8 Tips for Writing an Effective Video Production Brief

February 22, 2023

Writing a good video production brief is the number one way to get the most out of your production spend. Communicating your objectives with your video production company and starting with the end in mind will ensure the process is an efficient, cost effective and stress free one. Here are our top 8 things to consider when writing your video production brief.

1. What type of video is it, who do you want to watch it, where will they watch it and what do you want them to take away from it.

Is it a Brand Video, Customer Testimonial or Explainer video that needs to tell a story giving viewers an understanding of who you are and what problem your business solves.  Is it more functional video content such as a How To or Product Demonstration that will help convert viewers into customers, or is it a Training or Education video to be used internally.

2. Key messaging. What are the top 3 key points you want the viewer to remember?

Don’t worry about this being in a formal video script format, get the main points down, your video production company will turn it into a script then work with you to hone it. The important thing is to clearly communicate what message you want to get across; the problem your solution solves, how your product works, your brand’s vision and values or simply teach someone a workflow or process.

3. Deliverables – work out what final video deliverables you need early, this will enable you to maximise the video content you get from your shoot days and production budget. Be specific and link them back to your initial objectives – who (will watch), where (will they watch), what (do you want them to remember). Consider the number of videos, duration and the ratio depending on what your distribution channels are.

You can get a lot more out of your shoot days than you think by working out the deliverables early. Rather than thinking in terms of one video, think in terms of a suite of video content around a particular topic, this gives you flexibility to use your corporate videos across multiple marketing channels.

For example, from a half day corporate video shoot, your suite of videos could include:

  • 1 x 2-3 minute full length video

  • 2 x 1 minute durations (focusing on one topic or key message each)

  • 2 x 30 sec social media cutdowns

  • 3 x 15 sec social media cutdowns (with different CTA’s at end)

Make sure you consider ratio variations, depending on where they will be distributed include 16:9 (Horizontal for your Website, YouTube & LinkedIn), 19:6 (Vertical for FB Stories & TikTok) and 1:1 (Square for Instagram) and versions with and without captions.

Social media is a critical part of a marketing strategy these days, the rise of short form vertical videos (19:6), with Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook Reels and YouTube shorts is a trend that’s predicted to continue in 2023, so it’s more important than ever to consider ratio variations and captions or graphics for ‘silent videos’.

4. Brand Assets It helps if your video production company has your brand assets early on in the process. Ideally you want to provide high resolution logos, style guide and your fonts. If you want to include still imagery, or animation of a workflow or product include these too as it all helps them get familiar with your brand and style.

5. Logistics.  This doesn’t have to be done at the early stage, but it’s worth considering potential filming locations you want to use; your office, warehouse, client facility, studio or outdoor location. Do you have locations available to use or do you want your video production company to source them for you, this may impact your production budget and for outdoor locations you may need council approvals (which is a simple process that your video production company can manage for you, just allow time in the schedule)

6. Stakeholders, for script sign off and revisions during editing. How many stakeholders will be providing feedback during script development and the editing process?  Are they colleagues, clients or just you. Allowing people enough time to review and provide feedback needs to be factored into your production schedule, and the more effectively you can collate feedback for your video production company, the more time (and potentially money) you’ll save.

7. Scheduling

Allow enough time for pre-production, doing this will make the rest of the process efficient, cost effective and get you the best results. Pre-production includes concept, design and script development along with booking and briefing all the necessary crew and stakeholders.

It’s worth keeping in mind that once you sign off on the script and move into the filming and editing part of the process, changes to the script have a bigger impact on the timeline and possibly budget. Plan for around 3-4 rounds of revisions during the editing process, the more efficient and centralised your revision process can be the more efficient (and cost effective) your project will be.

8. Deadline for final video delivery. Corporate video production typically takes 1-3 weeks from the date of the shoot, depending on complexity and number of deliverables.  Clearly set deadlines for final delivery and any milestones you need to meet (ie: shoot date if there is no flexibility)

So, to sum up it’s worth taking the time to write a comprehensive brief for your next video production process. Not only will it focus you on exactly what you want to achieve, it will help your video production company deliver it on time and on budget.

If you would like to find out more about an affordable, professional video production solution to fit your video marketing strategy contact the team at YourFilm.

YourFilm have video production packages to suit your requirements, an experienced team with a wide network of over 1,000 crew across Australia & NZ, our experienced team are happy to help.