Manage revision rounds

What this is about

Revision rounds are a commercial mechanism disguised as a creative courtesy. Each one has a cost in hours, a cost in calendar time, and a hidden cost in the film itself, because material that gets adjusted eleven times converges toward the average of everyone's preferences. Two things prevent the spiral: a written definition of what a round is, and locking. Locking means a decision made in round one cannot be reopened in round three without a stated reason and a stated price. Neither rule is aggressive; both are simply the difference between a project with an end and a subscription.

The order matters more than the tools. Skip a step and you usually notice two steps later — by which point the fix costs several times as much.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• A round is one consolidated note set from one sender against one version — not every email that arrives during the week
• Two included rounds plus a factual correction pass is a defensible default for most corporate work
• Locking is the actual tool: once a section is approved, changing it later is a new scope item
• New content wishes are never a revision; they are a new shoot, a new graphic or a new licence

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Define a round in the offer in one sentence: consolidated notes, one sender, one deadline, one version. Everything vaguer than that will be interpreted generously by the person paying.
2. State the included number and the price of an additional round in the same paragraph. A named price makes a fourth round a decision rather than an argument about goodwill.
3. Version every export with a number and a date, and never overwrite a file. Half of all extra rounds exist because two people were watching different cuts.
4. Approve section by section as the film matures — story, then structure, then fine cut, then graphics and sound. Approved sections are locked and only reopened as a written change.
5. When a request exceeds the definition, say so at the moment it arrives, with the cost and the schedule effect. Silence at that moment converts the request into a free obligation.
6. Track hours per round from the first project, even roughly. Without that record you are negotiating your next offer from a feeling instead of from your own history.
7. Close the project explicitly: final version, written approval, delivery, invoice. Projects that fade out instead of ending keep producing small unpaid requests for months.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Doing the extra round quietly to stay likeable and then resenting the client for asking
• Counting rounds while the client counts versions, so both sides are certain they are right
• Letting round three reopen the story decision that round one settled

With TillyGen

Scope creep in post usually starts in pre-production, so TillyGen keeps the agreed deliverables, versions and formats visible from the first day — the list a late wish has to be compared against already exists.

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.