Can you send it again?
The film is finished. The producer sends the client a transfer link with forty files: master, cutdowns, subtitled versions, clean versions. The link expires in seven days. The client downloads some of it to a laptop. Four months later, their agency needs the clean master for a TV slot, and the client emails asking for it again.
The producer finds the project, which is now archived, restores the file and sends another link. A month after that, a different person at the client asks for the subtitled 9:16 version. Nobody at the client knows it was ever delivered.
Why delivered files get lost
- Transfer links expire and files are downloaded to individual laptops.
- File names mean something to the editor, not the client.
- Different people at the client need different files months apart.
- No handover document lists what was delivered.
- Projects are archived, so re-sending files means a restore.
What repeated re-sends cost
Every re-send is unbilled time for a producer or assistant editor, often involving an archive restore. Clients sometimes use the wrong file, like a social version on a big screen, which reflects on the production company. And the lack of a handover record makes it hard to prove what was delivered if there is a later question. Clients also change staff. The person who received the original link may have left, and their replacement has no idea what exists, which is how perfectly good versions end up being paid for twice.
How we build the delivery portal
- Each client has a portal page listing every delivered job, and within each job, every file.
- Files are labelled in plain words: main film, 2 minutes, 16:9, with subtitles; LinkedIn cutdown, 30 seconds, 1:1, subtitles burnt in.
- Each file has a preview player and a download button, from storage such as AWS S3, Azure or Backblaze B2, with the retention period you decide.
- A handover record is created at delivery: files, specs, checksums, date and who received them, plus the approval record and music licence summary.
- Clients can invite colleagues to their portal, so the TV agency or social team can get files themselves.
- Requests for files no longer in the portal, or new versions, can be made from the portal and arrive with the job details attached.
| Portal item | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Plain-language labels | The client picks the right file |
| Preview player | Checks before downloading |
| Handover record | Proof of what was delivered and when |
| Licence summary | The client knows what music allows |
| Request form | New versions or restores with job details attached |
How long files stay in the portal is your decision, and can be part of your terms. When a file is removed, the portal says so and offers a restore request.
Months after delivery
The TV agency needs the clean master. The client's marketing manager invites them to the portal. They find main film, clean, broadcast spec, preview it and download it, without anyone at the production company being involved.
When a different person asks about a vertical version, they find it in the portal. When someone asks for a version that was never made, the request form creates a new job enquiry with all the details attached.
For the production company, the handover record closes the job cleanly. The files, the approvals and the licence summary sit together, so a question a year later is answered from one page rather than from an archive restore.
Does delivery end like this for you?
- Final files go out by transfer links that expire.
- Clients ask for the same files again months later.
- File names confuse clients.
- There is no handover record of what was delivered.
- Re-sending files means restoring from the archive.