Two people arrange a large wall grid of coloured cards under a copper lamp.

How We WorkHow Film Me Works

We build the workflow before we build the timeline.

Film Me runs every post-production project in six stages: scope, ingest, pilot, edit and review, scale and finish, check and deliver. At each stage, AI and automation handle routine work and people make the decisions. Every file passes The Film Me Finish and senior review before delivery.

By Rupert Chesman, Founder & Executive Producer, Film Me Last updated

The six stages of a Film Me project

A structured path from footage to final delivery.

A producer sketches a plan on paper while a colleague listens across a wooden table.

Scope

A call, then a deliverables matrix: every file, ratio, language and caption option listed before work begins. You receive a fixed quote against it.

Where AI helps
Turning your brief and asset lists into a first draft of the deliverables matrix.
Where people decide
What the programme needs, what it will cost, and what can be promised.
Hands connect camera media to a rack of storage with small status lights glowing.

Ingest

Footage is received, verified, backed up and organised. Nothing is edited from a single copy.

Where AI helps
Transcribing interviews, tagging and making hours of footage searchable; project and folder setup.
Where people decide
Checking that everything has arrived, and how the material should be organised.
A finished film frame glows on a calibrated monitor in a dark suite beside a brass lamp.

Pilot

The first one to three videos are taken to finished masters. Style, graphics, sound and specification are locked from real material, and you approve the standard.

Where AI helps
Building reusable templates and export presets from the approved pilot.
Where people decide
The look, the pace, the graphics, the sound. The standard everything else must meet.
A senior editor turns from his monitors to talk through a cut with a colleague holding a notebook.

Edit & Review

Editing runs in batches. Feedback lives in one place, on a fixed rhythm, with version control and named approvers on your side.

Where AI helps
Finding moments across hours of footage; rough assemblies for repeated formats.
Where people decide
Which takes, what to cut, and when the story works.
A sound mixer wearing headphones listens with eyes closed, one hand on the console.

Scale & Finish

The approved treatment is applied across every version: colour, sound, captions, translations and reframes for each aspect ratio.

Where AI helps
First drafts of captions and translations; applying templates across versions; render queues.
Where people decide
The grade, the mix, and whether each translation is right for its audience.
A quality-control lead watches a playback intently, pen poised over a checklist.

Check & Deliver

Every file passes The Film Me Finish, then arrives in a clear folder structure with a delivery log. Source projects are archived as agreed.

Where AI helps
A first-pass technical check of every exported file.
Where people decide
The Film Me Finish on every file, then senior review.

The quality standard

The Film Me Finish.

The Film Me Finish is the quality check every Film Me deliverable must pass. A person checks each file against five headings.

  1. A hand lifts one printed frame from a row of stills on a desk.
    01

    Story

    Structure, pacing, the right take. Nothing that drags, nothing missing.

  2. A fingertip rests on an illuminated colour-grading trackball.
    02

    Picture

    Consistent colour and framing. Reframes for each aspect ratio are checked by eye, not just auto-cropped.

  3. An audio waveform glows on a screen behind a studio headphone.
    03

    Sound

    Clear dialogue, consistent loudness, balanced music, clean ins and outs.

  4. A hand holds a printed colour swatch card up for comparison.
    04

    Brand

    Fonts, colours, lower thirds and logo use. Names and job titles spelled correctly.

  5. A finger presses a softly glowing key on a control surface.
    05

    Technical

    Specification, captions in sync, file naming, and a playback check of the actual exported file.

Software catches what software is good at. A person checks all five, and every deliverable passes senior review before it leaves Film Me.

The production specification

Every deliverable follows the same rules.

Large programmes run on a written production specification, agreed during the pilot.

Consistency becomes part of the system, not something left to memory.

  • Fonts and graphics
  • Lower thirds and titles
  • Audio loudness
  • Caption format
  • Aspect ratios
  • Durations
  • File naming
  • Export settings
  • Folder structure
  • Review procedure
  • Named approvers
  • Delivery specification

What you see during a project

One tracker. One review rhythm. One contact.

Your contact
Rupert Chesman, from first call to final file
Tracker
The status of every file in the deliverables matrix
Reviews
In batches, in one tool, with named approvers
Delivery
Structured folders with a delivery log
After delivery
Files kept for at least 60 days, then deleted or archived as agreed
Starting point
A pilot batch

Post-production glossary

Terms used on this site.

Deliverables matrix
A table listing every file a project will produce: each video, in each aspect ratio, language and caption option. Film Me quotes and tracks projects against it.
Master style
The approved look and sound of a series: grade, graphics, titles, music treatment and loudness. It is locked during the pilot and applied to every video.
Pilot batch
The first one to three videos of a programme, taken to finished masters so the client can approve the standard before the rest is edited.
Versioning
Making alternative versions of one edit, such as cutdowns, different aspect ratios, durations, regional or branded variants.
Cutdown
A shorter edit made from a longer master film, for example a 30-second social version of a 3-minute film.
Aspect ratio
The shape of the picture: 16:9 for widescreen, 1:1 for square, 9:16 for vertical video on phones.
Localisation
Adapting a video for another language or region: translated captions, on-screen text, graphics and sometimes voice.
Open and closed captions
Open captions are burned into the picture and always visible. Closed captions are a separate file the viewer can switch on or off.
QC (quality control)
A structured check of a finished file before delivery. At Film Me this is The Film Me Finish: story, picture, sound, brand and technical.
White-label post-production
Editing carried out by Film Me under an agency’s own brand, with the agency keeping the client relationship.
Warm morning light spills through an open door at the end of a dark studio corridor.

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