The board is not approved when the PDF is sent. It is approved when a named person has marked frames and the version is frozen. Email cannot do that.
What goes wrong with PDF review
- Comments live in a reply-all thread, not on frame 7
- Two executives mark up two different attachments
- The production company receives v3; the agency still has v2 open
- Nobody can tell whether “make it warmer” applies to colour or to the performance
A review round that actually closes
If a reviewer cannot open the link on a phone in a taxi, the round will bounce back to email. That is a product requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- Freeze a version. Name it (
R2 — client). - Send one link. Reviewers do not create accounts.
- Comments are pinned to a frame, optionally to a point on the frame.
- A producer resolves each comment or turns it into a change.
- Export the approved version as PDF + MP4. That pair is what the crew gets.
What CineoBoard does here
CineoBoard review links do not consume a paid seat. Slack and Microsoft Teams can be notified when a scene is commented or approved, so the conversation happens where the production already talks. Compare that with tools that treat review as a PDF export: vs Boords is the closest cloud comparison.
FAQ
Should legal and brand sit in the same round as creative?
Usually no. Creative first, then brand/legal on a frozen creative version. Mixing them produces comments that fight each other on the same frame.
Do clients need to see the shot list?
Producers do. Most brand clients want the animatic. Send both from the same version so they cannot disagree.