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1. Why Netflix Cares About Your Notes

On a traditional show, a dailies operator might:

  • Read through your script notes
  • Cross‑reference camera reports, sound reports, and use their own judgment to make slight corrections
  • Manually mark circle takes
  • Hand‑correct Scene/Slate/Take data when documents don’t agree

Netflix Dailies works differently. It’s a system, not a person working late hunting for clues. Instead, the system:

  • Ingests your Script Notes Top Sheet
  • Uses it to understand:
    • Which takes are selects
    • How those selects map to actual camera clips
  • Propagates that information into:
    • Editorial deliverables (e.g., Avid bins, ALE fields)
    • Review systems (e.g., PIX), as configured for the show

Your Top Sheet is treated as source of truth for selects.
If it’s missing or unclear, the system does not guess—it simply won’t mark selects.

The upside: when you give the system a clear Top Sheet, your intent travels cleanly all the way to editorial without being reinterpreted.

 

2. What The System Expects

2.1 Top Sheet, Not Lined Pages

We know that by wrap you’re often still finishing or polishing your lined pages. Asking for “script notes for dailies” can sound like “we need your entire packet right now.”

Netflix Dailies does not need the full lined script.

What the system needs is just your Top Sheet:

  • A summary of all shots recorded for that day/unit
  • An indication of which takes are selects / circled

No lined pages. No full PDF booklet.
Just the Top Sheet summary that you already create as part of your process.

The Top Sheet should be:

  • A PDF 
    • Therefore even if this has been handwritten, scanned and saved as a PDF, this is fine
  • Saved and named according to the show’s conventions
  • The name of the file should include the words: 'ScriptNotes'
    • This is how the system recognizes that your files are script notes!
  •  

2.2 Required Information Per Shot

For each shot/take, the Top Sheet should list:

  • Scene
  • Slate (if separate from Scene)
  • Take number
  • Select / Circle indicator
    • e.g., circled, “select”, asterisks, checks—just be consistent
  • Ideally: original camera file name
    • e.g., A001C001_230101_R1AB
    • This could also be truncated to: A001C001

The Netflix Dailies system will need to somehow make a connection between each event in your top sheet, to what camera file they are associated with.

The camera filename is the strongest anchor for automation.
If it’s there, the system can reliably attach your “Select” decision to the right shot.

If camera filenames cannot be included:

  • The system falls back to matching by Scene / Slate / Take.
  • This is more fragile because it must line up exactly with the Sound Mixer’s metadata.
  • Small inconsistencies in how Scene/Slate/Take are written can cause selects to be missed or mis‑mapped.

 

 

3. How the System Access & Uses Your Notes

Once your Top Sheet is available to the system (via the OCF uploaded hard drive or via Google Drive):

  1. Uploading:
    • Uploading Script Notes can happen in one of two ways:
      • Via the DITs hard drive containing the OCF
        The notes will need to be uploaded on the same drive as the original camera files the script notes refer to. Script Notes cannot be uploaded in a different batch after the fact via the DIT’s hard drive.
      • Or - Via the shows Google Drive directory specifically created for receiving script notes
  2. Detection
    • The Netflix Dailies system will scan the directory the DIT has uploaded to find your Top Sheet PDF(s), as well as the Google Drive directory.
    • If your notes have not been detected the system will email you letting you know they have not been received. 
  3. Parsing
    • It reads your shot list and identifies:
      • Scene / Slate / Take entries
      • Which takes are marked as selects / circled
  4. Matching
    • For each entry, the system tries to match it to ingested camera media using:
      • Primary method: original camera filename
      • Fallback: combination of Scene, Slate, and Take
  5. Marking Selects
    • When a match is found, the corresponding clip in Netflix Dailies is flagged as a select.
    • That select status travels downstream to:
      • Avid / NLE metadata (e.g., select flags, bin columns)
      • Review platforms, where configured

 

 

4. Timing & Delivery Rules

4.1 When To Deliver Notes

For the automation to be most helpful, the Top Sheet should be available around the time camera files are uploaded.

You have two main options:

  1. Ideal scenario:  Include in the Footage Ingest upload
    • DIT/Data Manager puts your Top Sheet PDF(s) in the same folder tree as the OCF for that day/unit when they prepare the upload drive.

      If uploading your top sheet right at wrap along with the OCF is not possible.  The system will email you with a link to upload the missing PDF:

       
  2. Upload via link provided in Missing Script Notes email
    • Use the link / folder provided in the missing Script Notes email you receive.

 

4.2 What Happens If Notes Are Late or Missing?

If the system does not find Script Notes (Top Sheets) alongside the original camera files uploaded, or within the google drive link at time of OCF upload completion:

  • The system will:
    • Send an email to you (the Script Supervisor) explaining that Script Notes are missing and that selects won’t be marked until notes are provided.
  • It will continue processing dailies:
  • If Script Notes Top Sheets are still missing after 6 hours, the system will send a second email, this time CC’ing the Post Supervisor/Producer, letting you all know Dailies will be delivered without selects marked.

If you upload the Top Sheet after dailies have already been delivered, Netflix can still ingest the notes and, where appropriate, reprocess or update metadata—but that requires coordination with Editorial and may not be immediate.

The more often your Top Sheet travels with the OCF, the less rework and back‑and‑forth is needed later.

 

 

5. Consistency With Camera & Sound

Netflix Dailies also leans on:

  • The Sound Mixer’s metadata (Scene/Slate/Take in iXML), and
  • What’s written on the physical clapper slate in camera

For the cleanest automation, it helps if all three of you—you, Sound, and Camera—are speaking the same “language.”  The most important person to collaborate with however on this is the sound mixer. 

Coordinate with the Sound Mixer on exactly how Scene, Slate, and Take will be formatted in their sound master metadata.

Then:

  • Use the same notation on your Top Sheets.
  • Keep abbreviations and flags (e.g., PU, RTK, MOS) consistent:
    • If you write 01-PU, Sound should not write 01PU.

Inconsistencies don’t necessarily stop dailies from being created, but they do make it harder for the system to confidently match your notes when it has to fall back to Scene/Slate/Take instead of camera filenames.

 

 

 

6. Script Supervisor Checklist

At the end of each shoot day, aim for:

  • Top Sheet includes all recorded shots for that day/unit
  • Each line has:
    • Scene
    • Slate (if used)
    • Take
    • Clear mark for selects / circle takes
  • Whenever possible, camera filenames are included
  • Scene/Slate/Take formatting matches how the Sound Mixer is entering metadata
  • Top Sheet exported as PDF
  • PDF delivered via:
    • Ideal path:  Footage Ingest (with the day’s OCF), or
    • The show’s designated Google Drive folder
  • Delivery is within the agreed window 

Your Top Sheet is what tells the system—and editorial—what really matters from the day.
When you provide it clearly and consistently, your selects show up exactly as you intended, without someone in a lab re‑interpreting your decisions.

 

 

 

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