A finished edit is not delivered when it leaves your timeline. It is delivered when the client presses play on the device they actually use, approves the cut, and can find the file again when their team asks for it next year. This guide covers each step in the order a project runs: the delivery method, the export, the package of files, the review rounds, playback on the client’s screen, new cuts, and the archive.
The four ways creatives deliver video today
- Transfer links (WeTransfer, Dropbox). Fast to send, fine for handoffs. Weak as a client-facing delivery: no presentation, links expire, feedback happens in email. Best for raw footage and internal handoffs.
- Consumer video hosts (YouTube unlisted, Vimeo). Free or cheap, plays everywhere. But your delivery carries platform branding, compression is aggressive, and “unlisted” is not access control. Best for casual sharing, not paid work.
- Review platforms (Frame.io and similar). Built for the revision loop: timestamped comments, versioning. Not built for final delivery; the approved cut still leaves for another tool. It covers one step of the workflow.
- Delivery platforms. Built for the client-facing moment: designed presentation, your branding, passwords, full-resolution downloads, and persistence. The newest of the four categories and the one built for the whole job.
The method matters less than whether it covers all three trips the hero above describes. A transfer link covers none of them well; a review tool covers one. If the file itself is what will not send, that is a separate problem with its own guide: how to send large video files.
Export settings that play anywhere
Export the version people will watch in H.264, or H.265 if your client works on recent Apple and Windows hardware. Keep the frame rate you shot and edited in; converting 24 fps to 30 for “web” adds judder and buys nothing. Use a constant frame rate, AAC audio at 48 kHz, and the colour space you graded for. For almost every client that is Rec. 709. An HDR export only makes sense when the client has asked for it and will watch on a display that supports it; otherwise it looks washed out.
Name the file the way the client will search for it later: project, deliverable, version and date. “Acme_Launch_Hero_60s_v3_2026-10-12.mp4” is findable in a year. “Final_FINAL2.mp4” is not.
The codec section: why the client “can’t open” the video
The most common delivery failure is a container or codec mismatch. The short version:
- Every browser plays H.264 in .mp4 or .mov. H.265 plays on most devices but not all, so a delivery platform should prepare an H.264 version for playback.
- ProRes, DNxHD, and other editorial codecs are intermediate formats. Handed the file directly, a browser shows audio over a black frame, so a delivery platform needs to prepare an H.264 version for playback and keep the master for download.
- Export recipes: Premiere: Export, Format H.264. Final Cut: Share, Master File, Video Codec H.264. DaVinci: Deliver, MP4, H.264 preset.
Platform note: some delivery platforms only accept .mp4 uploads and reject a perfectly playable H.264 .mov. Check before you re-wrap an export just to satisfy an upload gate. FRGMT accepts H.264, H.265 and ProRes in either container and prepares an H.264 version for playback, up to 4K. The ProRes master stays untouched for download, so one upload plays in a Cinema view and goes to the post team as a file.
The deliverables package
Most paid video work ships as more than one file, and the client’s team will use each one somewhere different. Agree the list at the start of the project, not the day before delivery.
| Deliverable | Who uses it | Typical spec |
|---|---|---|
| Master | archive, broadcast, future recuts | ProRes or high-bitrate H.264 at native size |
| Web version | website, client review, sharing | H.264, 16:9, Rec. 709 |
| Social cutdowns | paid and organic social | 15, 30 and 60 second edits |
| Vertical | Reels, TikTok, Stories | 9:16, reframed rather than cropped |
| Photos and frame grabs | press, thumbnails, decks | full-resolution JPEG |
Present the package as one delivery rather than five links. On FRGMT a Cinema view holds several videos behind one link, with a menu to move between them, a section for photos, and a list of files to download. The client watches the hero video first and reaches the cutdowns without asking which link was which.
Captions and accessibility
Most social video is watched with the sound off, and many clients now need captions for accessibility rules on their own sites. Agree whether captions are in scope. Deliver an SRT or VTT sidecar file for anything that will be hosted, and a version with burned-in captions for social, where a sidecar file is often ignored. Check line breaks on the vertical cut separately; a caption that fits 16:9 often spills off a 9:16 frame.
Review rounds: stop mixing the trips
Sending the review cut as a download link invites feedback like “around the two minute mark.” Timestamped review exists so notes land on frames. And doing review in one tool and delivery in another means the project history splits across platforms. The consolidation move: run both on one platform so review and the final delivery share a library.
On FRGMT that is a React view on the project folder. The client opens the link, presses play, and leaves a comment at the exact moment, or pins it to a spot in the frame, with no account to create. You reply, mark notes resolved as you work through them, and set the round’s status to Needs review or Approved so everyone can see where it stands. When the cut is approved, the final goes out as a Cinema view on the same folder.
- Agree the number of rounds in the contract. Two is common; three is generous.
- Ask for all notes in one pass per round rather than a trickle of emails.
- Name one decision-maker on the client side, so notes do not contradict each other.
- Send review cuts at a lower resolution with a watermark or timecode burn-in if the work is unpaid.
New cuts without a new link
Every new link is a chance for someone to watch the wrong version. Upload the new cut as a new version of the same video instead, so the link the client already has shows the latest edit. In a FRGMT review link the earlier cuts stay available from a version menu, so the client can compare v2 against v3, and each cut’s comments stay on the cut they were left on. Nobody has to wonder whether a note was about the old edit.
Playback on the client’s screen
Your client will watch on whatever is nearest: a phone on a train, a laptop on hotel wifi, a desktop monitor in an edit suite. The player has to cope with all of them. Adaptive streaming starts quickly on a slow connection and climbs to higher quality as the connection allows, up to 4K where you delivered 4K. Viewers can also pick a quality themselves, and on FRGMT you can set a minimum for a view so a client judging the grade never sees a soft version. FRGMT plays in the browser on a phone, a laptop or a desktop, with nothing for the client to install.
Before you send, watch the delivery the way the client will. Open it on your phone from the email, check the opening frame and the cover, and make sure the download is where they expect it. If the client wants to put the video on their own site, an embed with your player avoids sending them to a video host; see embeds.
What the client sees first
The opening seconds of a delivery set the tone for the whole project. Lead with the hero video, not the cutdowns. Choose a still for the cover deliberately rather than taking the first frame, which is often black or a slate. On FRGMT the featured video is the one a Cinema view opens on, and a full-bleed cover can show a frame you pick, with a single Play all button that runs the videos in order.
Send the delivery email from your own studio address. On Starter and above a FRGMT delivery opens at yourstudio.frgmt.app, so the link the client forwards to their team carries your studio name rather than a platform’s.
Timing and the handoff email
Tell the client when each round will arrive and how long they have to respond. The delivery email should carry the link, the password if there is one, what you need from them next, and when the download window closes if it does. Keep it short. A client who has to read three paragraphs to find the link will reply asking for it.
Downloads and the archive
Stream a delivery export, download the full-resolution asset. Never deliver the master as a streaming file and the download as an afterthought. On FRGMT the original you uploaded is kept as uploaded for download, and the client can save one video or download the whole package at once. You can also turn downloads off for a review link and on for the final.
Clients come back for files, sometimes years later, usually when someone new has joined their team. Archive finished projects to keep your dashboard clear, but keep the link working; an archived FRGMT view stays live for the client.
The checklist
- Export H.264/H.265 in the frame rate you edited, Rec. 709 unless HDR was agreed.
- Agree the deliverables list and the number of review rounds up front.
- Timestamped review before final, with one decision-maker.
- New cuts as new versions on the same link.
- Password the delivery and brand it as your studio.
- Full-resolution downloads alongside the stream.
- An archive where you can find it in two years.
If your projects mix photos and video, the delivery gets easier when both travel together: see deliver photos and video together, and for the photo side, deliver photos to clients.
FRGMT is the delivery layer for visual work: Cinema for immersive video delivery, React for timestamped review, one library underneath. Deliver your next project on FRGMT, or see the whole workflow in video delivery for videographers.
Updated .