Production, Week Two

Week 11 · SLOP8760

Phase 4 of 4 · The Episode

This week adds

Assembly: every gated shot cut into one sequence, carrying its sound and captions, and exported to a spec rather than a default.

The gate has already run

Assembly decides order, pacing, and where a cut lands against a beat. A gated shot does not get re-judged on its own merits here.

Loudness has a published number

-23.0LUFS, ±1.0 LU, true peak not above -1 dBTP

EBU R 128’s target, and the reason “sounds about right” is not a delivery note: it varies with the speaker, the room, and the listener. The measurement does not.

Source: EBU R 128 v5.0 (Nov 2023) — https://tech.ebu.ch/publications/r128

Captions are a text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content

W3C WAI, Captions/Subtitles

Source: W3C WAI, Captions/Subtitles — https://www.w3.org/WAI/media/av/captions/

Delivery is a spec, not a save button

A cut that looks correct on your own machine and fails a platform’s check has not shipped. It has failed at the most expensive point in the pipeline.

RequirementYouTube’s published recommendation
ContainerMP4, moov atom first
VideoH.264 High Profile, closed GOP
AudioAAC-LC, 48 kHz
1080p SDR bitrate8 Mbps at 24-30 fps

Source: YouTube Help, recommended upload encoding settings — https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171

The same cut, more than one door

TikTok’s ad spec wants 9:16 at 540x960 or better, under 500MB, at 516 kbps or above. Douyin’s upload API caps a file at 128MB and 15 minutes and recommends 720p or better, vertical. One master, several exports.

Source: TikTok Ads Manager, Video Ads Specifications — https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article/video-ads-specifications
Source: 抖音开放平台, 上传视频 — https://open.douyin.com/platform/resource/docs/openapi/video-management/douyin/create/upload/

Sound and captions, carried through

A caption out of sync, or a line buried once music goes under it, is an assembly failure even though no single shot caused it. And the target moves with the door: Apple Podcasts asks for around -16 dB LKFS, not -23.

Source: Apple Podcasts for Creators, Audio requirements — https://podcasters.apple.com/support/893-audio-requirements

Before class

Bring the three shots that cleared the quality gate together with any notes on where their sound or captions still need work before assembly.

This week’s exercise

Assemble the season’s episode: cut the gated shots into one sequence, check loudness against the published standard, confirm captions are present and in sync, and export to the platform’s delivery spec. This is the pilot’s own production pass, so bring the finished pilot itself to Wednesday’s Dailies.

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