Post production deliverables are the finished files and documents a distributor or streaming platform requires before it will accept a title: the picture master, audio mixes and stems, captions and subtitles, metadata, artwork and the rights paperwork. They are the last output of post-production and the first thing a buyer’s quality control checks.
A well-made film can still bounce at this stage. This guide explains what each deliverable is, where it fits in the post schedule, which specifications trip teams up most often (with Netflix’s published loudness rule as a worked example), and gives you a checklist you can adapt for any buyer.
Key takeaways
- Post production deliverables are the whole package a buyer needs: picture, sound, text files, metadata, artwork and rights documents, not a single video file.
- Each platform publishes its own specification, so the deliverables list should be confirmed in writing before the shoot, not after picture lock.
- Loudness is measured, not judged: Netflix targets dialogue at -27 LKFS within a 2 LU window, with true peaks no higher than -2 dBFS.
- One high-quality house master, with every platform version derived from it, is cheaper and safer than preparing each delivery from scratch.
- Alternate aspect ratios, such as vertical 9:16 versions, are now deliverables in their own right, with their own captions and artwork.
Table of contents
- What are post production deliverables?
- Where deliverables fit in post-production
- Picture deliverables: masters, containers and color
- Audio deliverables: loudness, stems and M&E
- Captions, metadata and artwork
- Rights and paperwork deliverables
- A post production deliverables checklist
- Why a house master standard saves the most money
- Deliver once, version many
- Frequently asked questions
What are post production deliverables?
Post production deliverables are everything a buyer contractually expects to receive once a program is finished. The list is usually attached to the distribution or license agreement, and the title is not considered delivered until every item on it has passed the buyer’s checks.
It helps to think of the package in five groups:
- Picture. The finished master at the specified resolution, frame rate, codec, color space and aspect ratio, plus textless versions of any shots with burned-in titles.
- Sound. The final mix in each required channel configuration, separate stems (dialogue, music, effects) and a music-and-effects track for dubbing.
- Text. Closed captions, subtitles in each licensed language and, increasingly, audio description.
- Metadata and artwork. Titles, synopses, credits, ratings and key art in every size and shape the platform displays.
- Documents. Chain of title, music cue sheets and licenses, and whatever proof of clearance the contract names.
Film deliverables for a theatrical sale, broadcast deliverables and streaming deliverables overlap heavily, but they are not identical. The same feature might owe a cinema package to one buyer, an interoperable file master to another and a vertical cut to a mobile platform. That is why the list has to be read, line by line, for each deal.
Where deliverables fit in post-production
Deliverables are the final stage of post-production, but they are decided at the very beginning. Wikipedia’s summary of the field says post-production “includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography,” and a common way to group those stages is:
- Editing, from the first assembly through to picture lock.
- Visual effects, from cleanup to fully built shots.
- Color grading, including separate versions for different displays.
- Sound and music, from dialogue editing and Foley to the final mix.
- Finishing and delivery, where the online conform, quality control and deliverables are produced.
Every earlier stage has a deliverables consequence. If the contract asks for stems and the mix was never split, someone has to rebuild it. If textless backgrounds were never rendered, the titles have to be removed shot by shot. If the colorist graded only one display version and the buyer wants two, the grade is reopened. Our plain-English guide to post-production walks through each of those stages in more detail.
Key insight: Deliverables are the only part of post that is written down before anyone shoots a frame. Treat the delivery schedule as a design brief for the whole pipeline, not as paperwork for the end.
Picture deliverables: masters, containers and color
The picture master is the highest-quality finished version of the program, and every other picture deliverable should be derived from it. Buyers want a clean, correctly flagged master, not a file that has already been compressed for viewing.
Resolution, container and active picture
Specifications distinguish between the shape of the file and the shape of the image inside it. In Depth Cine’s explainer on Netflix’s requirements puts it clearly: original Netflix content is delivered “in 4K UHD in a container aspect ratio of 1.78:1,” or 3840 by 2160 pixels, while the active picture can be another ratio, for example 2.39:1 at 3840×1610, with black bars filling the rest. Getting that distinction wrong, for instance by squeezing a scope film to fill the frame, is a classic avoidable rejection.
Frame rate, codec and color
Frame rate should be native and consistent from camera to master. Unnecessary conversions introduce judder and blended frames that automated checks catch. Most platforms prefer a high-bitrate mezzanine or a file-based master that they encode themselves. Color space and transfer characteristics must be tagged correctly, because an HDR master flagged as SDR, or the reverse, will look wrong to every viewer even if it passes a basic file check.
Versions, not just one master
Many buyers now expect several versions of the same finished work: different languages, edits for broadcast standards, different dynamic ranges. SMPTE’s Interoperable Master Format was built for exactly this; SMPTE describes IMF as a framework for “multiple content versions (airline edits, special edition, languages…)” of the same high-quality finished work. Even if your buyer does not ask for IMF, the idea behind it is worth copying: one master, many derived versions.
Alternate framings belong on this list too. A vertical 9:16 version for mobile surfaces is a separate deliverable with its own framing decisions, not a crop of the 16:9 file. That is where Reframe fits: it converts a finished master between aspect ratios, including legacy 4:3 material to vertical 9:16 or 16:9, up to 4K, without pan-and-scan cropping.
Audio deliverables: loudness, stems and M&E
Audio is where specifications are most precise and least forgiving, because loudness can be measured to a decimal place. A mix that sounds fine in the suite can still fail automated QC.
Netflix’s rule is a useful worked example. As Production Expert summarizes the Netflix sound specification, the target is “-27LKFS within a 2LU window,” measured on dialogue using the ITU BS.1770-1 method, and peaks must not exceed -2 dBFS true peak. Dialogue is the anchor: the meter listens for speech and ignores effects and music when it judges loudness. Other buyers use different targets and measurement methods, so read each specification rather than assuming one number works everywhere.
Beyond loudness, the usual audio deliverables are:
- Final mixes in each channel configuration requested, commonly stereo and 5.1, with channels in the specified order.
- Stems: separate dialogue, music and effects tracks that sum to the final mix.
- M&E, the music-and-effects track with dialogue removed, which dubbing teams need to build foreign-language versions.
- Labeled language tracks, because a mislabeled track plays the wrong language to a whole territory.
Check sync at the start, middle and end of the program. Drift that is invisible in a short review clip becomes obvious across a feature.
Captions, metadata and artwork
These are the deliverables most often treated as admin, and they deserve the same care as picture and sound. Plan as much time for them as you would for a round of picture notes.
Captions and subtitles
Closed captions and subtitles are different deliverables. Captions serve deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and include non-speech information such as sound effects and speaker identification. Subtitles translate dialogue for viewers who hear the audio but do not speak the language. Most buyers specify the file format, frame-accurate timing, reading-speed limits and positioning rules. Captions must not sit on top of burned-in text or important action, which is why a vertical version needs its own caption file rather than the 16:9 one. Audio description is increasingly on the list as well; check the accessibility obligations that apply in each territory you are licensing.
Metadata
Metadata decides whether anyone finds the title once it is live. Typical fields include the title and its sort variants, synopses at several lengths, genre, cast and crew with roles, release year, runtime, languages and ratings for each territory. Ratings in particular have to come from the rating body, not from a guess.
Artwork
Key art is composed for a shape, just as picture is. Platforms ask for several ratios and sizes, versions with and without the title treatment, and title-safe areas that survive the cropping their apps apply. Artwork that ignores those safe areas gets cut off on some devices.
Key insight: A title with perfect picture and poor metadata is effectively invisible inside a streaming app. Deliverables are not only about passing QC; they also decide how the title is discovered.
Rights and paperwork deliverables
Buyers want evidence, not assurances. The paperwork part of the package usually includes chain of title, music cue sheets showing every cue, its duration, usage and license status, talent and location releases where required, and confirmation of licensed territories and term.
Music cue sheets are the item that most often holds up older titles. Documentation from years ago may be incomplete, and rebuilding it means tracing composers, publishers and licenses one cue at a time. For libraries being brought back into a modern post-production workflow, start that research early, in parallel with any technical restoration, because it frequently sets the delivery date.
A post production deliverables checklist
A written checklist, checked against each buyer’s specification, prevents most avoidable rejections. The table below shows the core post production deliverables, what each one is and where it commonly goes wrong.
| Deliverable | What it is | Common failure to check for |
|---|---|---|
| Picture master | Full-quality finished program at the specified resolution, frame rate and codec | Wrong container vs active picture ratio, frame rate conversions, incorrect color flags |
| Textless elements | Clean versions of every shot that carries titles or graphics | Missing shots, handles too short to cut back in |
| Final mix and stems | Stereo and surround mixes plus dialogue, music and effects stems | Loudness or true-peak out of spec, wrong channel order, stems that do not sum to the mix |
| M&E track | Music and effects without dialogue, for dubbing | Effects recorded with dialogue missing from the M&E |
| Captions and subtitles | Timed text files for accessibility and translation | Reading speed too fast, text over burned-in titles, drift against picture |
| Alternate ratio versions | Separately framed versions, such as 9:16 vertical | Center crops that lose the subject, captions reused from 16:9 |
| Metadata | Titles, synopses, credits, runtime, ratings per territory | Guessed ratings, missing synopsis lengths, inconsistent credits |
| Artwork | Key art in every required ratio, with and without title | Title outside safe area, missing textless version |
| Rights documents | Chain of title, cue sheets, licenses, releases | Incomplete cue sheets on older titles, licenses that exclude the new territory or format |
Before submission, run your own QC against the buyer’s specification and fix issues at source. Where a version has changed since the last pass, compare it with the approved one rather than re-watching it cold. PeakView, CineVision’s side-by-side QA workspace, plays two versions in sync to the frame, lets reviewers leave notes at the exact timecode and exports those notes with timecodes or as JSON for the editorial pipeline.
Why a house master standard saves the most money
Delivering title by title to each buyer’s specification means preparing the same asset repeatedly, slightly differently, with a new chance of error each time. A house master standard reverses that: master once to the strictest specification you realistically expect to meet, then derive every buyer’s version from it.
In practice that means four habits:
- Specify once, deliver many. Keep a written house standard for picture, sound, captions and metadata that meets or exceeds your toughest buyer.
- Never convert a conversion. Every version comes from the master, not from another delivery file, so quality losses do not stack up.
- Track state per title, per buyer. A catalogue delivered to several platforms becomes a grid of titles, platforms and statuses. Without tracking, titles silently miss a platform.
- Fix at the source. A recurring error corrected in the house standard stops recurring in every future delivery.
The first few titles cost more under this model. Across a catalogue, the savings are large, because preparation happens once and the variants become routine work.
Deliver once, version many
Good post production deliverables are the difference between a finished film and a film that is actually on a platform earning money. The work is unglamorous: confirm the list before the shoot, build a house master, measure loudness rather than trusting your ears, give captions, metadata and artwork proper time, and check every version against the one that was approved.
If your deliverables list now includes vertical or other alternate-ratio versions, see how Reframe converts a finished master into new formats while keeping the director’s framing intent. And if you are planning to distribute those versions in your own branded app, Tall Tale gives you a white-label vertical and horizontal streaming app with built-in subtitles, SEO, analytics and thumbnail tools.
