# AI Documentary Quality-Control Checklist

> Review an AI documentary for story, facts, narration, visuals, continuity, audio, captions, rights, disclosure, metadata, and final export before publishing.

Updated: 2026-07-11
Audience: Documentary creators, producers, editors, and agency reviewers
Canonical: https://onira.studio/guides/ai-documentary-quality-control-checklist

## Key takeaways

- Review the whole film before diagnosing individual assets.
- Separate editorial, factual, visual, audio, and compliance passes.
- Record failures and interventions so quality improves across episodes.

## Pass 1: Watch as a viewer

Watch the full export without pausing. Record where attention drops, the argument becomes unclear, a transition feels abrupt, a shot overstays its purpose, or the ending fails to resolve the opening promise. This first pass protects the film from becoming a checklist of technically acceptable parts.

Ask whether the title and opening make the same promise, whether every act advances it, and whether a viewer unfamiliar with the subject can follow the people, places, and timeline.

- Hook and thesis clarity.
- Pacing, orientation, and act progression.
- Resolution of the opening question.

## Pass 2: Facts and visual implications

Review the claim inventory against sources, then inspect visuals for assertions the narration does not state. Check likeness, era, geography, architecture, objects, readable text, symbols, maps, and whether a reconstruction appears to be authentic footage.

Verify captions and chapters after factual corrections. A corrected voice track with stale on-screen text is still a published error.

- Names, dates, quantities, quotations, and causality.
- Anachronism, geography, identity, and generated text.
- Captions, chapters, description, and source notes.

## Pass 3: Image, motion, continuity, and sound

Inspect frames for malformed hands or objects, identity drift, unstable backgrounds, sudden wardrobe changes, unintended camera motion, flicker, warping, and transitions that imply impossible spatial continuity. Decide whether each flaw is noticeable at normal speed and whether it damages trust or story clarity.

Listen on headphones and ordinary speakers. Check pronunciation, clipping, silence, music level, abrupt score changes, subtitle synchronization, and whether effects compete with the narrator.

- Character, setting, lighting, and screen-direction continuity.
- Motion artifacts and shot-end failures.
- Narration intelligibility and audio balance.

## Pass 4: Rights, disclosure, and delivery

Confirm the creator has the necessary rights or permissions for supplied material, likeness, voice, music, logos, and any third-party assets. Make the altered-content disclosure decision and review other platform-specific requirements.

Finally, verify the exported file, aspect ratio, resolution, duration, audio channels, captions, poster or thumbnail, description, source notes, and playback from the actual delivery path. Preserve the approved version and intervention log.

- Rights and permissions.
- Disclosure and sensitive-content review.
- Final file, metadata, playback, and version record.

## Publication checklist

- The full film works as a coherent viewer experience.
- Every material claim and visual implication is reviewed.
- Narration, music, effects, captions, and chapters agree.
- Continuity and generation artifacts are acceptable at normal playback.
- Rights and disclosure decisions are documented.
- The delivered file and metadata are tested from the final location.

## Sources

- [YouTube altered or synthetic content disclosure](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/14328491?hl=en)
- [YouTube channel monetization policies](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1311392?hl=en)
- [Google video SEO best practices](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/video?hl=en)

## Questions

### How many review passes does an AI documentary need?

Use at least separate viewer, factual/visual, technical/audio, and rights/disclosure passes. A sensitive subject or client production may require specialist or legal review as well.

### Should every visual artifact be regenerated?

Prioritize flaws that viewers notice at normal speed or that damage meaning, identity, factual trust, continuity, or delivery quality. Log the decision so standards remain consistent.

### What is an intervention log?

It records generated versions, selections, regenerations, factual corrections, timeline changes, and any external edits. This makes production evidence and future estimates more credible.

## Product boundary

- Onira delivers a final MP4; it does not upload or schedule posts on YouTube or social platforms.
- Onira provides a reviewable production workflow; creators remain responsible for approving the story, facts, rights, disclosure, and final publication.
- Director chat is limited to regenerating one selected PREVIEW timeline video clip; other available Studio controls are separate direct actions.
- Creators must review facts, sources, rights, realistic-synthetic-media disclosure, and platform policy before publishing.
- Onira does not guarantee YouTube monetization, reach, factual accuracy, or legal clearance.