Timed notes: a comment that points at a second

What a timed note is

When a client writes a note in the portal while the cut is playing or paused, they can pin the note to the current time. The portal reads the playhead from the player, stores the position as whole milliseconds with the note, and shows it as a timecode label of the form 00:01:23 next to the text. The number is the authority and the label is for people.

A timed note is clickable. Pressing the label seeks the player to that moment, so the second reader of the thread - the editor, or the client's colleague - lands on the frame the note is about instead of scrubbing for it. A note written without pinning is an untimed note and reads like any other comment.

The position is capped at 24 hours, which is a guard against a pasted number that would invent a week, not a product limit. A note can be up to 4,000 characters and can carry attachments, so a client can drop a reference image under the note that asks for it.

Why a second and not a frame

The portal shows hours, minutes and seconds and drops the frame field. That is a deliberate split. The client's player is the browser's own video element, which is what a link with no account and nothing to install needs. It does not know the source frame rate of the file, so the portal displays the time on a fixed 25 frames-per-second clock and keeps the stored milliseconds as the truth.

Frame-accurate review lives in the studio's review room: playback at the source frame rate, 23.976 and 29.97 included, and marks that name a frame rather than a second. That room is also where drawing on stills and PDFs happens, and where two versions are compared side by side with notes carried forward to the next version.

In practice a client saying 'the logo at 00:00:41 is too small' is precise enough for the editor to find the shot in one click, and the editor's own note on the exact frame is made in the room, where the tool for it exists.

From the client's note to the editor's task

A portal note is not a chat message to the studio. It lands in the task's own thread on the studio side, prefixed with its time, so an editor reading the task sees the feedback in the place the work is tracked. The studio's own room can turn a comment into a task with an owner and a due date, which is how a note becomes a line on the board rather than a line in a thread.

Because the thread belongs to the task and not to the door, a note survives the door. If the studio revokes a link and issues a new one to the same client, the notes are still on the task and the new door reads the same thread.

The studio's notification layer rings on a portal comment the same way it rings on a decision: the person assigned to the task hears that the client wrote, without anybody forwarding an email.

Notes and the change request

The portal offers two verdicts: approve, and request changes. A change request must carry a comment that says what should change; the page refuses an empty request before it is sent. The timed notes are the natural place for the detail, and the request itself can carry a summary of up to 4,000 characters.

Both the notes and the verdict are recorded. A note writes an audit row for the comment; the verdict writes a decision row marked as coming from the portal and an audit row naming the door, the session and the review round it closed. When the client asks months later which note led to the third cut, the thread and the log agree.

A change request from the portal also counts as a revision round on the project, because the verdict asked for more work. A plain approval does not. Agreed revision rounds versus what actually happens covers that count.

What the client sees while writing

The client writes against a preview rendition of the cut, not the master. The page tells them, in one sentence, when there is nothing to play yet: still loading, still being made, or held for a safety check while the malware scan has not cleared the file. A caption track rides along once the cut is ready.

Around the player the client sees only what was sent through their door: the item, its status in six plain words, and the thread. The studio's internal stage names never appear.

A working habit that makes notes useful

Ask the client for one note per issue, pinned. Ten pinned notes are ten clicks for the editor; one long untimed paragraph is a scrub through the whole cut. The portal makes the pinned note the default gesture while the cut is playing, and an editor who receives the thread in the task sees each issue with its time in front of it.

Ask the client to press request changes only after the notes are in, with a one-line summary in the request. The record then reads: these notes, this request, this round.

• Pin the note while the player sits on the second it is about.
• One issue per note; attach a reference image when words are not enough.
• Finish with request changes and a one-line summary, or with approve.

Questions that keep coming up

Does the client have to pause the video to pin a note?

No. The portal reads the playhead when the note is written, playing or paused. Pausing on the exact second simply makes the pin more precise.

Are timed notes frame-accurate?

In the client portal a note marks a second, shown as hours, minutes and seconds. Frame-accurate marks at the source frame rate, including 23.976 and 29.97, are made in the studio's review room.

Where does the editor see the client's timed note?

In the task's thread on the studio side, with the time in front of the text. The room can turn that comment into a task with an owner and a due date.

Can a note carry a file?

Yes. A note can carry attachments, so a client can add a reference image or a document under the note that asks for it. Every upload is scanned for malware before it is served.

What happens to notes if the link is revoked?

Nothing. Notes belong to the task, not to the door. A new door for the same client reads the same thread.