How To Brief A Video Production Company
Most projects that go wrong went wrong in the brief. Here are the nine things a good one contains, and the template we wish clients sent us.
Most video projects that go badly did not go badly during production. They went badly in the brief, four weeks earlier, in a document that did not say who the film was for or what it needed to change.
A good brief is not long. Ours fits on one page. It just has to answer nine things, and three of those decide whether the project runs late.
The Nine Things
What is this film for?
One sentence, and not "brand awareness". Something a person can act on: get a demo booked, get a hiring candidate to apply, explain a product feature to a customer who is already paying.
Who watches it, and where?
A CFO on LinkedIn with the sound off is a completely different film from a customer on your pricing page who chose to press play. Say which.
What must it say?
Three points maximum. If you have eleven, you have three films or a document.
What must it not say?
The claims legal will not clear, the competitor you do not name, the feature that is being deprecated. Finding these in round three is where budgets die.
Where does it live, and in what shapes?
Every placement, every aspect ratio, every duration. This is the single most expensive thing to add later and the cheapest to include now.
Who approves it?
Name them. Not the team, the people. Then confirm they are available in the approval week.
What is the date, and what is it tied to?
A launch, an event, a quarter end. A date with a reason behind it gets protected. A date without one slips.
What is the budget?
A range is fine. Withholding it does not get you a better price, it gets you a proposal for the wrong film, and then two weeks of rework.
What do you already have?
Brand guidelines, existing footage, product renders, a previous film you liked or hated. Reusable assets change a quote more than most people expect.
The Template
Copy this into a document and fill in the right-hand side. It is deliberately short. A brief nobody finishes writing is worse than a brief with gaps in it.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Project | One line. What is this. |
| Objective | The one thing a viewer should do or believe afterwards. |
| Audience | Who, and in what context they will see it. |
| Key messages | Up to three. |
| Do not say | Claims, names, features that are off limits. |
| Deliverables | Every ratio, every duration, every language. |
| Placements | Where each deliverable runs. |
| Approvers | Named people, plus their availability. |
| Deadline | The date, and what it is tied to. |
| Budget | A range is fine. |
| Existing assets | Guidelines, footage, renders, references. |
| References | Two or three films, with one line on what you like about each. |
What To Leave Out Of A Brief
Briefs get worse as they get longer, and the things that make them longer are usually the same three.
- The full company background. A studio can read your website. Two paragraphs of history at the top pushes the objective to page two, and the objective is the only part that changes the work.
- Shot-by-shot direction. If you have already decided the shots, you are buying a crew rather than a studio, and you should say so and price it that way. Otherwise, describe the outcome and let the people you hired solve it.
- Every internal opinion, unresolved. A brief that says the team is split between two directions hands the argument to the studio, who cannot settle it. Settle it first, even badly. A decided brief that is slightly wrong beats an undecided one every time.
On Reference Films
Send two or three, not fifteen. And for each one, write a line about what specifically you like: the pacing, the colour, the way it opens, the fact that it explains something hard in twenty seconds.
A reference with no note attached is close to useless, because the studio has to guess which of the fifty decisions in that film you were pointing at. A reference with one line attached is the most efficient sentence in the whole brief.
Send us a brief that answers those nine things and you will get a fixed scope and a fixed timeline back, not a range and a discovery call.
Send Us A BriefWhat A Studio Should Send Back
A proposal that restates your objective in its own words, so you can tell whether it landed. A scope with the deliverable count and the revision rounds stated. A timeline with your approval dates on it, not just theirs. And a number that includes versioning and licensing.
If the proposal does not restate the objective, the studio has not understood the brief and the film will be about the product rather than about the problem. That is worth catching before anyone shoots anything. Our pricing breakdown covers what should be inside the number.
Common questions
- How long should a video brief be?
- One page. Nine fields answered plainly beats five pages of background nobody reads.
- Should I include the budget in the brief?
- Yes, as a range. Withholding it does not lower the price, it produces a proposal for the wrong film.
- How many reference films should I send?
- Two or three, each with one line explaining what you like about it. Fifteen unannotated links tell a studio almost nothing.