Classify and declare your production

Name the cut, edition or localisation your declaration covers. The facts you gather and the classification apply to that version.

Ask the relevant crew, contributors and suppliers whether AI created, altered or processed any material included in that version, including through AI features in production software that may have run automatically.

For each possible AI use, establish:

1. Was an AI-powered function used?
2. What did it do?
3. Did any output reach the version being declared?
4. Did the AI process or reconstruct human-created material, or originate new content?

During development and production

Note whether AI output is reference or temporary material, or is intended for release. Planning tools such as script analysis, scheduling and pitch-deck generation are outside the declaration. A moodboard, previs or scratch track made only to guide the work is outside it too, unless its output is carried into the released version, as when pitch visuals are reused as a title sequence.

In post-production or after completion

Check what was replaced, retained or changed. Ask post-production, VFX, sound, animation and localisation teams and vendors whether anything made as temporary, reference-only or replaced material remained in the released version, particularly at handoffs.

HPF does not require a production-wide prompt log, tool inventory or audit trail. You need enough information to describe what the AI did and what output reached the released version.

When output reaches the finished version

AI output that does not reach the released version is outside the declaration. Output can be embodied in the finished work without keeping its original file format or appearing as a standalone asset: generated dialogue performed by an actor reaches the finished work through the performance. Influence alone is not incorporation. Human editing, repainting, rewriting or compositing does not by itself settle the classification; the question is what AI output, if any, remains or is embodied in the released version.

Each pair below uses the same kind of workflow and reaches a different outcome.

Once you have established the facts, use the rows below.

Use the highest category that applies to any element of the version. There is no percentage threshold: a live-action film with one AI-generated title sequence or insert is Generative AI, whatever its length. If both Assistive AI and Generative AI uses are present, classify the production as Generative AI and describe both uses in the declaration.

Processing or originating?

Processing or reconstruction repairs or refines material that people captured or created, such as cleaning recorded sound or removing artefacts from existing footage. Fabrication introduces content that was not in the supplied material, such as generating a background, inventing missing visual detail or synthesising part of a performance that was not given. Where a tool does both, the fabricated content determines the category.

What the AI did decides the treatment, not whether the product or feature is called restoration, enhancement or inpainting. An AI repair that was discarded or replaced before delivery leaves no output in the released version.

Some cases remain under consultation, including established machine-learning functions, substantially rewritten generated dialogue, intermediate VFX control data, and some localisation, subtitle and episodic cases. If your use falls within an unresolved case, consult the taxonomy rather than forcing a classification.

Unsure about a particular use? Check it individually

Complete one declaration for the version. It records:

• the production;
• the released version covered;
• one HPF classification;
• a concise factual summary, where in-scope AI output is present;
• the HPF standard version applied;
• the producer or production company making the declaration; and
• the signature of an authorised person and the date.

The factual summary says what the AI did and what output reached the released version. One or two lines for each use is usually enough. Tool names can support the summary but do not replace it. For example:

• “AI was used to isolate recorded dialogue from background noise. No replacement speech was generated.”
• “A synthetic voice was retained as narration in the released version.”

These show the level of detail that helps a recipient; no particular wording is required. If the summary needs more room, the Declaration Form has an optional continuation sheet, which forms part of the declaration once attached.

Sign the declaration and keep it with the existing deal, delivery and other production paperwork for that version. The HPF form can be used, but any document carrying the required information can serve as the declaration.

Complete the Declaration Form

If you release another version

A later editorial edition or substantive localisation needs its own signed declaration, even where the classification and factual summary are unchanged. The earlier declaration continues to cover its version. HPF does not require you to notify earlier recipients, although contracts or distribution arrangements may.

Technical delivery changes, such as a different codec or bitrate, do not normally need another declaration if the picture, sound and embedded audience-facing text are unchanged. Some localisation, subtitle and episodic cases remain under consultation.

Check that the declaration names the correct version, states one classification, includes the factual summary where AI output is present, and is signed and dated by an authorised person.

An HPF declaration records finished-work provenance. It does not certify the production or establish rights, consent, compliance or eligibility.

• When an organisation asks about AI
• AI Use Checker
• The HPF Taxonomy
• How HPF works