Producing at Scale

Sharing for Client Sign-Off (Review Portal)

The Review Portal is a public, login-free page where a client or stakeholder can watch a finished (or in-progress) video and see basic production details. It's read-only — they can't approve, reject, edit, or comment from this view.

Use it for show-and-tell, not for collecting structured feedback. If you need clients to formally approve, get their go-ahead by email/Slack alongside the link.

What the reviewer sees

When you generate a review link and a reviewer opens it, they see:

  • A branded header with your logo, brand name, and a "Shared for review" label. (If you're under a white-label tenant, the white-label brand replaces yours.)
  • An HTML5 video player with full standard controls — play, pause, scrub, fullscreen, volume. If the video is not yet rendered, a "No final video is available yet" placeholder is shown instead.
  • The video title and a status badge.
  • Production basics — topic and video style (read-only) when those fields are set.
  • A "Review Only" notice: "This is a read-only review link. No account is required. You cannot make changes to this production from this view."
  • A footer with brand attribution.

What they do not see:

  • Any editing controls.
  • An approve / reject button.
  • A comment box.
  • Account-level navigation.
  • Other productions.

If the link has been revoked, expired, or is invalid, they see a "Review Link Not Found" error page (dark themed, no player) instead.

The Review Portal controls live on the production detail page's Video tab — they appear as soon as Phase 4 has produced a final video.

  1. Open the production and switch to the Video tab.
  2. Click Share Review Link (next to Download Video).
  3. The URL appears inline in a highlighted box; click Copy Review Link to copy it to your clipboard.
  4. Send the URL via your usual channel — email, Slack, ticketing system. No login required for the reviewer.

While a link is active, the Share Review Link button is replaced by Copy Review Link + Revoke buttons.

On the Video tab, click Revoke next to the active link. From that moment, anyone hitting the URL sees the "not found" error page. To share again, click Share Review Link to generate a fresh URL with a new token.

When you can share

The buttons only appear once production.final_video_url is set — i.e. after Phase 4 has rendered a video. Before then, there is nothing to share.

Real scenarios

Scenario A — Quick client check before publishing

A creator has a brand campaign video at Phase 4 review. The client wants to see it before it goes live.

  1. Generate a review link from the production page.
  2. Email the link with: "Take a look — let me know any changes by 5pm and we'll re-render."
  3. Client watches, replies in email with notes.
  4. Creator rejects Phase 4 with the client's notes, re-renders, generates a fresh link, sends again.
  5. After approval (over email), proceed to Phase 5.

Scenario B — Share a polished demo with a prospect

A salesperson wants to show a prospective customer a sample produced video — without having them sign up.

  1. Generate a review link on a finished production.
  2. Send. Prospect opens, watches, no friction.
  3. After the meeting, revoke the link if the demo is no longer needed.

Discover the URL was forwarded to people you didn't intend.

  1. Open the production → revoke the active link.
  2. From that moment, every existing copy of the URL stops working.
  3. If you still want to share with the original recipient, generate a fresh link and send specifically to them.

Tips & gotchas

  • The link is the credential. Anyone with the URL can watch the video. Treat it like a password.
  • No download. Standard HTML5 controls allow scrubbing and playback but the page is configured to discourage easy downloads. Determined users can still capture the video stream — don't share anything truly confidential through this.
  • No reviewer comments. If you need structured client feedback, use a separate tool (email thread, ticket, document) — the portal is intentionally simple.
  • White-label branding wins. If your account is under a white-label tenant, the reviewer sees the tenant's logo, colours, and footer — not Studio Cut Video's. Useful for agencies presenting work as their own.
  • One link per production. You can revoke and re-generate, but you can't have two simultaneously active links to the same production.
  • The page is mobile-friendly. Reviewers can open the link on a phone — the HTML5 player adapts.

See also

  • Reviewing Phases 2–5 — the internal review flow.
  • Account, Billing & API Keys — for setting up white-label branding (admin-only feature).