Nothing goes back under the lid at this desk without being looked at first, and frames face the same courtesy: a two-minute test, run against the hatbox card, before a single finishing credit is discussed. Enthusiasm at the end of a long sitting is generous, and finishing money spent in that mood cannot be unspent.
First minute: identity. Read the frame against the five lines in order — age, hair, build, face, signature. One failed line ends the test; the frame is a cull, however beautiful it looks standing alone. Second minute: craft and purpose. Hands, edges, light direction, background clutter — and a named job for the frame to do: cover, feed piece, first frame for a clip. A frame that passes identity but fails craft earns one editor pass, not an upscale.
Keepers are finished in order: repair first, swap second, upscale last. The upscaler enlarges resolution; it has never once enlarged fidelity, and the hatbox has never pretended otherwise.
Two minutes feels slow on a good night. It remains cheaper than one premium regeneration, and it is why a set from this desk reads as one woman from the first frame to the last.