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To brief a video production company well, answer seven questions before anyone talks about creative: what the video must achieve, who will watch it and where, what they should do next, how success will be measured, what already exists, what cannot change, and what the budget range is. Put the answers on one page, plan every version you need before filming, and hold a 30-minute briefing session to test the page. A good brief is short, decided and specific. A long brief usually means the decisions have not been made yet.
Most teams brief an output, not an outcome. They describe what they want the video to look like, attach brand guidelines, set a deadline and send it. The production team builds exactly that. Two rounds of feedback later, the video matches the brief and still does not do the job, because the job was never written down.
A brief is a set of decisions, not a description. Once the decisions are made, the creative choices follow.
Copy this table and fill it in. If any row is blank, the brief is not ready.
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Objective | The one thing the video must achieve |
| Audience | Who is watching, their role and what they already know |
| Context | Where and when they will watch it |
| Key message | The one sentence the viewer should remember |
| Proof | The facts, numbers or customers that back the message |
| Next step | The action the viewer should take |
| Success measure | The metric you will judge it on |
| Deliverables | Every version, length and aspect ratio needed (see below) |
| People on camera | Who appears, and who must approve their inclusion |
| Locations | Where filming will happen, and any access or permit needs |
| Existing assets | Footage, brand assets and past videos to reuse |
| Mandatories | Brand rules, legal lines, claims to avoid, disclaimers |
| Approvers | One named approver for each area: brand, legal, subject matter |
| Budget range | The range you are working within |
| Deadline | The date it must be live, and any fixed dates before then |
The deliverables row is where most budgets blow out, because versions are requested after filming, when the footage was not captured for them. List every version up front.
| Placement | Typical length | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Website or landing page | 60 to 120 seconds | 16:9 |
| LinkedIn feed | 30 to 90 seconds | 4:5, or 9:16 for the vertical video feed |
| Reels, Shorts and stories | 15 to 45 seconds | 9:16 |
| Paid social | 6, 15 and 30 seconds | 9:16 and 4:5 |
| Sales follow-up | 60 to 120 seconds | 16:9 |
| Events and screens | 1 to 3 minutes | 16:9 |
The numbers multiply quickly. Three lengths in three aspect ratios is nine files from one video. Knowing that before filming changes how it is framed, which lines are written to stand alone, and what supporting footage is captured. It also shows which standalone pieces can be filmed on the same day, which the videos per month guide covers in detail.
Any claim in a video has to be one you can back up. Under Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not make misleading or deceptive claims, and that includes what is said on camera, shown on screen or implied by a testimonial. Before filming, list every claim the script will make and attach the evidence for each one. Customer testimonials must be genuine and must reflect the customer's actual experience.
Some industries carry extra rules. Health and therapeutic products, financial services and anything aimed at children each have their own advertising codes and approval steps. If your business is in one of them, name the person who signs off on compliance in the brief, and give them a review point at script, at rough cut and at final cut. It is far cheaper to change a sentence in a script than a scene in an edit.
The best briefs come from a 30-minute conversation with the right people in the room. Questions get answered in real time, assumptions get tested, and the production team hears what never makes it into writing: the tension between what marketing wants and what legal will approve, the stakeholder who has to appear, the real budget ceiling. Write the brief after that session, to confirm what was decided.
Here is the test of a production relationship: each brief should take less time to write than the last. If you re-explain your brand, audience, tone and approvals every time, you have a series of expensive strangers, not a production partner.
On yourfilm, your brand, past briefs, approvals and footage are kept on the platform, so the brand context carries from one project to the next. Over time, yourfilmAI learns from each finished project and guides how the next brief is framed, while people plan, film and edit. By the third project, a brief is often a short note confirming the objective, the deliverables and the date. For an ongoing programme, the content calendar guide shows how briefs fit into a year of video, and the guide to choosing a video production company covers what to look for in a partner.
The objective, audience, viewing context, key message, proof, next step, success measure, every deliverable and version, people and locations, existing assets, mandatories, approvers, budget range and deadline. All of it should fit on one page.
One page. If it needs more, the decisions behind it have usually not been made yet. Supporting material such as brand guidelines can be attached separately.
Yes. A range lets the production partner design the best video for that money. Without it, proposals are either unaffordable or too cautious, and time is wasted on both sides.
One named approver for each area: brand, legal or compliance, and the subject matter. Give each of them a review point at script, rough cut and final cut.
List every placement, length and aspect ratio in the brief before filming. The production partner can then frame the footage and write the script so each version works, instead of cropping one edit after the fact.
Send us your one-page brief, or talk it through in a 30-minute session, and we will come back with a scoped plan and every version mapped.