates
The stage chain and its order rules
A film moves through eight stages in a fixed order, Stage 00 to Stage 07, and no stage starts until the one before it is approved.
A film moves through eight stages in a fixed order, Stage 00 to Stage 07, and no stage starts until the one before it is approved.
Stage | The work | What the client sees | Approved by, before the next stage |
Stage 00 | Project setup: the folder, file names, the three project files | Nothing | You |
Stage 01 | The brief and meeting prep | The Detailed Brief, with its "Questions for our meeting" page | You, before the meeting; the client's answers go into the project file |
Stage 02 | Creative concepts: two or three whole concepts, ranked | The concept presentation | The client chooses one |
Stage 03 | The director's treatment, with casting and storyboard | The treatment presentation | The client approves the plain pages; you lock the exact department values |
Stage 04 | The plan: shots, generations, assets, estimate | Nothing | You |
Stage 05 | Anchors: character, location, product, prop and style sheets, and voices | The client, before any production video | |
Stage 06 | Video, audio and the rough cut | The rough-cut page | Your director's cut first, then the client approves the edit |
Stage 07 | Finishing and delivery | The final film page and the files | The client approves every version |
"Anchors" are the approved images every shot is made from: the character sheets, location plates, product photos and prop sheets (see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → What an anchor is). "The plan" is your internal shot plan, made at Stage 04 (Plan): every shot with its timing and method, the assets it needs, and the estimate (see Planning, budgets and takes).
The order rules (decided):
No production video before the client approves the anchors. The only earlier video is two internal checks of one asset each: the face motion test of a candidate face, before the treatment goes out, and the place motion check of a candidate place, before the anchors presentation. Neither is ever shown. A face or a place can win as a still and lose in motion (see Writing the treatment → Face motion tests and Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → The place motion check).
Voices lock before the anchors presentation. Voice casting and line recording start when the treatment is approved, beside the plan, each batch on its own estimate. Voices lock before the anchors presentation, while image work goes on. A speaking shot waits for its approved voice.
Presentation stills may be made from Stage 01 (Brief) on.
The video budget is confirmed after the client approves the anchors.
Video goes in batches you review at once: first a sample batch, one shot per scene with two 480p drafts of each, reviewed together; then production batches, in which each remaining shot gets one new take in each batch (see Planning, budgets and takes → The generation rhythm).
A new production round opens only when you approve a new pass. Small retakes stay in the current round.
After the client approves the edit, you decide any change to shots or timing before anything moves.
Silence is never approval. No reply, an emoji or "looks nice" leaves the stage open.
Ways in. Every job opens with setup (Stage 00), but not every job runs the whole chain. Every way in keeps the core of the client's brief exactly as written (see The stages and gates → Writing for the client).
What arrives | The route | What is different |
A raw brief: one line, a page, a PDF, voice notes, references that disagree | Setup, then the full chain | Nothing |
An agency brief with a concept already written | Setup, then the brief stage, then a refinement pass at the concepts stage (one concept, no new ones), then the treatment | The project file is filled from the agency's documents, each line marked "taken from the client's document". The script's lines, structure and core are copied letter for letter (see The idea → Refining an agency's concept) |
An agency brief that fixes the scenario (place, characters, a device, the end line) but has no script | Setup, then the brief stage, then the treatment, then the plan | The brief stage locks the scenario's fixed elements letter for letter. The treatment develops only art direction, production design and camera inside them. Whether a loosely worded element is locked is asked at setup |
An approved treatment | Setup, then the brief's intake only (read everything, copy the locked items, the first language decisions), then the plan | No Detailed Brief unless you want one. Anything the plan needs that the treatment leaves open (exact department values, casting) is made as at the treatment stage and approved by you before the plan |
A project that paused, or runs in another folder layout | The stages and gates → Project files and folders, "Coming back after a pause" | Nothing an existing edit timeline uses moves unless you decide to move it |
The intake steps are in The brief and research → Read it all, copy the locked items.
Sources
This Guide's own order of work.