Backlot Overview for Content Partners
Purpose
To simplify content deliveries through a portal that provides 24/7 visibility into status and metrics.
- View the status of your deliverables
- See deliveries that are overdue, upcoming, or rejected.
and
- See deliveries that are overdue, upcoming, or rejected.
- Assign source requests to your Fulfillment Partner(s)
- This tells us who will deliver your files and keeps transfers more secure.
- There is one source request for every video, subtitles, and/or audio file.
- Netflix creates a source request for every deliverable asset.
- Source requests can be created at any time. All that is needed is a tentative title list.
- Source requests are created at the asset level with individual due dates. Each title will have multiple source requests.
- Once created, source requests flow into the Partner's view.
Navigating the UI
Backlot has been designed with special attention given to customization and reducing the size of the data sets we are all working with. We have taken a tiered approach to help you customize the data you are working with. This all starts with the modifier bar.
The below image is an example of the view you will see upon logging into Backlot. Initially, you will land on the Manage Requests screen without any data. Simply hitting “enter” on your keyboard or clicking on the search magnifying glass will load an unfiltered view of various buckets.
Figure 1
You can start work from these results and dive into your buckets or you can further refine your data by Search Modifiers, Groupings, and customizable columns. We strongly recommend refining your data if you have more than a few hundred source requests.
Buckets categorize your source requests based on a combination of properties and attributes. These buckets will be refined by your search modifiers.
- Insights
Here, you find buckets that group your requests into 4 categories.
- Requests – All of your open source requests, including the below buckets.
- Critical – Source requests that need immediate action, based on several rules that Netflix has determined
- At Risk – Source requests that are in jeopardy of moving into a critical state, based on several rules that Netflix has determined
- On Track – Source requests that are currently in no danger of being delivered past the Due Date.
- Request States
Here, you will find five buckets that should help guide you to requests that you can work on now.
- Unassigned - all source requests that are not assigned out to a Fulfillment Partner.
- All requests need to be assigned out to a Fulfillment Partner, this is the only way for them to see requests.
- Awaiting Materials – Materials required to start work have not yet been provided to the Fulfillment Partner.
- Redelivery Requested - Source requests that have been delivered and hit a rejection by our automated QC process or our manual QC process. Each rejection will provide details to the issue. If an asset fails at manual QC, the source request will provide time codes where you can view the rejection.
- Overdue Undelivered – These requests are past Due Date and have not been delivered
Search Bar and Modifiers
The first step towards reducing the data down to what you are interested in is by utilizing the search modifiers. Adding a search modifier will allow you to customize which source requests will populate the Insights and Asset States buckets. For all partners, the Content Partner modifier defaults to the respective partner the user account was created under and cannot be removed.
Narrow your search results by combining multiple modifiers. For example, in the modifier bar, start typing “movie” and the modifier “Movie Type” will appear, you can either push “enter” on your keyboard and the modifier will be selected or you can use your mouse pad to select the modifier. Next, you’re going to specify what it is within that modifier you’d like to see. You can either type in one of the options (example: episode, standalone, supplemental) and push enter or you can select it with your mouse from the dropdown. Continue adding more modifiers to get more specific results.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Please find the list of all available modifiers, here.
Quick Search
Users no longer have to apply a modifier when searching for a language, source type, partner, country, or other prepopulated modifiers. For example, if a user would like to review "subtitle" source type, they can start typing "sub" in the search bar and "subtitle" will appear as an option.
Figure 4
Groups
To prioritize your requests, use the “Group By” option to segment your requests into different collapsible sections. Groupings give you the ability to organize your view into categories.
For example, in the below the results have run using the Content Partner & Movie Type modifiers in the search bar. There’s a total of 398 requests. I’ve selected the “Title” grouping to show all the respective titles and their actionable requests, which can be viewed individually by clicking on the numbers.
Figure 5
- Clear groupings to start over, or create a new set of groupings.
- Check mark indicates the grouping options you’ve selected.
- Sort grouping by ascending or descending
Figure 6
Multiple groupings can be selected, resulting in specified collapsible columns.
Customizable Columns
You can customize the display of columns in the table by showing and hiding columns, as well as reordering the columns.
- On the right side of the page, click on the “v” to expand/collapse the group panel and display enclosed requests.
- Customize the requests table columns by clicking on the column icon.
Figure 7
Check the columns to have them displayed in the table. Check the columns you’d like to view and uncheck the columns you wish to not see.
Figure 8
You can rearrange the column order in the table by dragging the corresponding column name in the column selection dropdown. This will also reorder your Grouping options display.
Figure 9
Action Bar
Hovering over a line item will enable an action bar to the right. Clicking on the “i” icon will open another tab that contains all source request information, such as due date, delivery history, comment history, and other QC information.
Bulk Action Items
Many updates can be done in bulk. Select the requests you’d like to view by clicking on the buckets, or clicking expand all in the upper right corner. This will pop up a status bar that allows you to comment, export, edit, or assign out requests. Selections will stay from grouping to grouping, please be aware of these instances and unselect any instances you wish to not update.
Figure 10
1. Select any requests you’d like to assign (must be open)
2. On the bottom shelf, click the “Assign” icon
Figure 11
3. Select a Fullfilment Partner (or choose “Unassign”), then click “Submit”
Figure 12
Commenting on Requests
1. Select any requests you’d like to comment on
2. On the bottom shelf, click the “Comment” icon
Figure 13
3. Add a comment, then click “Submit”
Figure 14
4. Note: Bulk commenting will currently send e-mail notifications for each request updated.
Downloading Materials for Requests
1. Select any requests you’d like to download materials for
2. On the bottom shelf, click the “Download Materials” icon
Figure 15
3. Download Materials will open in a new browser tab. Select any materials to download, then click “Download.” See theBacklot Feature - Download Materials article for full details on this feature.
Figure 16
Editing Request Estimated Delivery Dates
1. Select any requests you’d like to edit due dates for
2. On the bottom shelf, click the “Dates icon” icon, then the “Edit Estimated Delivery Dates” option
Figure 17
3. Make any changes via the “apply all” option or individual requests, then click “Save”
Figure 18
- Content Partner Master Account
- This role allows a user to create additional accounts, assign source request, view the Backlot dashboard, and receive email notifications for certain Backlot updates (redelivery requests, daily snapshot, materials rejected).
- Content Partner Operations
- This role allows a user to assign source requests, view the Backlot dashboard, and receive email notifications for all Backlot updates (comments, redelivery requests, etc).
At a minimum, there needs to be at least 1 user with a Content Partner Master Account role. If this user is also the main Operations contact for Netflix, it should also be given the Content Partner Operations role.
Other Tips
1. Use Google Chrome for the best experience. Other browsers are not optimized and you may experience graphical errors.
2. See more details using the “i” icon next to each title. You can also leave Comments on source requests.
Figure 19
3. Manage your account in Account Management found at the top-left section of the screen. If you hold a Content Partner Master Account role, you can also use this area to create other accounts for your colleagues.
|
Modifier |
Description |
Sample Values |
|
Content Partner |
Content Partner |
NBCU, Sony, Lotte... |
|
Fulfillment Partner |
Fulfillment Partner |
SDI, Juice... |
|
Estimated Delivery Date |
Limit requests to a specific year, month, date, or date range. Supports Free form text. |
2016, 2017-04, YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD |
|
Due Date |
Limit requests to a specific year, month, date, or date range. Supports Free form text. |
2016, 2017-04, YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD |
|
Status |
By default, all requests are shown except for those that were canceled. Canceled requests can be explicitly included if desired. *Note: when you add "Status: All" as a search modifier, we implicitly impose a 6-month lookback restriction on the data you are querying. |
All, Open, Redelivery Requested, Delivered, Processed, Upgraded, Cancelled |
|
Language |
Language of request |
Korean, Dutch, Japanese... |
|
Is Original |
Limit requests to Original versus Licensed |
Yes, No |
|
Movie Type |
Limits requests to a certain content type |
Standalone, Episode, Supplemental |
|
Issues |
Limits requests with a specific issue or have/do not have issues |
Has issues, Does not have issues, Forced Narrative, Content Typos, Color issues... |
|
Source Type |
Limits requests to a specific source type |
Subs, Dubs, CC/SDH... |
|
Service Type |
Limits requests to a specific service type (e.g. CLS may only be interested in “create”). FPs may use to identify requests they need to update (i.e. unknown) as conform vs. create |
Conform, Create, Unknown |
|
Country |
Limit requests to a specific country |
Korea, Japan, Netherlands |
|
Title |
Fuzzy title search. Returns all titles with the specified text. e.g. “House” will return “House, m.d.”, “House of Cards” etc. Free form text. |
House |
|
Request ID |
Find a specific request ID |
5187b996-34fc-4d98-9ca2-2950fe4e980b |
|
Package ID |
Find a specific package ID |
1248755 |
|
Proxy Status |
Identify proxy availability/status |
Available, Upgraded, Not Available |
| Tag |
Isolate source requests associated with specific "Package Tag". Tags are free-form text which your Netflix Representatives may use to communicate key details (E.g. "Branded" and "Non-Branded"). |
Branded, Non-Branded, Localized Version, etc... |
| Billing |
Identify which source requests/services should be billed to the Content Partner or to Netflix. |
Content Partner, Netflix. |
Change Log:
- Revised section "Appendix" – Updated the "Status" search modifier description to provide additional clarity regarding the behavior of the "Status=All" search modifier.
- Revised section "Modifiers" – We've added a "Tag" modifier and "Billing" modifier. The Tag modifier can be used to refine your search using Package Tags that your Netflix Representative has provided (e.g. "Branded Version"). The "Billing" modifier can be used to quickly identify which source requests/services should be billed to the Content Partner or to Netflix. Additionally, the "Estimated Delivery Date", "Due Date", and "Assigned Date" modifiers have been enhanced to include search support for specific date ranges using free-form text.
2017-04-24
- Added section "Quick Search". Users are now able to start a search by only typing in the language, source type, country, partner, etc. This applies to any prepopulated modifiers that have preset values.
- Revised section "Modifiers" – We've added a "Proxy Status" modifier (available, not available, upgraded). This will help partners identify requests with a proxy available, upgraded, or not available.