Every episode, from script lock to the final master.

A series is made one episode at a time. Each passes through writing, prep, shoot, edit, sound and delivery, and the commissioning platform signs off along the way and every approval changes what the next team may do. A late sign-off ripples downstream.

Most companies run this from a shared drive in the production office, a spreadsheet of shoot days and a cost report from the line producer. Nobody reads the numbers beside the schedule until an episode has overrun, and by then the retake budget and the edit suite booking are gone. It is late.

The line producer builds the episode budget from the script breakdown and sends the shooting schedule to the first assistant director, while the production coordinator issues cast and crew deal memos. Recce notes, permits, generator hire and unit vehicles are booked against shoot days, and call sheets go out the evening before with cast pickup times and the nearest hospital. A wrong sheet wastes a morning.

On set, the daily production report records scenes shot, pages completed, overtime and lost time, while the data wrangler copies camera cards and checksums them and makes ProRes proxies. The commissioner sends notes on each cut, and those notes decide whether the episode moves on to the colourist and the sound mix or goes back to the editor. Edits wait on them.

Music cues, archive clips and artwork need clearance before delivery, and the accountant compares each week’s costs to the episode budget while the errors and omissions policy is renewed. The commissioner releases each payment tranche only when the agreed masters, caption files, textless versions and cue sheets arrive, so a missing file holds up the money.