Two weeks after the shoot, the client writes: “Can we also get versions for Reels and TikTok?” The quote said “one 60-second video plus social versions”. The best product shot is a wide shot with the presenter on the left edge and the product on the right, and a vertical crop can hold one of them.
Nobody wrote down, before the shoot, how many files the job would produce, in which shapes, and which ones the client would want to approve separately. A deliverables list fixes that. It’s a table with one row per file, written while there’s still time to change the shot list.
In short
- A deliverables list has one row per file, with its length, aspect ratio, subtitles, language and platform.
- Cuts with their own edit are approval units with rounds of notes, and variants of approved cuts get a technical check.
- A full-height 9:16 crop keeps about 32% of a 16:9 frame, so if verticals are on the list, shoot UHD.
- Price each row instead of “the video”, and start cutdowns only after picture lock.
One row per file
Each row is one file the client will receive, described by the things that change the work: length, aspect ratio, subtitles, language and the platform where it runs.
- Length comes first because a 30-second cut is a new edit with its own choices.
- The aspect ratio decides the framing, usually 16:9 for the website and YouTube, 9:16 for Reels, TikTok and Shorts, and 1:1 or 4:5 for feeds.
- The subtitles can be none, a sidecar file such as SRT, or burned into the picture, and since most feeds start videos muted, social cuts usually carry burned-in text.
- A version in another language needs someone who speaks it to sign off.
- The platform sets the technical spec, which our guides to video formats and resolution standards cover.
Add a column for the cut each row comes from and one for whether it gets its own approval. Then give each row the name its file will have, so the list and the delivery folder match line for line (our file naming post has a pattern).
Approval units and variants
An approval unit is a cut the client watches and gives notes on, in rounds. Anything with its own edit belongs here: a new length, different shots, a new script or voice-over, another language.
The 30-second cutdown counts as one even though every shot comes from the master, because choosing which 30 seconds stay is an editorial call.
A variant is the same edit in a different package, like the approved 30 seconds reframed to 9:16, the same cut with burned-in subtitles, or a version without music for the event screens.
It’s made after its parent is approved and gets a technical check from your team instead of rounds of notes. Someone watches every shot looking for a cropped face or a subtitle hidden under the app’s buttons.
To decide which is which, ask what the client could still change. If the answer includes the story, the shots, the length or the words, the row needs its own rounds. If the only open question is whether the logo survives the crop, it’s a variant.
Some clients want to approve every vertical anyway, which is fine as long as those rows become approval units and the quote counts their rounds.
Example: a product launch
Here’s the list for a launch built around a 60-second master:
| # | Deliverable | Length | Ratio | Subtitles | Language | Runs on | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Master | 60 s | 16:9 | SRT file | English | Website, YouTube, event | Approval |
| 2 | Cutdown | 30 s | 16:9 | None | English | YouTube ads | Approval |
| 3 | Cutdown | 15 s | 16:9 | None | English | YouTube ads | Approval |
| 4 | Spanish master | 60 s | 16:9 | Burned in | Spanish | Spanish site | Approval |
| 5 | Vertical of 2 | 30 s | 9:16 | Burned in | English | Reels, TikTok, Shorts | Variant |
| 6 | Vertical of 3 | 15 s | 9:16 | Burned in | English | Stories ads | Variant |
| 7 | Square of 3 | 15 s | 1:1 | Burned in | English | Feed ads | Variant |
| 8 | Subtitled master | 60 s | 16:9 | Burned in | English | Variant |
That’s eight files, four approval units and four variants. Plan two rounds of notes on the master and one each on the two cutdowns and the Spanish version, since their content was settled in the master.
The campaign comes to five rounds of client notes plus four technical checks, and a quote that said “one video plus social versions” had a line for none of them.
What the shoot has to capture
A full-height 9:16 crop from a 16:9 frame keeps about 32% of the width. A 4:5 crop keeps 45% and a square keeps 56%.
Whatever matters in a shot has to fit in that strip, and the wide shot from the opening doesn’t.
Resolution decides whether the crop holds up. From UHD footage (3840×2160), a 9:16 crop is about 1215×2160 pixels, more than a 1080×1920 vertical needs. From 1080p the same crop is about 608×1080 and has to be enlarged about 1.8 times.
A square from 1080p is 1080×1080 and needs no enlargement. If verticals are on the list, shoot UHD.
Give the list to the director of photography with the shots that will feed the verticals marked. Those shots need the subject near the middle and room on both sides, because the editor can slide the crop left or right only when the frame leaves space for it.
If your monitor can draw a 9:16 frame line, turn it on for those setups, and shoot the hero product shot a second time composed for vertical.
Supers designed for 16:9 rarely survive the crop, so plan to rebuild them for the 9:16 files.
In the master, keep text inside title safe, which SMPTE ST 2046-1 sets at 90% of the frame (action safe is 93%). In the verticals, keep text and subtitles away from the bottom of the frame, where Reels, TikTok and Shorts draw the caption and the buttons.
The list sets the quote and the schedule
Price each row instead of “the video”. An approval unit is an edit plus the rounds you planned for it, and a variant is export time plus the check.
Say a reframe with burned-in subtitles takes your editor an hour and a half, check included. The four variants in the example are then six hours of editing.
Put the rule in the proposal: “Variants are reframes and subtitled copies of approved cuts. They get a technical check, not a round of notes.” Our post on pricing video production covers turning hours into a price.
The list also sets the order of work. Cutdowns come from the approved master, so they start after picture lock. A note on the master that arrives after they’re cut means reopening the 30, the 15 and the Spanish version.
Variants start when their parent is approved. Quote each step in working days after the approval it depends on, the way the production timeline post lays out.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview each approval unit is a task. Every cut you upload to a task becomes its next version, and the comments, the deadlines and the client’s approval stay with that deliverable.
In the New Task window, Create several at once takes a pasted list, one title per line, up to 100. Apply to all sets the client, project, assignees, status, phase, what the task is waiting for and both deadlines, the client’s and the internal one, for every row.
If the client has a code, the tasks get video codes in the order you pasted them, and an upload whose file name starts with a task’s code is matched to that task as its next version.
Variants can be subtasks on the task of the cut they come from, one per export, each with an assignee, ticked off once the file has been checked. If the client downloads the variants from the portal, give each one its own task instead, since a download comes from a task’s version.
The Guides button in the player’s control bar shows action safe at 93%, title safe at 90% and the rule of thirds, plus one delivery crop at a time, 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9, with everything outside it darkened. Pressing G turns on the two safe areas, and pressing it again hides the guides.
The crop sits in the center, so on the 16:9 master it shows the vertical you’d get without repositioning, and any shot where the subject falls outside it is one the editor will reframe by hand.
That happens in Premiere, Resolve or whatever you edit in, since RecReview doesn’t resize or reframe video. The project management page covers tasks, the board and deadlines.
