Embargo

What this is about

Launch films, fair openings and results communication all hang on one date, and the embargo is how that date is enforced downstream. Unlike a confidentiality duty it has a built-in end: the moment it lifts, the material becomes ordinary marketing. Before that, review links deserve watermarks and an expiry, the agency case page stays unpublished, and the crew know that a set photo posted early can move a share price or spoil a fair appearance. Plan delivery with buffer in front of the date, because an embargo also removes the option of shipping late.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• The date works in both directions: nothing before it, and no room to deliver after it
• Review links to embargoed cuts belong watermarked, access-limited and time-limited
• References and case studies go live once the embargo lifts, never in the week before

With TillyGen

TillyGen schedules backwards from the release date, so the embargo shapes the shoot plan instead of colliding with it.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.