Fast exploration needs stronger gates
AI can produce many directions quickly, which makes it easy to postpone decisions. Present a small number of meaningfully different concepts, document the tradeoffs, and require one selected lane before detailed production begins.
Use three approval stages
Each stage should answer a different question.
- Direction approval: world, tone, casting, product treatment, and reference quality.
- Production approval: selected frames, continuity, copy space, and shot functions.
- Final approval: edits, formats, claims, finishing, and delivery package.
Classify feedback before acting
A correction restores an agreed detail. A refinement improves the selected direction. A new concept changes the approved lane. Naming the difference protects timeline and budget while giving the client a clear path to request additional work.
Traceable review
Project Approval Decision Register
Complete one row at each gate. The register separates an included correction from a changed direction and records which approved assets must be reopened when a decision changes.
| Approval gate | Evidence to review | Approve when | Included correction | New scope signal | Decision record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reference qualification | Approved product, identity, brand, claims, rights, and destination references. | The source pack is complete enough to define what must stay factual and unchanged. | Replace or clarify a missing, conflicting, or unusable source before direction work begins. | A new product, creator, market, rights context, or mandatory claim enters after qualification. | Source version, owner, unresolved limitation, decision, and approval date. |
| Direction approval | A small set of distinct directions with the intended audience, message, world, and asset role. | One direction is selected with written reasons and explicit elements to preserve. | Bring the selected direction back to the agreed brief without changing its central idea. | The audience, offer, campaign world, message, or selected concept changes. | Selected direction, rejected alternatives, approver, conditions, and decision date. |
| First approved master | The first production-ready hero, frame, script, or layout beside the qualified references. | Identity, product facts, composition, copy space, claims, and intended use pass review. | Repair a documented mismatch against the approved direction or source. | A different scene, casting choice, demonstration, visual system, or deliverable is requested. | Asset ID, version, pass conditions, correction notes, owner, and approval date. |
| Variation production | Every requested variant mapped to its master, platform role, ratio, message, and changed variable. | Variations preserve the approved system while performing their named communication jobs. | Restore continuity, factual accuracy, safe cropping, or approved copy in an included variant. | New hooks, formats, scenes, ratios, products, or messages exceed the approved variation plan. | Variant IDs, parent master, change log, review status, and affected deliverables. |
| Final QA and approval | Final-size exports, claims and spelling source, disclosure rules, rights notes, and QA results. | Each deliverable passes its factual, technical, continuity, accessibility, and use checks. | Fix an export or production defect that prevents an approved deliverable from passing. | A previously accepted direction or requirement is reopened for preference rather than defect. | Accepted file, reviewer, failed checks, corrective version, final status, and approval date. |
| Delivery closure | Approved masters, destination exports, manifest, source notes, exclusions, and open-risk log. | The recipient can identify what is approved, where it belongs, and what remains restricted. | Restore a missing, mislabeled, corrupt, or mismatched item already included in the scope. | Additional source files, adaptations, support, destinations, or production work are requested. | Manifest version, delivery location, approval owner, exclusions, and closure date. |
This register supports production decisions. It does not create approval automatically, expand contractual scope, clear rights, validate claims, or replace the named human approver.
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