Field Notes / Korea
FN 01.01 / Production planning
Video production in Korea · Pre-production
Define every video deliverable before scheduling the shoot in Korea
A deliverables-first method for defining every edit, version, language, format, and approval before crew, locations, schedule, and cost are estimated.
- Field note
- FN 01.01
- Phase
- Pre-production
- Published
- Last updated
- Reading time
- 9 min
What this note resolves
What must be defined about the deliverables before a video shoot in Korea can be scheduled and estimated?
Field conclusion
Do not schedule the production from the primary film alone. Define every required deliverable, version, format, language, and approval first. Then identify which outputs change filming, post-production, review time, or cost. A production is scheduled against every required deliverable.
Notebook 01 · Note 1 of 11
Core definitions
Define the deliverables terms
Use these terms to build one complete production record.
- Deliverable
- A finished file or package the production is required to supply.
- Version
- A variation of a deliverable created for a particular language, platform, duration, framing, text state, audio requirement, or audience.
- Delivery specification
- The technical and organizational requirements the final file must meet, such as resolution, frame rate, codec, audio layout, captions, file naming, or delivery method.
- Approval owner
- The person authorized to approve the deliverable or provide consolidated final feedback.
- Deliverables plan
- A complete record of every required output, version, specification status, filming implication, review route, and approval owner.
Define each term once, then use it consistently.
Working method
Build the deliverables plan in six decisions
The schedule and budget are outputs of this record. They are not the place to discover missing deliverables.
- 01 List every deliverable
- Record every primary film, cutdown, bumper, platform edit, language version, clean version, subtitle file, audio version, or other required output.
- 02 Define each version
- Record the intended use, duration, frame or aspect ratio, language, text state, audio state, and any other distinction that changes the output.
- 03 Identify filming implications
- Determine whether the output changes framing, action, camera coverage, eyelines, graphics space, clean coverage, sound, or contributor requirements.
- 04 Confirm the specification status
- Record which technical requirements are confirmed and which must be referred to the client, platform, broadcaster, post team, or technical owner.
- 05 Assign review and approval
- Name who consolidates feedback, who approves each deliverable, and when the approval must occur.
- 06 Set the scope status
- Mark the deliverables plan ready, conditional, on hold, or incomplete before crew, locations, schedule, and cost are committed.
Observation
The incomplete brief
A brief may describe the primary film while leaving shorter edits, vertical versions, subtitles, translated text, clean elements, audio versions, and approval ownership unresolved.
Those omissions do not disappear. They return as additional filming requirements, post-production work, review rounds, schedule changes, or cost.1
Decision principle
Schedule every required deliverable
The production is not being planned against one completed film. It is being planned against every file, version, review, and handoff the team must complete.
A deliverable may change what must be filmed, how the frame is composed, which language or text elements are required, how much post-production work is needed, who approves the output, and when the production is complete.
A production is not scheduled against one film. It is scheduled against every required deliverable.1
Worked example 01
One primary film, six deliverables
This example shows how one primary film can expand into several separately specified, reviewed, and delivered files. The required outputs must be defined for the actual brief. These files share creative material, but they may require different framing, text treatment, language work, review, technical preparation, and delivery.
Illustrative reference configuration
- Primary film
- 90 sec · 16:9
- Korean subtitle version
- 90 sec · 16:9
- Clean or textless version
- 90 sec · 16:9
- Editorial cutdown
- 30 sec · 16:9
- Vertical social edit
- 15 sec · 9:16
- Campaign bumper
- 6 sec · 1:1
Production impact
Confirm what changes filming
For each deliverable, decide whether the primary composition creates all required material or whether the shot plan must change.
Add a filming requirement when an output needs different framing, subject position, action, camera movement, eyelines, graphics space, clean or textless material, sound, or contributor preparation.
Record the decision before the crew, location, and schedule are estimated.14
What changes in Korea
Connect language work to the approval route
An international production in Korea may combine English-language client materials, Korean-language contributor coordination, subtitles, translated on-screen text, clean versions, and review across Korea, regional, and global teams.
For every language and version, record the source language, translation owner, subtitle or on-screen-text owner, person consolidating feedback, final approval owner, review deadline, and person applying the approved change.
Do not leave language ownership or final approval to be resolved during post-production.1
Field tool 01
Deliverables plan
A Field Office deliverables-planning method
Primary film
- Format
- 90 sec · 16:9
- Language and text
- English · texted · clean version required
- Production impact
- Primary coverage
- Approval owner
- Global client lead
- Status
- Confirmed
Korean subtitle version
- Format
- 90 sec · 16:9
- Language and text
- Korean subtitles
- Production impact
- Translation, subtitle layout, and approval
- Approval owner
- Korea or regional approver
- Status
- Conditional
Vertical social edit
- Format
- 15 sec · 9:16
- Language and text
- English · texted
- Production impact
- Vertical framing and additional coverage decision open
- Approval owner
- Unassigned
- Status
- Open
Alternate opening
- Format
- Not defined
- Language and text
- Not defined
- Production impact
- Filming requirement unknown
- Approval owner
- Unassigned
- Status
- Open
Deliverables status
End with one production decision
This is a Field Office deliverables-readiness method. The status applies to one defined brief. Change the deliverables and review the production again.
- 01Ready to schedule
- Every required deliverable is listed, production impacts are understood, specification ownership is assigned, and approval routes are confirmed.
- 02Ready with documented assumptions
- The production can proceed using named assumptions that have owners and review dates.
- 03Hold for deliverable decisions
- A required output, version, filming implication, specification, or approval owner remains unresolved.
- 04Rebuild the scope
- The brief does not define the outputs well enough to estimate or schedule the production reliably.
Brief review
An early brief can appear complete while leaving versions, languages, filming requirements, specifications, and approval ownership unresolved. Send the current brief, intended platforms, languages, dates, and known outputs. Field Office can identify the deliverable decisions that should be closed before crew and schedule commitments are made.
Review the production briefFailure pattern
The late social edit request
The location, crew, and schedule are approved around the primary film. A vertical social edit is added later.
The production then discovers that the intended framing, opening action, graphics space, or clean coverage was not captured.
The new file is not merely an additional export. It requires production material that does not exist.
A late deliverable can become a late filming requirement.
Documentary and observational work
Documentary and observational productions may require a more flexible deliverables plan because the final material cannot be predicted completely before filming.
Even then, record intended platforms, expected frame or aspect ratios, languages, minimum required outputs, essential clean or textless material, and the review and approval route.
Flexibility should be documented. It should not be confused with undefined scope.
Do not build the shoot schedule until
- Every required deliverable is listed.
- Each deliverable has an intended use, duration, and frame or aspect ratio.
- Language, subtitle, caption, translated-text, and clean-version requirements are defined where relevant.
- Outputs requiring distinct framing, action, sound, graphics space, or coverage are identified.
- Technical specification ownership is assigned.
- Feedback and final approval owners are named.
- Open deliverable assumptions have owners and review dates.
- The deliverables plan has one clear status: Ready to schedule, Ready with documented assumptions, Hold for deliverable decisions, or Rebuild the scope.
Record
- Basis
- Field Office deliverables planning method and cited project, industry, and platform guidance
- Scope
- Deliverables planning for international commercial and editorial video production in Korea
- Limitations
- The Deliverables Plan, six-step method, worked example, status categories, and failure pattern are Field Office planning methods, not universal industry classifications. Platform and industry guidance does not replace the actual client, broadcaster, post-production, or technical specification. FN 01.07 owns the deeper technical-delivery method.
- Published
- 12 June 2025
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
- Last reviewed
- 30 July 2026
- Revision
- Reordered the opening, defined the deliverables method, relocated the six-output worked example, and added scoped source records.
Source record
- Source organization
- Project Management Institute
- Page
- Building high quality work breakdown structures using the Practice standard for work breakdown structures, second edition
- Official source
- PMI work breakdown structure guidance
- Access date
- Supports
- Project scope can be organized through a deliverable oriented decomposition that defines required outcomes before schedule and cost planning.
- Limitation
- This is general project management guidance. FN 01.01 translates the principle into a Field Office video production method.
- Source organization
- ScreenSkills
- Page
- Deliverables producer
- Official source
- ScreenSkills Deliverables Producer profile
- Access date
- Supports
- Picture, sound, formats, versions, additional materials, testing, scheduling, and final delivery require active coordination.
- Limitation
- This is industry role guidance. It does not prescribe one universal deliverables package for commercial or editorial production.
- Source organization
- ScreenSkills
- Page
- Post-production Supervisor Skills
- Official source
- ScreenSkills Post-production Supervisor Skills
- Access date
- Supports
- Delivery requirements, post-production workflows, schedules, technical questions, quality control, and final assets require planning, tracking, and communication across departments.
- Limitation
- This is industry workflow guidance for scripted film and television. The exact responsibilities and deliverables remain production specific.
- Source organization
- Netflix
- Page
- Textless Elements Creation and Delivery Guidelines
- Official source
- Netflix textless elements guidance
- Access date
- Supports
- One platform-specific workflow separately creates and delivers texted, textless, and clean picture elements for defined uses.
- Limitation
- Netflix guidance is platform specific. It does not establish that every client, platform, or production requires a clean or textless version.
- Source organization
- YouTube
- Page
- Video Resolution and Aspect Ratios
- Official source
- YouTube video resolution and aspect ratios
- Access date
- Supports
- YouTube displays videos according to their frame ratio and adapts its player to individual horizontal, square, or vertical video formats.
- Limitation
- This is platform-specific display guidance. It does not require a separate edit or unique filming coverage for every frame ratio.
- Source organization
- YouTube
- Page
- Recommended Upload Encoding Settings
- Official source
- YouTube recommended upload encoding settings
- Access date
- Supports
- YouTube publishes platform-specific recommendations for resolution, frame ratio, frame rate, codec, and audio settings.
- Limitation
- These are YouTube recommendations, not universal production requirements. The responsible technical owner must confirm the actual delivery specification.
Confirm the deliverables before the production is priced and scheduled
Send the current brief, intended platforms, languages, proposed dates, and known outputs. Field Office can identify missing versions, filming implications, approval owners, and deliverable assumptions before the production is built around an incomplete scope.
Review the production planBrief · platforms · languages · dates · intended deliverables · current assumptions