How do I review a client video before delivery?
The fastest way to lose a client is to deliver a video with quiet audio or a typo in the lower-third. Here is the sign-off pass I run before anything leaves the studio, and how to send the proof that goes with it.
By Thomas, founder of CutScore · Updated June 2026
Client work is judged differently from your own. On your channel, a quiet mix costs you a few percent of retention and nobody emails you about it. On a paid job, the same quiet mix gets you a "hey, is the audio meant to be this low?" message at 9pm, and the client now wonders what else you missed. I have sent that exact video. Loudness fine on my speakers, far too quiet on the client's phone in a meeting. Lesson learned, the expensive way.
The problem is the same one that bites everyone. By the time you export, you are not watching the video, you are remembering it. You have seen the lower-third forty times, so your eye slides right past the missing "r" in "Founder." You mixed the music at 2am, so it sounds balanced to your tired ears and like a nightclub to a fresh one. The client, by contrast, is watching it for the first time, on whatever device they own, in full critic mode.
So delivery review is not "does it look good to me." It is a different question: would this survive a stranger watching it cold, against what we agreed in the brief? That needs targets, a fresh pass, and ideally a second set of eyes. Here is how I do it.
The sign-off pass before a client video ships.
Eleven things a client will notice if you skip them. Each has a target you can hit, and none of them care how good your camera is.
| Check | Target to hit | What it costs you if you skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Brief match | does the ask | A polished video that misses the brief is still a rejected video. |
| Loudness | ≈ −14 LUFS | Too quiet and the client thinks something is broken with the file. |
| True peak | ≤ −1 dBTP | Hot peaks crackle after the platform re-encodes, on a video with their name on it. |
| Voice vs music | voice on top | Music burying the message is the note you get back most often. |
| Exposure + white balance | neutral, not clipped | Green skin and crushed shadows read as "unfinished," not "stylish." |
| Focus + stabilisation | sharp, no jelly | Soft or wobbly shots look like mistakes nobody caught. |
| Pacing · shot length | fits the format | A boring stretch is the bit a client picks out in their notes. |
| First 3 seconds | earns the watch | If the brief is for reach, the open is the whole job. |
| Captions + safe zones | readable, in-frame | Tiny or cropped text fails the muted, mobile audience every brand wants. |
| Branding | logo, names, end card | A typo in a name or a wrong logo undoes every hour you spent grading. |
| Export spec | matches the deliverable | Wrong resolution, codec or aspect ratio and the file is unusable as delivered. |
Eleven checks on every cut, on every revision, adds up. CutScore runs the measurable ones in one pass and hands back the fixes, so your sign-off is faster and nothing slips through.
Five passes, in the order I do them.
1. Read the brief again before you watch anything
Open the brief next to the timeline and re-read it cold. Aspect ratio, length, deliverable count, the call to action, the things the client specifically asked for and the things they specifically banned. Most rejected videos are not bad videos. They are good videos that answered a different question. I tick the brief off line by line before I judge a single frame, because there is no point grading a 16:9 master when the deliverable was a 9:16 vertical cut.
2. Sound: the note you get back most
Clients forgive a soft shot. They do not forgive audio they have to lean into. Two numbers carry the weight. Loudness, which you want near −14 LUFS so the file does not feel broken when they open it on a phone, and true peak, which you keep at or below −1 dBTP so nothing crackles after re-encode. Then listen on the worst speakers you own. If the music is winning over the voice, pull it down four or five decibels and stop being precious about your needle-drop.
3. Picture: exposed, neutral, sharp
Drop your screen brightness to something normal, not the editing-suite blaze. Look for solid black shadows with no detail and blown-out highlights with no information left in them. Check that whites read white, not blue or orange, and that skin tone looks like skin. Then scrub for soft focus and any stabilisation wobble. On client work this matters double, because an unfinished-looking grade reads as "they rushed it," and that impression sticks longer than the actual flaw.
4. Edit and words: pacing, hook, captions, names
Watch the cut for pace using average shot length as your gut check: a stretch that drags is usually one shot held too long, repeated. Watch the first three seconds as if you were scrolling past, because if the brief was reach, the open is the deliverable. Read every caption on a phone at arm's length. And read every name, title and lower-third out loud. Spelling a client's name wrong is the one mistake that no amount of colour grading buys back.
5. Export and proof: ship the right file the right way
Export to the exact deliverable spec: resolution, codec, frame rate, aspect ratio, and a separate file per platform if the brief asked for it. Then watch the rendered file, not the timeline, because a clean edit can still come out soft if the bitrate is wrong. Finally, do not just dump the master in a folder. Send a watermarked review link, list what you checked, and ask for time-coded notes. That single habit turns "it feels off" into "fix 00:42," which is a note you can actually action.
Here is a real CutScore report on a finished cut: every check above, scored, with timestamps and the exact fixes you would hand a client.
If you only fix three things.
On a deadline with no time for the full pass, these three catch the problems that actually trigger a revision request. Fix them first.
By eye, by meter, or in one pass.
By eye and ear
Free, and better than nothing. The trap is the one we opened with: your senses adapt and your gear flatters, so the version that sounds fine to you can be quiet to the client. Works best after a day away, or with a second reviewer. Use the table above so you are testing against targets, not vibes.
With scopes and meters
Accurate and honest. A loudness meter, a waveform, a scope for exposure. The cost is time: you have to know the targets, open three tools, and read them right on every revision of every deliverable. Fine on one hero video. Painful across a batch with a deadline.
With a coach in one pass
Hand the final file (or a link) to CutScore. It measures the craft against the right standard for the format and returns a 0 to 100 score with timestamped evidence and fixes, so you sign off with proof instead of a hunch. See a sample report.
Frequently asked.
Deliver with proof, not a hunch.
CutScore runs this whole sign-off pass on your final cut and tells you exactly what to fix, with the evidence to hand the client. Join the waitlist for early access.
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