Case Study: The Undeclared War

“Image Approvals managed our stills approvals for “The Undeclared War” as well as series 2 and 3 of “All Creatures Great and Small.” They are a joy to work with and their software is so user friendly, both for talent and producers/PR folks. I’ve used several other platforms in the past but this is far and away my favorite. Highly recommended!”

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

-Rhys Kimmitt, Director of Production at Playground Entertainment

Key project wins:

• The organisation of ~10,000 unit and gallery images shot across 18 days of photography with approvals managed for 8 cast members
• Images organised, tagged and ready for talent to approve within 4 working days of receiving them.
• Images organised into killed, approved and approved selects folders and ready to return to the post-production team within another 4 working days.

Their pain

With over 20,000 images shot across 31 days of photography submitted to production in a disorganised way, full of duplicates with confusing file names, the production team had no idea where to start not only in untangling the mess, but then how to go about getting them approved in a way that didn’t leave them vulnerable to breaching actor contracts due to making errors.

They knew the actors would not want to go through all 20,000 images so they needed to select only the best, usable images to present for approval.

With the stills submitted to them by the photographers on a day by day basis, they also needed to identify which episode they were from and organise them accordingly.

Our solution

• After receiving their hard drive, we created a duplicate from which to work and began the process of organising all of the unit and gallery images into easy-to-digest folder structures.
• We then renamed the images so that they all contained unique information to make it easy for post-production and distributors to identify and find the images they needed before tagging and uploading them to the Image Approvals platform.
• We then created accounts for their cast and suppled Welcome Packs to production to forward on to them. These welcome packs contained the casts’ unique login information and a quick user guide so that production did not have to field any support requests across this process.
• We provided a Production Account to the key stakeholders so they could mark their selects whilst the actors approved their stills.
• Once the cast had completed their approvals, we then organised all of the images into killed, approved and approved selects folders and forwarded them to the show’s post-production supervisor along with copies of the kill reports.

Timeline:

Sept 29th – Original images received.

Oct 6th – All images organised and online ready for cast to approve.

Nov 8th – All cast have completed their approvals.

Nov 15th – Stills drive delivered to the post-production team.

Excellent

Based on 13 reviews

Michael Sparaga

2023-09-26

Working with Image Approvals was an absolute pleasure. From our initial call to final delivery, there was never a moment where we didn't feel like we were in extremely capable hands. Their app for approving or killing photos is incredibly straightforward. Not one of our six actors ever reached out to ask for clarity on how to use it. As an ex-stills photographer herself (and a darn good one!), Aimee knows what it takes to deliver top quality stills to your distribution partners. This was our first time working with Image Approvals, but it won't be the last!

Steve Jones

2023-08-30

Been producing for many years and it's always a great pleasure to find a vendor who brings excellence to your project. This group is COMPETENT and ON IT from the moment they are engaged until they deliver in spades. One less hassle in the cornucopia of them in the delivery process. You won't find a better company to handle your cast approvals. Really great!!!

Jeremy Elliott

2022-10-13

The team at Image Approvals were fantastic to work with. Super fast turnaround and great customer service. Highly recommend them.

Josh Brandon

2022-08-09

Aimee was absolutely on the ball from start to finish. Her process was simple, professional, and affordable. I will work with Image Approvals again for sure.

lauren cox

2022-07-07

We've worked with Image approvals on a couple of our productions now and it's always be a very positive experience. Aimee and her team are very efficient, professional and easy to work with.

Rhys Kimmitt

2022-07-01

Aimee is a joy to work with and her software is so user friendly, both for talent and producers/PR folks. I’ve used several other platforms in the past but this is far and away my favorite. Highly recommend.

kate bowe

2021-04-13

As unit publicist to the Catherine Tate movie, This Nan's Life, I worked with Image Approvals using their full-service package to help manage talent approvals for the film's stills photography. The team were lovely to work with, helpful and fast to respond and their online approvals platform was very quick and easy to use. I highly recommend them and look forward to working with them again.

Christelle Randall

2021-04-08

Aimee's Image Approvals service was such a life saver. They helped us unravel our unit photography into manageable folders that were easy for us and talent to navigate. Aimee's team were patient as we went through the process and gave us guidance throughout. They are incredibly good value for money and I work with them again in a heartbeat. Thank you Aimee and team. From Christelle and all the Anne Boleyn production team x

Laura Beth Winchester

2020-07-22

I'm part of the marketing team for WTA Media and we engaged with Image Approvals to help streamline our talent approvals process for one of our larger feature films, Redeeming Love. It was INCREDIBLY easy to use and saved us so much time! We opted to manage everything in-house and the Image Approvals customer support was fantastic. Aimee made sure we had everything we needed to get going, was fast to respond whenever we had any questions and was always flexible to our needs. Image Approvals gave us quick and easy welcome packs that we could forward on to talent reps so they could go through their approvals without needing any support, which was great! We were also able to track the actors' progress and see when they had completed without having to check-in with reps. All of our actors found the platform extremely easy to use and loved that it saved their progress as they went so they didn't have to do it all in one go. Image Approvals has seriously made our job so much easier and we will definitely look to work with them again!

Do you have a cast with stills approvals rights? Want to prevent your team losing hundreds of hours to inefficient working AND keep your talent happy by giving them an easy to use online approvals system?

Get in touch with us today for a no-obligation quote or request a demo if you want to see how the platform works.