Gathering materials before the edit starts
Materials get gathered before the edit starts when the client has one place to upload, every file is checked on arrival, the list of what is still missing lives on the project as open tasks, and the edit stage does not open until that list is empty. In Tasked the client uploads through the portal without an account, every upload is scanned for malware before it can be opened or shared, and each missing item is a task with an owner and a due date that the stage transition can wait for.
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The list of what is missing is the whole job
An edit that starts without the logo, the fonts or the licensed track is an edit that will be redone. The work of gathering materials is not the uploading; it is keeping an accurate list of what has not arrived yet, who owes it and by when, and making that list impossible to ignore.
In Tasked that list is a set of tasks on the project. Each task has an owner, a due date and a priority, and the stage the tasks sit in cannot be left until they are done when the transition says so. The Wedding film template makes the point concretely: its Ingest and backup stage has one task, 'Ingest cards and verify two backups', and the Highlights edit stage does not open until it is complete.
- Footage: every card, with the shoot date and the camera it came from.
- Graphics: logo in a vector format, brand fonts, lower-third templates.
- Audio: voiceover, music with its licence, any archive sound.
- Text: names spelled as they should appear, captions, legal lines.
- References: the three films the client meant when they said 'like this one'.
One door for the client to upload through
The client does not need an account to send files. A portal door is issued to them as a code, a link, a phone number that receives a one-time code, or an email; inside, they upload into the project, download what the studio has shared and see the thread. A door can be scoped to a single project or to everything that client has with the studio, and it expires after 30 days by default unless the studio sets another period or none.
The door is issued and delivered in one step: the studio chooses the kind, the invitation goes by email or SMS, and if the mail provider is down the credential is still returned to the studio to pass on by hand. A door can be revoked at any time, and the list of what has been done with it is visible to the studio.
Every file is scanned before anyone opens it
A client's laptop is not the studio's laptop. Every upload into Tasked, whether from the portal or from a member, is scanned for malware before it becomes available. A file that has not passed the scan cannot be shared through a link, so a share link never hands on a file the scanner has not cleared.
The scan is not optional and not a plan feature; it runs on every upload on every plan, including the trial. For a studio the practical consequence is that a file which arrived through the portal at two in the morning is safe to open at nine.
Files, folders and versions
Materials are organised in folders, and each file is an asset with versions. A new upload of the same asset becomes the next version rather than a second file with a similar name, which is what keeps 'logo_final_2_new' out of the project. Files can be shared outward with a link that carries an optional password, an optional expiry date and a switch for whether download is allowed; a link can be revoked and its uses are counted.
A folder can be shared the same way as a single file, which is how a studio hands a client a whole set of selects at once. Search covers files as well as tasks, projects and comments, so 'the interview with the founder' finds the clip by its name and by the comments made on it.
Turning a missing item into a task
A note in the review player - 'we still need the packshot at 4K' - can be converted into a task with an owner and a due date without retyping it. The task keeps its link to the note, so when the packshot arrives the person closing the task can see what asked for it.
Automations can watch the uploads. A rule written as a sentence, 'when a file is uploaded to a project in the Brief stage, notify the producer', is compiled, translated back for checking, and simulated over the last month of real events before it runs. A deadline-near trigger can create the reminder task for a material that is due in 48 hours and not yet in the folder.
How much can be stored
Storage is a plan limit. Starter includes 100 GB, Professional 1 TB and Business 5 TB, and a terabyte can be added to any paid plan for $15 per month. The trial runs on Starter's 100 GB. A file deleted from a project keeps its bytes for the organisation's retention window, 30 days by default, so a card ingested into the wrong project can be recovered within that window.
For an edit, the useful discipline is to keep source footage where the editor works and to upload to Tasked the things that need to be reviewed, approved, shared with the client or kept as the record: selects, cuts, graphics, audio and the approved master.
Questions that keep coming up
- Can the client upload without creating an account?
- Yes. The portal door is a code, a link, a phone number with a one-time code or an email. There is no sign-up.
- Is every upload scanned?
- Yes, on every plan including the trial. A file that has not passed the scan cannot be shared through a link.
- What happens if the client uploads a new version of the same file?
- It becomes the next version of the same asset. Versions of a cut can be compared side by side with notes carried from the older one.
- How long do share links last?
- As long as you set. A link can have an expiry date, a password and a download switch, and it can be revoked at any time.
- How much storage does the trial have?
- 100 GB, the Starter plan's limit, for fourteen days with no card.