Why the Brief Matters So Much
The quality of a video production brief determines the quality of the creative response — and ultimately the quality of the finished film. A vague brief produces vague ideas and inaccurate quotes. A clear, considered brief gives a production company everything it needs to pitch something genuinely useful for your business.
You don't need to know how to make a video to write a good brief. You need to know what you want to achieve, who you're talking to, and what success looks like. The production company's job is to translate that into compelling creative.
What to Include
1. Objective
Start with the purpose of the video. What is it for? What do you want a viewer to think, feel, or do after watching it? Be as specific as you can. "Increase brand awareness" is a starting point; "convince procurement managers at mid-sized UK law firms that we're the right events partner for their annual conference" is a brief.
2. Target Audience
Who is this for? Describe them in terms that are useful — their role, their industry, their level of familiarity with your business. Where will they be watching this, and in what context? A video watched by a decision-maker on a laptop in a quiet office requires a very different approach to one watched on a phone while commuting.
3. Key Message
If a viewer could only take away one thing from this video, what should it be? Resist the temptation to list six messages. The most effective videos are built around one clear idea. Prioritise ruthlessly.
4. Tone and Style
How should the film feel? Professional and authoritative? Warm and human? Energetic and fast-paced? The more specific you can be, the better. Reference examples — even from other industries — that capture the feeling you're after. This is one of the most useful things you can include in a brief.
5. Call to Action
What do you want the viewer to do after watching? Visit a page, get in touch, book something, share the film? Even if there's no hard call to action, being clear about intended next steps helps shape the edit.
6. Distribution Channels
Where will this video live — and in what format? A piece designed for your website homepage has very different requirements to a LinkedIn video ad or a broadcast commercial. Distribution determines format, aspect ratio, length, and technical specification. Get this wrong and you end up with a 16:9 film that doesn't work as a vertical social post.
7. Deliverables
List every format you need: the full-length master, any cut-downs (60s, 30s, 15s), different aspect ratios (16:9, 1:1, 9:16), subtitled versions. The more of this you define upfront, the more accurately the production company can quote — and the more they can plan the shoot to capture everything you need.
8. Budget Range
You don't need to give a single figure. A range is sufficient — and genuinely useful. Knowing whether a project is a £5,000 brief or a £30,000 brief shapes every creative decision the production company makes. Withholding budget information doesn't give you negotiating power; it produces proposals that don't match what you can actually spend.
9. Timeline
Include any fixed deadlines — a product launch date, an event, a campaign go-live — and work backwards from there. A realistic timeline for a mid-range brand film from brief to delivery is six to ten weeks. If you have a hard deadline, say so at the outset.
10. Approval Process
Who needs to sign off on the finished piece, and at how many stages? If multiple stakeholders or a legal team are involved, factor their review time into the timeline before you give the production company a deadline. The most common cause of project delays isn't production — it's client-side approval.
The most useful question to answer in any brief: What does success look like six months after this video goes live? The answer tells a production company more about your actual objectives than almost anything else.
What Not to Do
Don't over-specify the creative solution. Tell the production company what you want to achieve and who you're talking to — not exactly how you want it filmed. The value of working with an experienced production company is the creative perspective they bring. A brief that dictates every shot leaves no room for that.
Don't treat budget as confidential information. Sharing a realistic range produces better proposals and saves everyone time.
Don't leave the brief open-ended on delivery formats. Decide what you need and put it in writing. Retrofitting a film for platforms it wasn't designed for rarely produces good results.
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