The Master Guide / 00 Start here
The production path
A film moves through eight stages in a fixed order, and each stage ends at a gate before the next begins (decided).
A film moves through eight stages in a fixed order, and each stage ends at a gate before the next begins (decided).
Stage | What happens | The client sees | Read |
Stage 00 | Project setup: the folder, file names, the three project files | Nothing | |
Stage 01 | The brief and meeting prep | 1. The Detailed Brief | |
Stage 02 | Creative concepts: two or three whole concepts, ranked | 2. The concept presentation | |
Stage 03 | The director's treatment, with casting and storyboard | 3. The treatment, with its storyboard | |
Stage 04 | The plan: shots, generations, assets, estimate | Nothing | |
Stage 05 | Anchors: characters, places, products, props, styles and voices | 4. The anchors presentation | |
Stage 06 | Video, audio and the rough cut | 5. The rough-cut page | 07 · Video with Seedance → How a shot is made; 08 Cinematography; 09 Performance; 10 · Speaking shots and lip sync → Choosing the route per shot; 11 · Editing → Voices locked before picture and before the cut; 12 · Music → The music brief |
Stage 07 | Finishing and delivery | 6. The final film page with its versions |
Stage numbers (Stage 00 to Stage 07) count the steps of a production; chapter numbers (00 to 18) count the Guide's chapters. The two don't line up: Stage 05 (Anchors), for example, is taught in chapter 06.
The gates. Every stage ends with a short gate report that keeps apart what was measured, what was seen, what a tool reported and what only you can judge (see The quality bar → The gate report). Hard stops fail an item whatever else is good (see The quality bar → The hard stops). The client approves at Stages 02, 03, 05, 06 and 07; you approve the rest.
The order rules are taught in The stages and gates → The stage chain and its order rules. The three that shape every schedule:
no production video before the client approves the anchors;
voices lock before the anchors presentation;
the video budget is confirmed after the client approves the anchors.