The new cut comes back with a message that says “all notes done”. Most people then watch it once, on its own, and try to remember what the previous version looked like.
That catches the big things. It misses the lower third that came back with a different typo, or the two seconds of music that went out with the shot the client asked to remove.
Checking a new version properly means watching it against the old one, with both on screen at once. The three usual views each answer a different question.
In short
- Watch the new version against the old one, with both on screen, instead of from memory.
- Side by side shows pace, structure and grade, a split view shows color and framing, and difference mode shows exactly what changed.
- If the running time changed, find the first frame that changed, because the synced views stop helping after it.
- Check every note from the previous version’s list, one timecode at a time, before the cut goes to the client.
Side by side for pace, structure and grade
Put the two cuts next to each other and play them in sync.
Did the interview that dragged get shorter? Which shot replaced the one the client didn’t like? Does the music still hit its beat on the same cut, or did a trim knock it off?
A grade change is also easy to see here. A shot that looks fine on its own can look clearly greener next to the version the client already saw.
Play the whole thing once like this before you go looking for details, with the new cut’s audio. Then switch to the old audio on the sections where the mix was supposed to change.
For a 9:16 version, keep the two cuts next to each other rather than stacked, so each one gets the full height of the player.
Split for color, framing and small graphics
A split view, or wipe, shows one frame made of two versions. One cut is on the left of the line, the other on the right, and you drag the line across the picture.
Pause on the moment you care about and sweep the divider over the subject, say a face after a skin tone note or the logo that was supposed to move up.
Side by side, your eye jumps between two pictures and has to hold one of them in memory. In a wipe both versions sit in the same place, and a difference shows up as an edge where the line passes.
Use it for the reframed 9:16 where the speaker’s head was cut off, or a lower third where the name changed but the box was meant to stay put.
Overlay and difference to find exactly what changed
Overlay puts one cut on top of the other. With a plain opacity blend you see both at once, which helps with a graphic that moved a few pixels.
Difference mode subtracts one frame from the other, so pixels that match turn black and anything that changed lights up.
Scrub through in difference mode and the edit shows you where it was touched. Long black stretches haven’t changed. A bright shape is a change, at that spot and in that frame.
It’s also the quickest way to see whether the editor touched anything that wasn’t on the list.
Some changes light up more than you’d expect. A regrade lights up the whole frame, because every pixel changed, and a fresh render can leave a faint grain of noise where nothing was touched.
Difference only shows where the picture changed, so you still watch the flagged moments to judge whether the change is right.
When the new cut is shorter or longer
Most compare views lock both players to the same timecode. That works until a shot is removed or added.
Say v3 lost three seconds at 0:42. Up to 0:42 the two cuts line up. After it, every frame of v3 sits three seconds earlier than its match in v2, so side by side shows two different shots and difference lights up everything.
- Check the running time first. If v2 was 1:55 and v3 is 1:52, something came out.
- Then scrub forward in difference mode until the picture stops being black. That’s the first frame that changed.
- Check everything before it as usual. After it, the same timecode shows two different moments, so the synced views stop helping.
- In the editing software you can slide one clip by the offset. In a review tool, watch the rest of the new cut on its own.
The offset moves the notes too, so a comment at 1:20 on v2 now points to 1:17 on v3. Ask the editor for a short change list with each version, something like “removed 3 s at 0:42, new take at 1:10, end card swapped”.
If the cut had already been locked, the running time shouldn’t change at all. A version after picture lock that runs a few frames short is the first thing to ask about.
Checking that every note was done
The point of all this is to find out whether the editor did everything that was asked. Work from the list of notes, not from memory. Open the previous version’s comments, take them one at a time, go to each timecode and look at that moment in both versions.
- Read text notes letter by letter on the new cut, since fixing one typo is a good way to make another.
- For an audio note, like music too loud under the CEO, listen to the passage with the old audio and then the new.
- For a removed shot, check that it’s gone and that the cut around it is clean, with no jump in the music and no half word.
- A note like “more energy” can’t be ticked by any tool, so decide it by watching and reply with what was changed.
Anything that wasn’t done gets a reply on the note before the cut goes to the client. A client who finds an old note still unfixed starts checking everything, and that’s how projects reach round seven.
Notes written to be checkable, one issue each with a timecode, make this part quick. On the editor’s side, bringing the notes into Premiere as markers puts each one on the timeline to tick off.
Without the editing software
Editors have their own method. They put both exports on stacked tracks, line up the first frames and set the top clip’s blend mode to Difference. In Premiere it’s under Opacity in Effect Controls, and Resolve calls it composite mode.
Anything that isn’t black is a change. It’s fast and exact, as long as you have the software and the project open.
The producer checking the round and the client doing the review usually don’t. Two files opened in two player windows drift apart within seconds, and nobody can scrub both at once. They need both cuts in a browser, in sync, on the same page where they leave their comments.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview, each cut uploaded to a task becomes its next numbered version. In the versions list, Compare next to an earlier version opens the two together, and on desktop a Compare with vN button sits right above the player.
The toolbar has Side by Side, horizontal or stacked, Split with a divider you drag, and Overlay with an opacity slider and a Difference switch that turns identical pixels black.
Both cuts play from the same timecode. The one playing audio sets the clock, the other is kept in step, and when you pause, both stop on the same frame.
Zoom applies to both pictures at once, and the arrow keys step a frame at a time. You pick which version plays the audio and whose comments show on the timeline.
By default the audio comes from the new cut and the comments from the old one, so last round’s notes are right there, and anything you write goes on the current version. Clients can compare too, between the versions you’ve shared with them.
From v2 on, with AI Review on, a line at the top of the new version’s comments reads something like “4 requests from v1 · 1 not done”.
It opens the comparison with each old comment marked done, partial, not done, unclear or check by eye, along with how it was checked and what was read or measured.
The check lines the two cuts up first, so See in this version jumps to where that moment now sits, even after a trim. It doesn’t suggest fixes, and notes about taste are left to a person.
If a request still looks clearly undone, Send to client asks before it goes. There’s more on the version control page.
