A revision-note log for video edits: the columns, the states and the handoff

StoryFolder — 2026-09-02

Part of: How to give an editor shot-by-shot feedback on a rough cut

Last updated: 2026-09-02

One person replies to the cut by email while another sends a WhatsApp message, and by the next morning you've got three channels, no single list, and an editor waiting on you to tell them what actually changed.

The fix is a fixed set of fields you fill in once per shot, so every accepted note ends up in the same row shape no matter which channel it arrived on. Build the schema, consolidate every reply into it, and hand the editor one ordered list instead of a thread.

StoryFolder doesn't pull those emails or WhatsApp messages in for you, and there's no built-in approval workflow behind any of this. You're still the one reading the reply and typing it into the shot. What StoryFolder gives you is somewhere consistent to put it, a shot-level field structure that survives being pinged from six different chats before lunch, and an ordered spreadsheet after.

What columns belong in a video revision-note log?

Start with four fields you build, sitting next to the shot number and thumbnail you already have: the requested change, an area, a status, and, only if the handoff needs it, who asked. Add a field only when it would change what the editor actually does. A Number field for the revision round earns its place the moment you're past round one.

A shot-scoped log built this way, using StoryFolder's six field types, looks like:

The categories in that Area field are yours to define per project, and they should track the categories your own client notes actually fall into. A fresh board seeds a "My Notes" category with twelve treatment-shaped text fields: Key Takeaways, Story, Emotional tone, Visuals / Cinematography, Messaging, Sound & Music and the rest. That is a useful starting schema for the creative read on a cut and is not the revision-note schema above. The fields paying customers build for themselves are blunter and job-specific: Animation, Release form, Job#, Asset, B-ROLL, Find in Folder. Pick the handful that match your job.

Creating your own custom fields is a Pro feature.

Revision state is a Dropdown you build. StoryFolder ships six field types (Text, Tag, Dropdown, Checkbox, Rating and Number), and none of them is a pre-built approval or status field. "New / Accepted / Done" is a convention you're defining. Build the revision fields separately, and don't repurpose one of the seeded text fields and call it a status system.

For how fields, categories, and shot-versus-video targeting actually work, see feedback on a shot, not a timecode. This page assumes you've already got shots on a board and focuses on what to do with them.

How do you turn scattered feedback into one list?

Appoint one person to consolidate, fix which cut the notes are about, and normalize every accepted request into your schema before the editor ever sees the list. Reject duplicates and kick ambiguous notes back for clarification rather than passing them through.

The scatter is well documented. On r/videography in 2026, u/Dry-Resource6903 described it: "usually it turns into some mix of google drive, whatsapp, email, voice notes, loom etc. and obv - someone replies on whatsapp, someone else sends feedback by email, another person sends a voice note saying 'just tweak that part in the middle'". On r/editors in 2026, u/luxomania put the failure mode more bluntly: "One change becomes three emails, two WhatsApp messages, and a hallway conversation nobody documents," and "The result is clients coming back asking for things and nobody knows which is the final master."

Too many reviewers makes it worse. On r/editors in 2023, u/84002 compared it to a Michelin dish that gets passed around six other chefs before it leaves the kitchen: "The final product is gonna be muddled and overseasoned." One person owns turning six opinions into one list, on one shot, in one field.

None of this consolidation happens automatically. There's no inbox StoryFolder pulls from and no API that ingests a WhatsApp thread. You read the reply, decide whether it's an accepted instruction or something that needs a follow-up question, and type the result into the shot yourself.

How do you apply the same revision to a run of shots?

Multi-select the shots the revision applies to and write the field once. StoryFolder applies that value to every shot in the selection in a single action. Where the selected shots already hold different values, the inspector shows that field blank. The blank is telling you the shots disagree, and it is not a safeguard. Type into it and you overwrite all of them, including the shots whose value you wanted to keep.

So anything that's close but not identical stays as its own note on its own shot. Don't force an exception into the batch to save a step; that's how a shared edit quietly overwrites something a specific shot needed.

This is the move for anything that genuinely repeats: the same graphic removed from a run of shots, the same status change across a scene. One production's Animation field holds 589 filled-in notes, including the same "remove animation" instruction typed 20 separate times across the board, in a 2026 analysis of 813 boards across 295 paying accounts. That's evidence the same instruction recurs often enough to be worth a shortcut for, not proof that particular account used one. Whether they typed each one individually or multi-selected isn't something the data shows.

Metadata can also be copied from one shot and pasted onto another, which is the better tool when two shots need the same values but aren't a contiguous run you'd want to select together.

New in 0.4, there is a second route for a value that repeats: copy the metadata off one shot and paste it to a selection through a plan that names the fields, the shots and whether anything already filled is left alone. The whole paste is one entry in version history and one undo. How selective paste works.

How do you see what is still unresolved?

Filter the board on your status field, a Checkbox or Dropdown you built, and save that as a quick filter so you can jump straight to what's outstanding without hunting the whole board.

Checkbox fields can be filtered on directly, and a filter condition can be saved as a quick filter you return to. That turns "which shots still need work" from a scroll-and-scan into a saved view. Be precise about what that view is: a filter on a field you defined, with no assignee, reviewer identity, comment thread, resolved flag or audit log behind it. The Checkbox only means what you decided it means when you built it.

An active search or filter travels with the export and the publish, so filtering down to the unresolved shots and publishing gives the editor those shots. The favourite and hidden flags still narrow an export as well, and they are the ones to reach for when the set has to survive you clearing the search.

Preserving which cut a note belongs to as revision rounds continue is covered in feedback on a shot, not a timecode.

What the revision log adds to the handoff

Whichever export you pick, the editor gets a revision round rather than a shot list: a status column showing what's still open, and a log you already filtered down to the unresolved shots before sending. For the XLSX-vs-PDF choice itself, see "feedback on a shot, not a timecode."

FAQ

How many field types can a revision-note schema use? Six: Text, Tag, Dropdown, Checkbox, Rating and Number.

Does StoryFolder have a built-in approval status? No. A status is a Dropdown or Checkbox you define yourself, not a formal approval state the product ships with.

Can one note be added to several shots at once? Yes. Selecting multiple shots and editing a field writes that value to every shot in the selection, including any shot that already held a different value.

Can I filter the board down to only the unresolved shots? Yes — filter on your status Checkbox and save it as a quick filter. The filter narrows your own screen only; it doesn't narrow what gets published or exported.

Can an editor sort the notes in a spreadsheet? Yes — the Pro Spreadsheet/Shot List export produces an XLSX with one row per shot and a column per metadata field.

Do custom revision fields cost anything? Creating your own custom fields is a Pro feature. A free board can use the fields it ships with, but can't add new ones.

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