A Delivery Spec Sheet With Every Master
A signed one-pager for codec, luma range, loudness, captions, textless and checksum, so the master the client accepts is the file you send.
A folder of files is not a delivery. A folder plus a one-page spec the client initials is a delivery. Without the sheet, every later argument about codec, range, loudness or missing textless starts after the invoice, which is the expensive place to have it.
This is not a UGC creator spec. Aspect ratios, safe zones and filename patterns that make a media buyer happy live in the UGC delivery spec that earns repeat orders. Broadcast and brand finishing need a different document: container and codec, luma range, loudness target, caption files, a textless, a checksum, and a signature. The sheet travels with the master. If the file and the sheet disagree, the sheet wins until someone issues a change order.
What the one-pager has to name
Write facts, not adjectives. "Broadcast quality" is not a spec. These fields are.
| Field | What you write | What "TBD" costs |
|---|---|---|
| Programme title and version | Title, duration, language, version (texted / textless / social cut) | The client QC's the wrong file |
| Frame rate and raster | e.g. 1920×1080, 25 fps, progressive, 1.0 pixel aspect | A conform, or judder on a mixed-rate timeline |
| Container and codec | Named flavour, profile, chroma, bit depth | "ProRes" is not a flavour. "Apple ProRes 422 HQ" is |
| Colour | Primaries, transfer, matrix, range (narrow or full) | A grade that shifts on their monitor |
| Audio | Channel layout, sample rate, bit depth, loudness standard and number | A mix that fails QC or sounds quiet on their air |
| Captions | Format, language, burned-in or sidecar, file names | They burn what you already burned, or they have nothing to ingest |
| Textless | Matching-duration textless, or textless-at-tail with a stated length | They cannot localise titles without calling you |
| Checksum | SHA-256 of the exact file you sent | A truncated download becomes your problem |
| Provenance | Whether credentials or other manifests are attached | They strip them on ingest and the gap has no owner |
Copy the client's named flavour onto the sheet when they have one. Some UK clients will say AS-11. Do not translate a named flavour into a codec you prefer. If they have no flavour, propose one on the sheet and get it signed. Silence is not agreement.
Versely's default video frame rate is 25 fps. Write 25 on the sheet if that is what you generated and finished. Write 24 only if you conformed to 24 and checked the result. Mixing rates inside one delivery package is a QC fail even when each file plays.
Codec, luma range and loudness are three different questions
Codec is how the bits are packed. Range is how those bits map to light. Loudness is a property of the audio essence, not of the picture. People collapse all three into "is it broadcast legal." QC labs do not.
Codec. Name the flavour the downstream system will ingest. An editor handoff can be a mezzanine such as ProRes 422 HQ or DNxHR HQX; that is a finishing file, covered in handing generated clips to a human editor. An air master is whatever the broadcaster or brand CMS named. A social cut is usually an 8-bit H.264 or H.265 MP4, and it is a different deliverable, not a substitute for the master. If you only have the social encode, you do not have a master.
Luma range. Narrow (studio / legal) range for HD Rec.709 is 16–235 in 8-bit and 64–940 in 10-bit, the digital levels used with Recommendation ITU-R BT.709. Full range is 0–255 / 0–1023. A file tagged full and treated as narrow crushes blacks and clips highlights. A file tagged narrow and treated as full looks washed out. Put the word "narrow" or "full" on the sheet. Do not write "Rec.709" and assume range is implied. It is not.
Loudness. Name the standard and the number. EBU R 128 targets −23.0 LUFS with a true-peak ceiling of −1 dBTP. ATSC A/85 uses −24 LKFS for US television. Those are not interchangeable on a QC report. Social platforms do not publish an equivalent; treating a forum figure as a standard is how mixes come back "quiet." Loudness normalisation is the measurement, not a platform number to invent. On the sheet, write the standard, the integrated loudness, the true peak, and the named BS.1770 / EBU Tech 3341 meter.
If you are also delivering a 15-second cutdown, R 128 s1 is the short-form document. Put both numbers on the sheet.
Captions, textless and the files around the picture
Burned-in captions and sidecar files are different objects. Burned-in versus SRT and VTT is the split. Versely's caption tools burn text into pixels through the add-captions task. That is the right social deliverable. It is the wrong broadcast caption package, because a QC system that wants a sidecar cannot un-burn pixels.
For a broadcast or brand master, ship:
- Texted picture, no burned captions unless the client asked for a burned legal or ident.
- Sidecar captions in the format they named. If they did not name one, ask. SRT, WebVTT, STL and IMSC are not substitutes for each other at ingest.
- A textless picture of matching duration, or a textless-at-tail if they named a tail length. Superimposed titles, locators, end-card copy and burned legal lines come off. Burned captions come off. Picture and sound stay.
Start the sidecar from a transcript, not from the burned render. Get a video transcript returns the words. Time them, export the named format, and keep the caption file in the same folder as the master. The SRT to VTT converter runs in the browser on the visitor's device if you need that swap. It does not invent timing. If cues are late, that is a timing problem, not a format problem.
Write the caption file names on the sheet. "Captions included" is how a missing .stl becomes a failed delivery two days later. Textless exists so a localisation or a late legal change does not require a new grade. A textless that is twelve frames shorter than the texted master is a new conform, not a version.
Checksum, signature, and what the client is actually signing
Hash the file you send, not the project. SHA-256 of the complete file is enough. Print the digest, the filename, the byte size and the date. The client confirms the received file hashes to the same string. If it does not, resend. You do not "fix it in their copy."
The signature block is three lines:
- Producer: this file matches the fields above.
- Client: these fields are the accepted spec for this version.
- Date and version number.
That signature is what stops a verbal "make it more cinematic" from becoming an unbounded recode after acceptance. A change to codec, range, loudness, captions or textless is a new version and a new sheet. A metadata preservation clause covers what happens when their CMS then transcodes the master and strips credentials. The spec sheet does not replace that clause. It is the technical annex the clause points at.
Rights and likeness sit on a different checklist, not inside this one. Mixing legal clearance into a codec sheet is how both documents get ignored.
Keep the sheet next to the master: TITLE_v003_texted.mov and TITLE_v003_spec.pdf. The version in the filename and the version on the sheet must match. A shot log is for editorial. The spec sheet is for the finished master.
A social package can take one extra row: "Social cut: 1080×1920, 25 fps, 8-bit H.264, burned captions, stereo, mixed to the same loudness standard, no textless." That row is a different file. It is not a licence to skip the master.
FAQ
Does the spec sheet replace the statement of work?
No. The statement of work says you will deliver a master. The sheet says what that master is, for this version, in numbers a QC station can check. If the SOW already names a flavour, the sheet copies those names. If it does not, the sheet is where the flavour gets frozen before you encode.
What if the client has no spec at all?
Propose one on the sheet and send it for initials before you encode. A signed proposal is a spec. An unsigned email that says "whatever you usually do" is how you eat a recode when their intern opens the file in a tool that assumed full-range Rec.709.
Do I need a sheet for a Reels cut?
You need a row that names that cut as a separate deliverable. You do not need to pretend a 9:16 H.264 file is the broadcast master. If the only file you will ever send is the social cut, say so on the sheet so nobody QC's it against an air spec it was never built for.
Who is allowed to sign?
Whoever can accept or reject the file. On a brand job that is usually the producer or the in-house editor, not the person who liked the cut in Slack. If legal still has to see the textless, they are not the spec signatory; they are a condition that the textless exists.