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Working through the TV Studio stages

Brief, script, storyboard, generation, edit, compliance and publishing metadata - what each stage records and what it refuses.

Updated

A TV Studio production moves through seven stages in order: brief, script, storyboard, generation, edit, compliance and publishing metadata. It can move one step forward at a time, any number of steps back, or be abandoned.

Moving a production is a record of where the work has got to. It is never a claim that a film exists, and only the generation stage needs an engine at all.

BEFORE YOU START

  • A production, created at /app/tv-studio.
  • The "edit" permission to move stages and to record briefs, scripts, shot lists and cuts; "generate" to request a generation; "approve" to record a compliance review; "publish" to record publishing metadata.
  • Nothing else, and no credits. Nothing in this product can charge for a TV Studio render, because nothing can perform one.

STEPS

  1. Brief. Record the product or service, the audience, the key message, the tone, the call to action, the market, a target length and any mandatories or exclusions. A production has exactly one brief, so saving replaces the previous one.
  2. Script. Add a version and say what changed. Every version is recorded as written by a person; nothing in the product drafts one for you.
  3. Storyboard. Write each shot's prompt, its planned length and its direction. Saving replaces the whole shot list in the order shown. Planned lengths are intentions, and nothing has measured them.
  4. Generation. Choose "Request generation" on a shot if you want the attempt on record. It records an attempt, it is refused, nothing is produced and nothing is charged.
  5. Edit. Arrange shots into a cut using "Add shot to the cut", "Move up", "Move down" and "Remove", then "Add this cut". A cut needs at least one shot and may only use this production's own shots. A new cut is always "planned".
  6. Compliance. Record a review: name the ruleset, choose an outcome of Passed, Failed or "Needs a person to judge the findings", add findings and notes, and choose "Record this review". A recorded review is permanent and names you.
  7. Publishing metadata. Record the channel, the intended date and any notes, then "Record publishing metadata".

WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE

The stage chip in the header moving as you go, a permanent record at each stage, and a confirmation after publishing metadata reading that it was recorded, that TV Studio does not distribute adverts, and that this production has no rendered master.

WHAT THIS WILL NOT DO

  • It will not stop you moving to the generation stage. The forward button is disabled only for an unmet precondition, never for a missing engine, because recording where the work stands is legitimate.
  • It will not render a cut. Assembling a cut is real; rendering one into a file needs an engine capability nothing here provides.
  • It will not treat "needs a person to judge the findings" as a soft pass. Only an explicit pass clears a production for publishing metadata.
  • It will not record a compliance check as "not checked". An unchecked production has no check, and the absence is shown as an absence rather than as a verdict.
  • It will not let you edit or delete a recorded review. A correction is a new review, which supersedes the old one.

IF IT DOES NOT WORK

  • "This production has no brief yet." and its siblings for script, storyboard, timeline and cut are preconditions. Do the earlier stage first.
  • "A production at stage X cannot move to Y." means forward moves are one step at a time.
  • "This production is at the X stage. Move it to the publish stage before preparing publishing metadata."
  • "This production has not been checked against advertising rules." or "The latest compliance check did not pass" block the publishing stage.
  • "A cut needs at least one shot." and "A cut may only arrange shots from this production's own storyboard."
  • "This shot list was built from an earlier script version." is a warning, not a refusal: the shots answer words that are no longer current.
  • "An Idempotency-Key header is required to request a generation." is an API-level requirement the page satisfies for you.
  • "This production was abandoned. It does not move again." Abandoning is terminal.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Why can I move to the generation stage if nothing can be generated there?

Because the stage is this product's record of where the work has got to, and a shot list that is finished and waiting is a real state worth recording.

Are the planned lengths the length of anything?

No. They are what the brief and the shot list intend. Nothing has measured them and nothing will until an engine exists.

What does a compliance review actually cover today?

The script and the plan. There is no rendered advert to watch, and every recorded check says so.

  • Starting a TV Studio production

    What a production is, what the seven stages record, and why no video can be generated in this product yet.

  • Rendering a composition

    What submitting a cut version does, why every deployment currently answers "no provider active", and what that costs.