What is an AI Usage Schedule?

The question producers, agencies and broadcasters now ask is the same each time: what exactly did the AI do on this job, and are we allowed to use the result? Without a record, the answer depends on someone's memory of the edit. The schedule writes it down, shot by shot, so nobody has to take our word for it.

It is also the factual basis for any disclosure decision. Whether an ad needs to say it used AI turns on what the AI actually did, and the rules differ by market. Our note on AI disclosure in UK commercials covers where those rules stand.

• The shots or assets AI touched, by timecode or asset name
• What was done to each: removal, extension, reframe, continuity, look development
• Which models did it, and what each was tuned on
• Where the source material came from: the production's own rushes, plates and references
• Who finished the work by hand, and which steps were manual
• What was not done: no performance synthesised or altered, no likeness created
• What happens to the job model at the end: archived or deleted, and when

The AI Usage Schedule says what was done. The Rights Schedule says what the production is allowed to do with the result. It is a register of every licence and consent behind the work, including talent, music, stock, fonts, locations and any consent relating to likeness. For each one it records the usage envelope (territory, media and term) and the renewal date, and it says what the work may and may not be re-cut into without a new clearance.

Read together, the two documents answer both halves of the question: what the AI did, and whether you can use it where you plan to.

• A written answer to the client's question about AI, per shot, that you can forward as it is
• The facts a legal or compliance team needs to make a disclosure call for each market
• A record of what was not done, as well as what was
• A record of what happens to the job model: archived or deleted, and when
• With the Rights Schedule, every renewal date on one calendar, so a licence is flagged before it lapses

Both schedules are delivered with the work, alongside the masters. They belong to the production, not to Halation, and are yours to pass to a client, an agency or a broadcaster. They stay with the job, and the AI Usage Schedule is updated if a version is re-cut later. For characters and films Halation makes for its own channels, both schedules are published.

Specimen only. The job, the shots and the dates below are invented to show the fields. They do not describe a real production or client.

The two schedules in full.