{"course":{"slug":"ai-video","title":"Video with AI","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video","level":"intermediate","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"the-project-record","title":"What to keep, and the day it saves you","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/the-project-record","position":66,"of":66,"minutes":8,"answer":"A project record is what turns a later revision into a twenty-minute job instead of a reshoot, and it has to be assembled during production because most of it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.","keyIdea":"A project record is what turns a later revision into a twenty-minute job instead of a reshoot, and it has to be assembled during production because most of it cannot be reconstructed afterwards."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The four things per shipped shot\n\nFor every clip that made the final cut, keep:\n\n1. **The first frame**, as a lossless image file.\n2. **The exact prompt**, copied rather than retyped.\n3. **The model name and version string**, plus every numeric setting and the seed.\n4. **The output file itself**, at the highest quality you received.\n\nThat fourth item is the primary record, not a fallback. The others let you get close; the file is the only thing that is certain, because providers update models and a seed that worked last month may not work today.\n\n## Everything else that belongs in the folder\n\nBy the end of a job, the project folder should contain:\n\n```\nproject/\n  shots.md               # the list, with final takes and durations marked\n  quote.pdf              # what was agreed\n  approvals/             # the emails approving animatic and key frames\n  consent/               # signed releases for any real face or voice\n  licences/              # music, fonts, stock — the actual licence text\n  frames/                # stills + sidecars, including rejects until sign-off\n  clips/                 # every generation, with its settings file\n  audio/\n  edit/\n  exports/\n    master_2026-09-21.mp4\n    delivered_1080_2026-09-21.mp4\n```\n\nNone of this is bureaucracy. Each folder corresponds to a question somebody asks later: what did we agree, who said yes, did we have permission, can we prove the music was licensed, can you change shot nine.\n\n## Provenance, which you will be asked about\n\nAt some point a client, a platform or a broadcaster will ask what in this video was generated and what was filmed.\n\nIf every frame's sidecar says `generated`, `photographed`, `composited` or `stock`, the answer takes a minute. If it does not, the answer is a guess, and a guess is not something you want to put in writing about a disclosure question.\n\nThe labelling obligations themselves are dealt with in the next module. The record that makes compliance possible is built here, during production, because it cannot be assembled afterwards.\n\n## The post-mortem, which takes fifteen minutes\n\nWhen the project delivers, before you forget:\n\n```\nPROJECT: name, delivered 2026-09-21\nQuoted: 30 shots, 4 attempts each\nActual: 27 shots delivered, 71 generations, 2.6 takes/shot\nRejections: face drift 21, background churn 14, motion too strong 9,\n            wardrobe colour 5, other 3\nTime: stills 6h, generation 4h, edit 11h, sound 3h, revisions 2h\nWhat cost more than expected: reverse-angle shots in scene 3\nWhat to do differently: build the plate first; three attempts, not four\n```\n\nSix lines. After three projects this file prices your next quote more accurately than any rate card, and its rejection tally tells you where to spend your improvement effort, which is almost never where you assumed.\n\n## Archiving\n\nAt sign-off:\n\n- Delete the reject frames if space matters. Not before: a client note two days after delivery is common and the parts bin is what answers it quickly.\n- Keep the master export, the project file, the frames, the sidecars, the approvals, the consent forms and the licences.\n- Copy the whole folder somewhere else. One copy in one place is not a backup, and this is the point in the process where people discover that.\n- Note an expiry on anything time-limited: a consent that covers twelve months, a music licence tied to a subscription, a model whose terms changed.\n\n## Why this is a professional differentiator\n\nAnyone can generate a clip. Very few people can, eight months later, produce the frame, the prompt, the model version, the consent form and the music licence for shot nine within ten minutes.\n\nThat capability is what a client is actually buying when they hire somebody rather than doing it themselves, and it is entirely free to provide. It is also what makes a revision a small billable job rather than an unpaid rebuild.\n\n## The version that fits on a phone\n\nIf the full structure feels like too much, keep three things and you will recover most of the benefit: a folder per project rather than a downloads pile, a sidecar text file beside every shipped frame, and the master export saved twice in two places. Everything else in this lesson is an elaboration of those three, and a project with only those three is already ahead of most freelance practice.\n\nThe habit that makes it stick is writing the record at the moment the decision is made rather than at the end. A prompt copied when you use it takes two seconds; the same prompt reconstructed a month later takes twenty minutes and is probably wrong.\n\n---\n\nToday: write the post-mortem for the last thing you finished, even roughly. The rejection tally is the interesting line."},"check":{"question":"Why is the delivered output file, rather than the prompt and seed, the primary record of a shipped shot?","options":[{"text":"The file preserves the grade and sound work applied afterwards, which a regeneration from the prompt would not reproduce.","correct":false,"tempting":"True of a graded export and not of the raw generation, which is what is being archived at this stage."},{"text":"Prompts and seeds are frequently mistranscribed, so the file is the only copy that cannot contain an error.","correct":false,"tempting":"Transcription errors are avoidable by copying, and a correct prompt still fails to reproduce the shot on an updated model."},{"text":"Providers update models without notice, so the same prompt and seed may no longer reproduce the clip, while the file is unconditionally what shipped.","correct":true},{"text":"Seeds are only meaningful in combination with a specific model version, and version strings are frequently omitted from a provider's response, making the settings record incomplete by default rather than merely stale.","correct":false,"tempting":"Correct that a seed needs its version, and the version can be recorded: the deeper problem is that even a complete record can stop reproducing."}]},"prev":{"slug":"quoting-in-shots","title":"Price the thing that actually costs money","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/quoting-in-shots"},"next":null,"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'What to keep, and the day it saves you', in Video with AI. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/ai-video/the-project-record (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"What to keep, and the day it saves you","courseTitle":"Video with AI","module":{"index":7,"slug":"running-the-job","title":"Money, clients and running the job"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"A project record is what turns a later revision into a twenty-minute job instead of a reshoot, and it has to be assembled during production because most of it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-four-things-per-shipped-shot","runs":[{"text":"The four things per shipped shot"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"For every clip that made the final cut, keep:"}]},{"t":"ol","start":1,"items":[[{"text":"The first frame","b":true},{"text":", as a lossless image file."}],[{"text":"The exact prompt","b":true},{"text":", copied rather than retyped."}],[{"text":"The model name and version string","b":true},{"text":", plus every numeric setting and the seed."}],[{"text":"The output file itself","b":true},{"text":", at the highest quality you received."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That fourth item is the primary record, not a fallback. The others let you get close; the file is the only thing that is certain, because providers update models and a seed that worked last month may not work today."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"everything-else-that-belongs-in-the-folder","runs":[{"text":"Everything else that belongs in the folder"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"By the end of a job, the project folder should contain:"}]},{"t":"code","lang":"","label":"Text","text":"project/\n  shots.md               # the list, with final takes and durations marked\n  quote.pdf              # what was agreed\n  approvals/             # the emails approving animatic and key frames\n  consent/               # signed releases for any real face or voice\n  licences/              # music, fonts, stock — the actual licence text\n  frames/                # stills + sidecars, including rejects until sign-off\n  clips/                 # every generation, with its settings file\n  audio/\n  edit/\n  exports/\n    master_2026-09-21.mp4\n    delivered_1080_2026-09-21.mp4"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"None of this is bureaucracy. Each folder corresponds to a question somebody asks later: what did we agree, who said yes, did we have permission, can we prove the music was licensed, can you change shot nine."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"provenance-which-you-will-be-asked-about","runs":[{"text":"Provenance, which you will be asked about"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"At some point a client, a platform or a broadcaster will ask what in this video was generated and what was filmed."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If every frame’s sidecar says "},{"text":"generated","code":true},{"text":", "},{"text":"photographed","code":true},{"text":", "},{"text":"composited","code":true},{"text":" or "},{"text":"stock","code":true},{"text":", the answer takes a minute. If it does not, the answer is a guess, and a guess is not something you want to put in writing about a disclosure question."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The labelling obligations themselves are dealt with in the next module. The record that makes compliance possible is built here, during production, because it cannot be assembled afterwards."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-post-mortem-which-takes-fifteen-minutes","runs":[{"text":"The post-mortem, which takes fifteen minutes"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"When the project delivers, before you forget:"}]},{"t":"code","lang":"","label":"Text","text":"PROJECT: name, delivered 2026-09-21\nQuoted: 30 shots, 4 attempts each\nActual: 27 shots delivered, 71 generations, 2.6 takes/shot\nRejections: face drift 21, background churn 14, motion too strong 9,\n            wardrobe colour 5, other 3\nTime: stills 6h, generation 4h, edit 11h, sound 3h, revisions 2h\nWhat cost more than expected: reverse-angle shots in scene 3\nWhat to do differently: build the plate first; three attempts, not four"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Six lines. After three projects this file prices your next quote more accurately than any rate card, and its rejection tally tells you where to spend your improvement effort, which is almost never where you assumed."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"archiving","runs":[{"text":"Archiving"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"At sign-off:"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Delete the reject frames if space matters. Not before: a client note two days after delivery is common and the parts bin is what answers it quickly."}],[{"text":"Keep the master export, the project file, the frames, the sidecars, the approvals, the consent forms and the licences."}],[{"text":"Copy the whole folder somewhere else. One copy in one place is not a backup, and this is the point in the process where people discover that."}],[{"text":"Note an expiry on anything time-limited: a consent that covers twelve months, a music licence tied to a subscription, a model whose terms changed."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"why-this-is-a-professional-differentiator","runs":[{"text":"Why this is a professional differentiator"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Anyone can generate a clip. Very few people can, eight months later, produce the frame, the prompt, the model version, the consent form and the music licence for shot nine within ten minutes."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"That capability is what a client is actually buying when they hire somebody rather than doing it themselves, and it is entirely free to provide. It is also what makes a revision a small billable job rather than an unpaid rebuild."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-version-that-fits-on-a-phone","runs":[{"text":"The version that fits on a phone"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If the full structure feels like too much, keep three things and you will recover most of the benefit: a folder per project rather than a downloads pile, a sidecar text file beside every shipped frame, and the master export saved twice in two places. Everything else in this lesson is an elaboration of those three, and a project with only those three is already ahead of most freelance practice."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The habit that makes it stick is writing the record at the moment the decision is made rather than at the end. A prompt copied when you use it takes two seconds; the same prompt reconstructed a month later takes twenty minutes and is probably wrong."}]},{"t":"rule"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Today: write the post-mortem for the last thing you finished, even roughly. The rejection tally is the interesting line."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"Why is the delivered output file, rather than the prompt and seed, the primary record of a shipped shot?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"The file preserves the grade and sound work applied afterwards, which a regeneration from the prompt would not reproduce."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"True of a graded export and not of the raw generation, which is what is being archived at this stage."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Prompts and seeds are frequently mistranscribed, so the file is the only copy that cannot contain an error."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Transcription errors are avoidable by copying, and a correct prompt still fails to reproduce the shot on an updated model."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Providers update models without notice, so the same prompt and seed may no longer reproduce the clip, while the file is unconditionally what shipped."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null},{"text":[{"text":"Seeds are only meaningful in combination with a specific model version, and version strings are frequently omitted from a provider’s response, making the settings record incomplete by default rather than merely stale."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Correct that a seed needs its version, and the version can be recorded: the deeper problem is that even a complete record can stop reproducing."}]}],"order":[3,2,1,0],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"quoting-in-shots","title":"Price the thing that actually costs money","minutes":9},"next":null}}