A client watching a corporate video won’t notice that the whole grade runs a touch warm or that a cut lands two frames late. They notice their CEO’s surname spelled wrong.
They notice the picture going black for a blink between two shots, the music jumping up when the interview ends and an end card with last year’s website. None of those is a matter of taste, and each one makes the client wonder what else was missed.
Below are those mistakes, why each one happens and how to catch it before the link goes out. The full technical pass for a delivery master is in the final QC checklist.
In short
- Step through the cuts that changed on the export itself, since a stalled render only exists in the file.
- Check sync near the end of long takes, and listen to the whole export once on headphones.
- A wrong name in a lower third is the mistake clients find fastest, so check names against the list the client confirmed.
- Before the link goes out, compare the running time with the last version and visit the timecodes the client asked to change.
- Put the final pass in the schedule on export day, and have someone who didn’t cut the video do it.
Mistakes in the picture
A black or flash frame at a cut is the classic. A one-frame gap left after a trim renders as black, and a single frame of an old clip left behind where two edits don’t quite meet flashes the wrong shot.
Both slip past at normal speed and still get seen by a client watching closely. The guide on black frame detection covers the causes.
Search the timeline for gaps before exporting, then step through every cut touched this round on the export itself.
A frozen frame usually comes from a hold used to stretch a shot that ran out of media, or from a render that stalled. Watch the export rather than the timeline, because a stalled render only exists in the file.
Color shifts between shots happen when two cameras were set up differently, or when a shot swapped in after the grade never got graded. The client sees it when the same face or product changes color from one shot to the next. After any late change, ask whoever graded to check the shots that came in after them.
Mistakes in the sound
Audio drifts out of sync on phone footage and screen recordings with a variable frame rate, or when an audio clip gets nudged on its own on the timeline. Drift grows over a long take, so check lips near the end of it, not just at the start.
A level jump between shots happens when the interview was recorded on a lav and the b-roll carries its own camera audio, or when music comes in without a fade.
Clipped audio is a recording problem: once the peaks are flattened at the source, the mix can hide them but not undo them. Both are easiest to hear on headphones, with the volume set once for the whole watch.
Overall loudness is the one clients hear without knowing what to call it. Broadcast in Europe follows EBU R 128, which sets an average programme loudness of -23 LUFS.
Web and social platforms adjust playback to their own reference levels, so a mix far too hot gets turned down and one far too quiet sounds weak next to whatever played before it. Ask where the video will run before the mix.
Mistakes in the text on screen
A typo or a wrong name in a lower third is the mistake clients find fastest, because it’s the part of the video they know better than anyone in the edit suite. The lower thirds checklist covers collecting names and titles before the edit so nobody types them from memory.
Subtitles go missing or out of sync when they were made from an earlier cut. A trim at 0:40 moves every line after it, so last week’s SRT is right for forty seconds and wrong for the rest.
Turn subtitles on for the final watch and check that the last line still lands on the last thing said. The subtitle guidelines cover line length and reading speed.
Text outside title safe looks fine on the editor’s monitor and gets clipped on a phone or hidden under a social app’s buttons, most often when a 16:9 cut is reframed to vertical and the graphics stay put. Turn on the safe area guides and check every format you deliver.
Mistakes in the file you send
Exporting the wrong version happens more often than people admit. The editor duplicates the v3 sequence to make v4 and exports from the v3 tab, or uploads the file sitting next to the right one.
Check the running time against the last version, then go to two or three timecodes where the client asked for changes. If those moments look the way they did last round, stop.
Comparing two versions shows how to see exactly what changed, and the timecode guide how to write those points down.
An outdated logo or end card comes from templates. The project starts from last year’s end card, and the URL, the phone number or the logo changed in between. Read the end card letter by letter and open the URL on it.
Who catches what
| Mistake | Who should catch it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Black or flash frame, freeze | Editor | Watching the export, before upload |
| Color shift between shots | Colorist or editor | After any change made after the grade |
| Sync, level jumps, clipping | Editor or mixer | Headphone watch of the export |
| Overall loudness | Mixer | At the mix, against the delivery target |
| Typo or wrong name | Producer | Against the list the client confirmed |
| Subtitles | Whoever made them | After the last trim |
| Text outside title safe | Editor | In every delivery format |
| Wrong version | Producer | Before the link goes out |
| Old logo or end card | Producer | Against the client’s current brand files |
The editor owns what can only be seen in the file, and the producer owns what depends on knowing the client. Whoever didn’t cut the video should do the final watch. The editor knows what’s supposed to be there and tends to see it even when it isn’t.
A final pass that fits in the schedule
Put the final pass in the schedule on the same day as the export. A check planned for “if there’s time” is the first thing dropped on a tight day.
Watch once full screen on headphones, start to finish, and once on a phone through its speaker. Then go back with a list:
- Every piece of text on screen.
- The end card.
- The cuts that changed this round.
- The running time against the last version.
Broadcast and platform deliveries need more, and the final QC checklist has it.
How this works in RecReview
In RecReview, AI Review runs on a version when you ask for it, or on every upload if the workspace has automatic AI Review turned on.
It measures the audio of the whole export and flags peaks above a safe limit, loudness well above or below what web delivery expects and long silences in the middle of the video. Because it measures against web delivery, a mix made at the broadcast level above shows up as quiet, which is expected.
It also reads the text on screen and flags clear spelling mistakes and text cut off at the edge of the frame.
When the task has a script, it compares what’s said with what was written and points out lines that were dropped, added or swapped. The first version is checked against the whole script. Later versions are checked only where something changed, and once the client has commented, their notes take over.
Each finding has a timecode and shows up as a marker on the player bar and in the comment list, next to the team’s and the client’s notes. AI Review points to the moment, and the editor decides what to change.
From the second version on, it also goes through the client’s notes on the previous version and marks each one done, partial or not done. If some still look undone when you click Send to client, the window warns you before the email goes out.
An old export uploaded by mistake tends to show up right there. You can then put the two versions side by side, or overlay them with a difference view, and see what moved.
Sync, color between shots and anything that depends on knowing the client, like the current end card, still need a person. For the text check, the G key in the player draws title safe and action safe over the picture.
Clients see AI Review findings on the review link unless you hide them in the workspace settings. More on the method in AI video review, explained.
