What Your Approval Means at Each Stage

There is a consistent approval logic for every production: Creative development produces a locked creative plan. That locked plan is what makes it possible to scope and confirm a production budget. The production budget is confirmed before the shoot happens. Each review stage after the shoot builds on what was already approved.

This article is about productions that involve a shoot. If your project is edit-only or post-production only, the scoping and budget process is more straightforward and will be addressed with you directly. For any project that requires a crew, locations, talent, or a shoot day, the structure described here is what governs how approvals work and why they matter.

Understanding what you are approving at each stage — and what that approval locks — is one of the most practical things you can bring to a production. Approvals are not formalities. They are the moments that determine whether work moves forward cleanly or has to be rebuilt from a foundation that shifted after the fact.

The Creative Plan

Every production begins with a creative development phase. That phase produces a locked creative plan — the document that makes the production accurately scopeable.

What that document looks like depends on the type of production.

• For a commercial, it is a concept direction and a locked script.

• For a documentary-style brand film, it is a treatment with a confirmed interview plan and a defined B-roll coverage approach.

• For a content system, it is an approved asset list and shot list with visual direction established for each category of content.

•  For shorter or smaller productions, it is a defined objective + format, and a content outline.

The form changes. The function is the same: the locked creative plan is what allows a production budget to be built accurately.

Without it, any budget submitted is a guess — and a guess that gets confirmed before the work is developed will inevitably result in compromises made quietly during development and production to fit a number that was never grounded in what the work actually requires.

When you approve the creative plan, you are confirming that the direction is right and that the production budget being built from it will reflect what was agreed to. Changes to the creative direction after this approval are not revisions — they are scope changes, and they carry real implications for the budget and timeline that follow.

Production Budget Approval

With the creative plan locked, a production budget is submitted for your approval. This is not the initial working budget conversation — that happens earlier and establishes the ceiling the creative development is built around. This is the specific allocation of resources required to execute the locked creative plan: crew, locations, talent, equipment, and post-production scope.

Budget approval is what triggers production to begin. From the moment you approve it, commitments start being made on your behalf. Locations get held. Crew gets confirmed. Casting moves forward. Confirmations are made. These are real financial commitments tied to a specific plan and a specific schedule.

What gets locked: the production scope, the resource plan, and the confirmed investment.

What changes after budget approval: scope changes require a formal conversation before work continues. The further into pre-production a change occurs, the more expensive it becomes — because commitments have already been made against the original plan that may not be recoverable.

Editorial Review and Finishing

Post-production at Intrigue Studios runs in two phases: editorial and finishing.

Editorial is where the work gets structured. The footage is assembled, the story or content is shaped, the pacing is set, and the selected takes are locked in place. For a narrative production — a commercial or brand film — this produces a first assembly or rough cut. For a content system, it produces an asset review where the full library is evaluated against the approved shot list for coverage, quality, and completeness.

This is the phase where your feedback has the most leverage. The structure is visible and adjustable. Revision rounds during editorial are focused on whether the content is right — the order, the selections, the pacing, the narrative. Once the editorial phase is approved and locked, finishing begins.

Finishing is where the visual and audio polish is applied — color grading, sound design, music, motion graphics, titles, visual effects. On a straightforward production this may happen in a single pass. On a more complex production it may involve separate passes across different departments. Either way, finishing is built on the locked editorial foundation.

What gets locked after editorial approval: the structure the finished work is built on. Structural changes after editorial is approved — reordering, replacing takes, changing the ending — require finishing work to be undone and redone. That carries real cost and timeline impact. Minor refinements can still be addressed during finishing. Structural concerns cannot wait until then.

For a full walkthrough of what happens during the editorial and finishing phases — see Understanding The Intrigue Studios Postproduction Process

Final Approval

The work is complete. All finishing elements are in place — color, audio, music, motion graphics, and any remaining post-production work. You are reviewing the finished piece in the form it will be delivered and distributed.

When you give final approval in writing, the project moves to delivery. Final invoicing is triggered at this stage.

What gets locked: everything. Changes requested after final approval has been given in writing are handled as a new scope of work.

Take the time you need at this stage. Review the work in the context it will actually live in — the platform, the format, the screen size it will most often be seen on. Once final approval is given, the project is complete.

How Approvals Work at Intrigue Studios

All approvals are given in writing — through our project management system, by email, or through the revision and review platform depending on the stage. A verbal sign-off on a call or on set does not constitute a locked approval for production purposes.

This is not a technicality. It creates a clear record of what was agreed to and when, protects both sides from misremembered conversations, and ensures the work moving forward is always built on a confirmed foundation.

If you have questions about what you are approving at any stage, ask before you approve. That is always the right call.