The Master Guide / 07 Video with Seedance · Judging and fixing takes
Take selection and review
Judge every take against the treatment, the anchors and the plan's intent, never a storyboard. The take that passes becomes the keeper, the one used in the film.
Judge every take against the treatment, the anchors and the plan's intent, never a storyboard. The take that passes becomes the keeper, the one used in the film.
The bar is the motion standard (decided): every shot stunning and dynamic next to the treatment, the anchors and the plan, with camera, acting, body, hair, hands, face, the product's texture and light moving together; each shot distinct in acting and camera, yet fitting the rest. A slow or static camera where the plan wants motion fails, whatever else holds. A named lock is judged as a lock, with the talent and the place still alive.
Measure the camera over the window you will use (the part of the take that plays in the cut), from takes you made anyway, and set the delivered figure beside the written dose; it is not a pass mark. Note any stall, drift on a lock, whether the camera still moves in the last half second when the cut is in motion, and, on a truck or arc, whether the background layers part or slide as one card. How to read the figures from a take: Camera and lens → Measuring the dose on the sample batch.
Frames every 0.5 s (steps below): counts, sides, eyelines, reaction timing, cut points. Judge the first and last frames of the window you use as stills: a nameable lens, one motivated source, controlled edges.
Full size, on the 1080p finish: faces beside the identity close-up at the same height (a beautified face fails); hands, a hard stop (see The quality bar → The hard stops); labels, every frame.
Effects, a frozen background, extras in sync (see Making it feel real → The "too perfect" tells).
Against the reference on its five points, with a video-understanding report (see The quality bar → The reference bar and The quality bar → Judging motion honestly). A take weaker on two of the five points is not a keeper; it gets a diagnosed retake.
Judge it like an actor's take: reject overacting on the last beat, wrong energy, a needless head movement, a smile against the mood. Where a face reads, the performance point [best available, not yet validated]: right size; the listener listens; reactions on their clock; behaviour, not announced emotion; comedy played straight; a key expression change reads as a thought, not a pose. A face too small to judge is inconclusive, not a pass.
A take ledger by beat: the opening of one take, the wide of another, each with its in- and out-points. Write notes as "I saw , so I would ". Your eye is final on motion and acting.
The client standard for the video stage
The video stage is judged on the rough cut, in three columns (see The quality bar → Per-stage gates and the four jury lenses). Craft juries set the award bar, and they judge execution first. Solid is your minimum. A rule you have decided sits in the Solid column, so missing it fails the cut.
Criterion | Fails | Solid | Award-level |
Motion and acting | A camera weaker than its planned move, or a locked shot that drifts; a frozen camera through a speaking line; jerky or robotic entrances; a head tilt or flying hair with no cause; a shot that does nothing | Every shot stunning and dynamic next to the treatment, the anchors and the plan, with camera, acting, body, hair, hands, face, the product's texture and light moving together; each shot distinct in acting and camera, yet fitting the rest; speaking shots carry a gentle, motivated move; the camera does what the plan chose and ends as the planned cut needs | The move itself carries the idea |
Identity | "A different person" | The same person in every shot where the face reads | Identity holds through turns, profiles and expressions, with no visible effort |
Product and continuity | Garbled labels; a doubled logo detail; a product that vanishes between shots, or behaves like the wrong material | The label correct in every product frame; product state and wardrobe carried across cuts as planned | The product behaves like the real thing, and the demonstration persuades |
Hands and physical truth | Wrong hand anatomy; a twisted grip; hair changing form mid-shot | Hands, touch points and contact read naturally at full size (a hard stop); hair moves for a named reason | Physical behaviour true enough to persuade |
Light and effects | Flares, blooms and glows nobody asked for; light used as a transition; materials that light themselves; whites drifting warm or pink | Effects only where the treatment asks; materials reflect real sources; highlights motivated | The light event is the shot's beauty |
Edit rhythm | Rushed pacing; mixed transition styles; undeclared speed changes, zooms or rotation; a hard cut on every line with no sound leading | Real cuts and the planned joins; sound leads where it helps (J and L cuts, where the sound starts before its picture or runs past it; a sound bridge); edit effects declared in the cut list where the treatment calls for them; text has time to be read; the exact length; a button, a short closing beat, at the end | Timing, pace and sound make one whole, in the treatment's style |
Music against the cut | Music chosen on its own; generic; too short and looped; licence unchecked | Three options laid against the cut, or the locked track cut to; key transitions land on the music; licence confirmed | Music, camera and text share one rhythm |
Dialogue and voiceover | Mispronounced letters; drifting lips; a voiceover stretched to fit | Words exact; sync holds at full size; a voiceover fitted by rewriting the line | Sync and performance pass the measured checks and your eye at full size |
The send | The client reviews an older cut without knowing it; a sent link overwritten | A new link per send, the version counted by sends, labelled "ROUGH CUT — Version N" | Every client note maps to a version and a shot without asking |
Do it yourself
Export frames every 0.5 s (ffmpeg)
Export the window at two frames a second with the filter -vf fps=2. The full line, and how to read camera figures from those frames: Camera and lens → Measuring the dose on the sample batch → Do it yourself.