Judging is done on the bench where the card lies, and it is done in two unhurried minutes before any finishing credit is discussed. Enthusiasm at the end of a long sitting is generous, and finishing money spent in that mood cannot be unspent — so the test is run against the courtyard card, never against how the sitting felt.
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 sitting 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 bench 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 courtyard reads as one woman from the first frame to the last.