Why a commercial is the hard case
A feature has months and a director with final say. A commercial has a shoot day that was booked before the idea was finished, a client whose approval is a contractual step, an agency between the client and the director, and a product that is the reason any of it exists. Thirty seconds of film can involve a dozen approvals, each one a chance for the thing being approved to differ from the thing being made. The expensive failures on a commercial are rarely creative. They are the frame the client approved that the day could not deliver, the bottle that is not quite the bottle, the cut-down nobody planned as a frame, and the change requested at the pre-production meeting that reaches the set as a surprise.
Previs is the discipline that moves those failures to a screen. The agency's board becomes a set of frames with the real look and a placed camera; the client signs the frame rather than a sketch of one; the production company plans the day from the signed frames; and the product is held identical across all of them by rule rather than by vigilance. The workflow below is the one PREVIZ runs on live advertising work; the credited productions are on the work page.
From brief to shot list, step by step
The brief, read as structure. A creative brief or a script goes into Script, where it is read as scenes, beats, cast, product and locations — the same breakdown a film gets, scaled to thirty seconds. For a spot with no script yet, the idea starts on an Infinitum board: references, a paragraph, the product shot, and a director agent that proposes a sequence from them.
Lock the product and the cast first. Before any frame, the product is locked from its pack shot or its CAD render, and the talent from a casting reference, so every frame that follows is made under those locks. A product lock is the one thing on this page that is specific to advertising: a label line, a cap, a logo position are details a brand manager will see in a second and an engine will vary without being asked.
Board it at pitch density, then at shooting density. The agency board — a few frames per beat with the look applied — is what the client approves. Once it is signed, the same board is rebuilt at shooting density: every setup, the inserts, the product hero, each with its size and angle. The script to storyboard page covers both densities; the mistake is making one and calling it the other.
Sign the hero. The frame the campaign hangs on — the product hero, the key art, the one the out-of-home will use — is locked in Keyframe at the resolution the deliverable needs, and the rest of the production inherits it. A client review link lets the client see and comment on it without an account.
Stage the set when the shot has to be built. A table-top with a rig, a car on a turntable, a kitchen that will be built on a stage: these go into CineForge, where the camera becomes numbers and the techvis sheet comes out. The 3D previs page says when that is worth the hour it takes.
Motion, quoted first. For an animatic with movement, or a cut the client can feel, Director makes takes from the approved frames with the cast and product references attached, and states duration and cost before a take runs. The result is a sequence the agency can present and the editor can time to, not a finished spot.
Leave as a package. Breakdown, shot list, boards, the signed hero, the cast and product continuity sheet with its pass-rate, the schedule: one document the production company and the client both read. Formats are planned here — a 9:16 is a frame, not a crop.
What goes wrong on commercials
The approved frame the day cannot deliver. A generated frame with a lens that does not exist and a camera position inside a wall. If the frame the client signed was never placed, the production company is now choosing between disappointing the client and faking the shot. Place the camera before the sign-off, or make clear which frames are mood and which are plan.
The product that is not the product. The commonest drift on a commercial and the most expensive, because it is noticed by the person paying. Lock it, and read the drift score before the review.
Approvals that do not travel. The client approved version three; the set is shooting version four because the change in between was made in a different tool. One production, one record of what was approved and when, with the superseded frames marked stale.
Cut-downs discovered in the edit. The 9:16 that crops the product out of the frame. Plan the formats as frames at the board stage, under the same locks.
Where PREVIZ does it
All six rooms, on the Advertising module that is live today — the brief read in Script, the board in Storyboard, the hero signed in Keyframe, the set staged in CineForge, the takes in Director, and the Infinitum board as the place the idea starts — with the Continuity Lock holding product and cast across all of it and a client review link for the sign-off. The page for brands and agencies describes the module; pricing is by credits, with every room open on every plan. What the platform does not do is the shoot or the finish: it gets the spot to a signed, placed, costed plan, and keeps the record of how every frame was made for the people who will ask.
Questions people ask
What does previs change on a commercial?
It moves the client's approval from a drawn board, which settles intent, to a frame with the real look and a placed camera, which settles the shot. Every change after approval costs the budget line, so the thing being approved should be the thing being shot.
Can the agency and the production company work in the same place?
Yes. The board, the locked cast and product, the staged set and the takes live in one production; the agency works on the board and the client reviews a share link without an account, while the production company turns the approved frames into a shot list and a techvis sheet.
How is the product kept identical across every frame?
It is locked like a cast member. A product lock made from the pack shot or the CAD render is attached to every generation and every frame is scored against it, so a bottle that gained a label line or lost its cap is caught on the board, not by the brand manager.
What about the cut-downs and the formats?
A project carries its aspect ratio, and the board, the frames and the takes follow it, so the 9:16 and the 1:1 are planned as frames rather than crops. Deliverable rendering is Director's job; the plan for each format is made before anything is rendered.