What Should I Send to My Sound Team After Picture Lock?

You’ve locked picture on your independent feature and you’re ready to turn the film over for sound post.

What should you actually send?

For a long-form live-action project, I generally want much more than a video file and an AAF. A proper turnover gives the sound team the information needed to reconstruct the picture editor’s work, return to the original production recordings, preserve creative decisions and manage future picture changes if they occur.

For my workflow, a typical turnover includes:

• Reference picture
• Sound AAF
• Dialogue, music and effects audio splits
• Complete original production sound dailies
• Video EDLs
• Audio EDL
• Production sound reports
• Shooting script

Each serves a different purpose.

1. Reference picture

The reference picture is the common visual reference for everyone working on the film.

I typically request a QuickTime MOV at the project’s native frame rate, with a maximum height of 1080 pixels. ProRes, DNxHD or DNxHR are preferred.

Most importantly, I want burned-in timecode.

The project timecode should be visible in the top-right corner, while source-footage timecode should be visible in the top-left.

This gives sound editorial two different references: where we are in the finished film and where that material originated.

The reference should also contain the picture editor’s current guide mix. I want to hear the film the way the filmmakers have been hearing it throughout editorial.

2. Sound AAF

The AAF transfers the actual sound timeline from picture editorial into audio post.

For a Premiere turnover, I generally request a 48 kHz, 24-bit Broadcast Wave AAF with separate audio media and complete audio files rather than short handles.

I don’t need the video embedded in the AAF.

I also don’t want Premiere rendering the audio clip effects into the source material. The purpose of the AAF is to preserve the editorial structure and give me access to the underlying audio—not permanently bake picture-editorial processing into it.

The AAF is extremely important, but I don’t treat it as the sole source of production dialogue.

That’s where the sound dailies and EDLs come in.

3. Dialogue, music and effects splits

I also request project-length stereo audio splits for:

Dialogue, Music and Effects.

These are 48 kHz / 24-bit Broadcast Wave files, all beginning at the same project start and including the project’s 2-pop.

The splits give me clean references for what was present in the picture edit.

They’re particularly useful for checking the turnover and determining whether something heard in the reference movie is missing or behaving differently after the AAF has been imported.

Think of them as another record of what left the picture department.

4. Complete production sound dailies

I require all of the original production sound dailies, preferably organized by shoot day or scene.

This is important because I don’t simply use whatever production dialogue happened to travel through the AAF.

I reconform the dialogue edit against the original production recordings.

That gives me access to the original-quality source files, all recorded microphones and the production metadata.

If the production mixer recorded a mix, boom and several isolated lavaliers into a single multichannel Broadcast Wave file, I want that original file intact.

Don’t split it apart.

Don’t discard channels that weren’t used by the picture editor.

Don’t rename everything to make the folders look cleaner.

Those original files contain options that can become extremely valuable during dialogue editorial.

The picture editor may have chosen the boom, but an isolated microphone may save a problematic line. An alternate channel may avoid clothing noise, an obstruction or another production problem.

The AAF tells me what the editor used.

The dailies tell me what production actually recorded.

I want both.

5. Video EDLs

I request video EDLs representing the picture edit.

Because an EDL can represent a limited number of tracks, a more complicated Premiere timeline may require separate EDLs for the individual video tracks.

These provide a machine-readable description of the picture edit itself.

They’re particularly important if the supposedly locked picture becomes unlocked later.

If a revised cut arrives after dialogue, effects or sound design work has already been completed, the original and revised picture information can be compared and the existing sound session can be reconformed to the new edit.

That’s dramatically preferable to manually discovering every changed frame in a feature film.

6. Audio EDL

I also request an audio EDL.

This serves a different purpose from the video EDLs.

The audio EDL helps establish the relationship between the production sound used in picture editorial and the original sound recordings.

Together with the AAF and complete production dailies, it gives me the information needed to reconform the dialogue against the original production sound.

This is why I ask for both audio and video EDLs rather than simply asking the picture editor to “send an EDL.”

They’re helping solve different problems.

7. Production sound reports

If the production sound mixer created sound reports, send those too.

PDF or CSV is fine.

Most importantly, the filenames in the reports should correspond with the original production sound dailies.

Sound reports can contain useful information about scenes, takes, microphones, characters, recording problems and other notes from production.

That information can become extremely valuable months later when somebody in sound post is trying to understand what happened on set.

8. Shooting script

Finally, send the shooting script as a PDF.

Sound editorial isn’t performed by staring at waveforms.

The script provides context for scenes, characters and dialogue, helps navigate the film and can clarify material that isn’t immediately obvious from the production recordings alone.

It’s a simple thing to include and there’s very little reason not to have it available to the sound department.

Don’t remove the picture editor’s sound work

In addition to these formal turnover materials, preserve the sound effects, backgrounds and temporary sound design created during picture editorial.

I want to hear those choices.

Some will survive into the finished film.

Some will be replaced.

Some may become the starting point for a much more elaborate sound design.

The important thing is that they communicate intent.

If the editor put a sound there, I want to know about it.

A good turnover gives sound post three things

Most of these specifications ultimately accomplish one of three goals.

Creative intent: The reference picture, AAF and audio splits tell us what the filmmakers were hearing when they locked the movie.

Original source material: The production dailies and sound reports give us access to what was actually recorded on set—not merely the subset that survived picture editorial.

Edit information: The audio and video EDLs allow us to trace the relationship between the edit and the source material and provide the information necessary to reconform when needed.

That’s why I ask for all of them.

It can look like a lot of files when you first see a professional sound turnover specification.

But these aren’t arbitrary technical requirements.

Each one preserves information or options that may become important later.

The goal isn’t to make turnover complicated.

It’s to make sure that when we start finishing the soundtrack, nothing useful has been left behind.