Updated: October 19, 2026
Client approvals in pre-production: the sign-offs that stop a Miami shoot day from becoming a negotiation
Most shoot days that go badly do not fail on the day. They fail three weeks earlier, when a script went out for comment and never came back approved, when a location was "fine" in an email but the CFO had not seen it, or when the client's marketing director saw the casting for the first time when the talent walked onto set. Pre-production is a sequence of decisions, and every decision needs a named person to approve it in writing before the next one is built on top. This guide sets out the approval gates a producer should put into a Miami video project, who signs each one, what a usable approval looks like, and how to handle the change that arrives after the gate has closed.
Why approvals are a production tool, not a formality
An approval does two things. It stops work from being redone: once the script is approved, the storyboard, casting, locations and schedule can be built on it without the fear that page two will change. And it makes the cost of a late change visible. A client who has signed off on a location and then asks to move it on the Thursday before the shoot is asking for a change order, not a favour, and everyone knows it. Without the gate, the producer absorbs the change and the budget quietly breaks. The pre-production meeting described in our guide to running the pre-production meeting is where the last of these gates closes; the earlier ones happen in the weeks before it.
The approval gates, in order
| Gate | What is approved | Who signs | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief and budget range | Objective, audience, deliverables, rough budget and date window | Client project owner and whoever controls the money | Treatment and estimate |
| 2. Treatment and estimate | Creative direction, tone, references, the number and the payment schedule | Same two people, in writing | Script writing, crew holds |
| 3. Script or outline | Every word that will be spoken or shown on screen, in the final language versions | Marketing lead, plus legal or compliance where the industry needs it | Storyboard, shot list, casting brief |
| 4. Storyboard or shot list | How the script becomes pictures; key frames and any effects | Marketing lead | Location scouting, art department, equipment list |
| 5. Casting | Named talent per role, with rate and usage | Marketing lead; brand or HR when employees appear | Talent contracts, wardrobe fittings |
| 6. Locations | Each location with photos, permit status and cost | Marketing lead; facilities or security when it is the client's own site | Permits, insurance certificates, schedule |
| 7. Schedule and call sheet | Shoot dates, times, who attends from the client side | Client project owner | Final crew bookings, catering, basecamp |
Not every project needs all seven as separate steps; a one-day interview shoot may combine three and four. What matters is that each item is approved before the work that depends on it starts, and that the approval names the person who gave it.
What a usable approval looks like
"Looks good" in a Slack thread is not an approval. A usable approval identifies the exact version approved, comes from the person with authority, and is in a place that can be found later. In practice:
- The producer sends a document with a version number and date ("Script v4, 12 March") and asks for approval of that version by name.
- The approver replies in email or in the project tool with "Approved: Script v4" from their own account. A forwarded "the boss says fine" is not enough for a gate that carries cost.
- Any conditions are written into the approval, and if they change the document, a v5 goes out and gets its own approval.
- The producer keeps an approvals log: gate, version, approver, date. It fits on one page and settles most disputes before they start.
For regulated industries, the approval chain includes people the marketing team may not think of: compliance in finance and healthcare, legal for claims and testimonials, HR when employees appear on camera. Ask at gate 1 who else must sign, and put them on the distribution for gates 3 and 5. The talent and location paperwork that follows an approval is described in our note on release forms.
Timing the gates against the calendar
Each gate needs review time on the client side, and the producer should ask for it explicitly: "we need script approval by the 15th to hold the crew for the 29th." A realistic client review cycle is three working days for a script and two for a storyboard or casting, longer when compliance is involved. Build those into the timeline described in our production timeline guide, and put the approval deadlines in the client's calendar, not just the producer's. When a deadline passes without an approval, the producer's job is to say so the same day and state what moves as a result: the shoot date, the crew, the permit application. Silence is how a project slides two weeks without anyone deciding it should.
The change that arrives after the gate
It always does. A new stakeholder appears, a product name changes, the CEO wants to be in it. The approval structure exists so that this is handled cleanly rather than absorbed:
- Acknowledge the change and identify which gate it reopens. A new line in the script reopens gate 3 and everything after it; a different location reopens 6 and 7.
- Price it as a change order: added prep hours, a new permit, a location fee, a talent day. Send it for approval before the work starts.
- Say what it does to the date. If the change cannot be made without moving the shoot, say so in the same email.
- Re-issue the affected documents with new version numbers and collect fresh approvals.
Most late changes are small once they are written down, and most clients accept a modest change order without discussion when the structure has been clear from the start. The ones who argue are usually the ones who were never asked to approve anything in the first place.
A short example. A hospitality client approved a script in which the general manager delivers the closing line. Two days before the shoot, the group's brand team, who had not been on the approval list, asked for the line to be delivered by a professional presenter instead. Because gate 5 had a named approver and a date, the producer could show that the change reopened casting and wardrobe, price the presenter's day and fitting, and offer either the change with a new date or the shoot as planned with the line re-recorded later as voiceover. The client chose the voiceover. Without the log, the same request would have been a late-night argument about who had agreed to what.
Approvals on projects we produce
Every project we run in Miami has an approvals log from the first day: the gates above, the named approver for each, the version numbers and the dates, shared with the client in the project folder. We ask at the brief stage who else has to sign, we schedule the review windows into the timeline, and we send a change order rather than absorbing a change so that the budget you approved is the budget you pay. The pre-production meeting closes the last gates with everyone in the room. It is not bureaucracy; it is the reason our shoot days start on time with a script nobody is rewriting on the tailgate. If you are planning a project and want to see how the process runs, the about page describes our approach, and the contact page is where it starts.