Talent Approvals and Unit Photography Management for Film and TV

Talent approvals, also known as cast clearances, are a key part of many actor’s contracts with a film production. These image approval rights enable them to kill a certain percentage of all images taken of them, often with different percentages between solo and group images, in order to have better control over their brand image. Terms vary from one actor to another, but the most common include clauses requiring the actor to approve at least 50% of their solo images and at least 75% of images in which they appear with others who also have approval rights.

Simply send us your images and we will do all of the tagging and organisation for you. Once the photos are on the Image Approvals platform, producers and publicists can log in to review what has been captured, mark their preferred shots, and exclude images they don’t like from being sent to talent. Talent can then log in to view the images, seeing only the shots in which they appear, and kill any images they want to veto. The platform tracks the number of kills they make for both their solo and group images, and does not let them exceed their contractual requirements. Once all approvals are complete, we package everything according to distributor specifications. This includes organising approved high-resolution JPG and RAW files, providing comprehensive contact sheets, talent approval documentation, and optionally providing captions and metadata creation. Packages can be customized to meet specific distributor requirements and delivered via secure download links or hard drive.

It’s best to send a selection that gives the actor enough choice, whilst avoiding overwhelming them with unnecessary duplicates or near-identical shots. The exact amount will vary based on the size of the production and how often the actor appears.

We advise against using this tactic as it can damage trust between an actor and the production if they are asked to approve obviously poor shots. It’s better to ensure that only the very best (plus additional great options) make it to them for review. This way they are excited to see their images and engage with the photo approval process rather than see it as a chore.

Of all the unit stills that get selected to be part of the live working set (after duplicates and unneeded shots are filtered out), we find that on average 71% of stills make it through cast and producer approval. Of these, up to 250 key selects are made and delivered to networks and distributors to form the final stills deliverables.

The stills approval process usually takes a few weeks, but it can vary depending on production timelines, how many images are submitted, and how quickly the cast complete their approvals. We have managed the photo approval process for productions in as quickly as 5 days, however, we normally advise ensuring you have at the very minimum one month to complete the process by ahead of any release deadlines. Cast contracts often stipulate a time window of somewhere between 3-7 working days for actors to complete their approvals, however, productions often prefer to give them a bit more time to ensure they have the opportunity to view the images and make their decisions.

We are flexible to your needs and can either provide a secure upload link, download from your own cloud storage/server, or provide an encrypted drive for you/your photographer.

Image Approvals employs enterprise-grade security including encrypted data transfer, secure cloud storage, role-based access controls, optional watermarking, and comprehensive user permission management. All images are stored in secure, geographically distributed servers with regular backups and utilising robust version control to ensure all changes are tracked. We are also Cyber Essentials certified, meaning our infrastructure and processes are compliant with the highest standards of security and data protection as backed by the UK government.

Yes, absolutely. Just let us know what your actor’s approval percentages are according to their contract wording and the Image Approvals platform will track all of their kills across solo and group images, ensuring they approve the amount of shots needed to meet their contractual requirements.

Our Key Selects feature allows producers, publicists, distributors, and other stakeholders to collaborate on final image selection. Each stakeholder can mark their preferred shots and these will update real time for other accounts to see. We then consolidate all of the selects made and deliver a set of approved key images back to you/your distributor.

The Image Approvals team can handle all image file types including JPEG, DNG, TIFF, and proprietrary camera RAW files alongside editing files such as xmp and CaptureOne files, ensuring your photographer’s edits and metadata are handled correctly. To support fast loading, a smooth user experience and to keep costs down, we upload your images to our stills approvals platform as compressed JPGs.

Once cast approvals are complete, we package everything according to your preferences to ensure your image assets meet your distributor specifications. Typically, we provide a master delivery to yourself either on a drive or via download link. This contains all images received by us organised by their file format and approval status along with a comprehensive set of reports. We can also provide an approved delivery set to your post-production team or distributor. If you would like your images to be organised into episode, cast, BTS/episodic folders or any other format in order to meet your distributor requirements, we can also do that for you.

Yes, Image Approvals regularly works with productions in the UK, USA, mainland Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We ensure compliance with international data protection regulations including GDPR and provide 24/7 support across all time zones via our Help Wiki.

We provide access to the cast as soon as you are ready for them to start approving images. We give you the opportunity to first review the unit stills on the approvals platform to make sure you are happy with what the cast will see and make any adjustments if needed.

Both options are available depending upon your preferences, however, we strongly advise getting things in place at the start of production so we can streamline delivery with your photographer. This not only makes for a smoother workflow but also enables you to feedback to the photographer on their coverage from day one, begin cast approvals sooner in order to support first look deadlines as well as help keep costs down by planning delivery in line with your budget.

Up to 6 Talent accounts and 1 Production account are included as standard but you have the ability to add additional accounts for a small additional fee. We also have Viewer accounts for stakeholders who need access to the production stills but who don’t need to get involved with the approvals process. These are perfect for directors and creative teams looking for stills to plan posters and come with a range of user permissions so they can only see the images you need them to.

Absolutely! You can download contact sheets directly from the platform in PDF format – ideal for quick sharing with stakeholders and internal teams without giving access to your assets.

The Image Approvals platform is so easy to use that most of our clients never need any support in order to complete the stills approvals process. However, each user will receive a PDF Welcome Pack containing a step by step guide to the platform and how to use it. For those who need more comprehensive support, we provide access to our Help Wiki which includes video tutorials and a comprehensive FAQ that covers everything you need. We also offer custom training sessions for large productions or teams. Our concierge service means you get a dedicated account manager who will provide regular progress updates and ensure you are always kept in the loop project status and next steps.