Getting useful video feedback from clients

Video feedback is hard to act on. "The bit near the start feels slow" could mean any of ten seconds, and "can the logo be bigger?" could mean the opening, the end card or the watermark in the corner.

It's not that clients are vague on purpose. A video moves, and written feedback doesn't point at anything. This article covers how to get notes you can use: tied to a moment, pinned to the spot, answering the questions you actually need answered, and on one cut at a time.

Why video feedback goes wrong#

The same few problems turn up on most video jobs:

• No moment: notes say "the middle bit" or "after the music changes", and you spend longer finding the moment than fixing it.
• No spot: "The text is too small" doesn't say which text, on which shot.
• The wrong things: the client comments on the temporary music, the missing colour grade and the watermark, none of which are in this round, and says nothing about the pacing you wanted a view on.
• Two cuts at once: version 2 goes out while notes on version 1 are still arriving, and nobody is sure which cut a comment was about.
• Many reviewers, one email thread: three people reply separately, at different times, about different versions.

Each of these has a fix, and most of them are about how you ask.

Tie every comment to a moment#

A time code turns "near the start" into "at 0:07". It's the single biggest improvement you can make to video feedback, because it removes the hunt.

If your clients write notes in an email, ask them to start each note with the time. If they review in a tool, make sure the tool records the time for them, because people get it wrong when they type it.

In Skybase, a video plays in the review itself. A reviewer pauses where something's wrong and leaves a comment at that moment: the button shows the current time, for example "Comment at 0:42", so they can't get it wrong. Every time-coded comment appears as a marker on a strip under the video. Clicking one goes straight to that moment and opens the thread, and with a keyboard the arrow keys step from one comment to the next in time order.

Pin the spot on a paused frame#

A moment tells you when. A pin tells you where.

When a note is about something in the picture, like a caption, a logo, a product shot or a face, ask for it to be pinned on the frame. In Skybase, Comment (or the c key) pauses the video, and a click on the frame drops a pin there at that moment. The pin shows on the frame when the video is paused at that point, and when anyone opens its thread.

Replies stay in a thread on the pin, so a question like "bigger, or higher up?" gets its answer in the same place. When it's fixed, Resolve clears it away.

Ask specific questions#

"What do you think?" gets you opinions on everything. A few precise questions get you answers on what matters in this round.

Write two to four questions for each cut, and put them at the top of whatever you send. For example:

• Is the pace of the opening 10 seconds right, or should we get to the product sooner?
• Is the voiceover script approved, word for word?
• Of the two end cards, which do you prefer?
• Is anyone shown on screen who shouldn't be?

Questions with a short answer are easier to reply to, and they make silence easier to read: a client who didn't answer the pace question hasn't approved the pace.

Send one version at a time#

Only one cut should be open for feedback at once. If version 2 goes out while notes are still coming in on version 1, you end up with comments that apply to a cut that no longer exists.

Close each round before starting the next. Wait for the decision on version 1, make the changes, then send version 2 with a note on what changed. In Skybase, New version asks everyone again and keeps the earlier version, its comments and its decisions. Open comments are carried onto the new version, each showing the version it was first raised on, so a note that wasn't dealt with in the last cut is still in front of you.

The same goes for reviewers. Name who decides before the first cut goes out, so the feedback comes from the right people in one round. There's more on counting and closing rounds in revision rounds: how many, and how to keep them straight.

Compare cuts side by side#

When a client asks "what changed?", the quickest answer is to show both cuts.

In Skybase, Compare puts two versions of a video side by side, each with its own comments on its own strip. They play separately rather than together, and that's deliberate: when a cut changes, the timings move, so 0:30 in version 1 isn't the same shot as 0:30 in version 2. Find the moment in each and play them one after the other.

This is useful for you as well as the client. Before you send a new cut, compare it with the last one and check every change the client asked for is there.

What to send with the link#

The link to the cut is only half of the message. Send it with enough context that the client watches the right things:

• What stage this is: an offline edit, a rough cut, a fine cut or the final. Say it plainly, because clients judge a rough cut as if it were finished.
• What's temporary: music, the colour grade, the sound mix, placeholder graphics or a watermark. Tell them not to comment on these yet.
• Your questions: the two to four from above.
• Who decides, and a due date with the reason it matters.
• How to give feedback: watch it once all the way through first, then go back and comment at each moment.
• How to watch it: full screen, with sound, on the kind of screen the audience will use. A social cut is best judged on a phone.

If you send the link from Skybase, most of this is the request's brief: when you choose Ask for approval, the brief goes under What should they look at?, and each reviewer gets an email with it, the due date and their own secure link. They review and decide from the email without signing in or a password, on a laptop or in their phone's browser. A client joins the project once as a single-project guest, which is free. The client approval email templates have wording for the ask, the reminder and the follow-up.

A worked example at Harbour Studio#

Take a small studio, say Harbour Studio, making a 30-second launch film for its client Northwind. Priya, a designer, has a rough cut ready for Tom Becker, Northwind's contact.

She asks for approval with a due date and a brief: "Rough cut, so the music is temporary and there's no grade yet. Three questions: is the opening pace right, is the voiceover approved word for word, and which end card do you prefer?"

Tom watches it through once, then goes back. He leaves a comment at 0:06 saying the opening is too slow, pins one on the end card at 0:27 where the URL is hard to read, and answers the end-card question in a general comment. He chooses Request changes.

Priya tightens the opening, enlarges the URL, resolves both comments and uploads version 2 with the note "Opening cut by two seconds, larger URL on the end card." She compares the two cuts before sending it. Tom does the same, sees exactly what moved, and approves.

A checklist for your next video review#

• One cut open for feedback at a time.
• The stage, and what's temporary, stated up front.
• Two to four specific questions.
• Named reviewers and a due date.
• Comments at a moment, pinned to the spot when they're about the picture.
• Each new cut sent with a note on what changed, and compared with the last.

See how Skybase handles video review, or how approvals work for every kind of file.