Video production brief: a template that gets real quotes
A video production brief has one job: to let three companies quote the same film. Most briefs describe a feeling and leave the film open. What comes back is three treatments, three budgets and no way to compare them.
This is the template we would like to receive. It fits on two pages.
The ten things a video production brief needs
The ten points on one page.
The objective. What has to change after people see this: awareness, consideration, a launch, a sale period. One sentence, and how you will know it worked.
The audience. Who it is for, and where they will watch it.
The one message. If the viewer remembers a single thing, what is it?
The deliverables. Every film, length and aspect ratio, plus stills if you need them. A list, not a paragraph.
Where it runs, and for how long. Channels, countries and campaign period. This sets the usage for cast and music.
Mandatories. The product and pack, claims that must appear, legal lines, logo and brand rules.
References. Two or three films, with a note on what you like in each: the pace, the light, the casting, the humour.
What already exists. A script, a storyboard, an agency idea, last year's film.
Timing. The air date, and the dates you cannot move. Who approves, and how long they need.
The budget. A number or a range.
The pack, the claim and the brand colour are mandatories. Here they are on set for our Surf commercial.
Why the budget belongs in the brief
Leaving the budget out does not get you a lower price. It gets you three different films.
One company will assume a single day in a studio. Another will write a two-day shoot with a set build. Both are honest answers to a brief with no number in it. Give a range, and every reply answers the same question: what is the best film for this money?
The European guidelines for commercial production, written by the agencies' and producers' associations, make the same point from the other side: a production company needs the budget parameters, or it risks developing ideas the money cannot pay for.
If you really do not know, say what similar work has cost you before.
Our producer checking the printed boards on a Vaseline shoot. If boards or a script already exist, say so in the brief.
The two things that usually go missing
The deliverables list. "A thirty-second film and some social versions" is not a list. Three vertical cutdowns framed for on the day cost little. The same three discovered in the edit cost a re-frame, new graphics and sometimes a reshoot. We go through this in video deliverables: cutdowns and aspect ratios.
The approvers. Name the person who can say yes. If that person will not be at the pre-production meeting, say so now, because the schedule has to allow for it.
What to leave out of a brief
Adjectives. "Premium", "cinematic" and "authentic" describe every brief ever written, and tell a director nothing. A reference film does the same job better.
A finished script, unless you want it shot as written. If you want ideas, give the problem and leave room.
A scene from our Samsung Z Flip7 film. One reference like this says more about light and tone than the word “premium”.
What should come back
Questions first. Good questions are the sign that a brief has been read.
Then three documents: a treatment, which is how the director sees the film; a quote; and a timeline working back from your air date.
If you have asked for creative as well as production, expect an idea or a route before any of those.
The aircraft cabin built in a studio for Samsung Wallet: The Secret Password. Whether a scene is built, found or generated is decided from the brief and the budget together.
A filled-in example
This is how the ten points read for an imaginary sunscreen launch.
Objective: make the new SPF 50 the first sunscreen people in their twenties think of before summer.
Audience: women and men aged 20 to 30 in the big cities, on TikTok and YouTube.
Message: light enough to wear every day.
Deliverables: one 30-second film; two 6-second bumpers; all three in 16:9 and 9:16; five stills.
Runs: Vietnam, online only, six months from April.
Mandatories: the tube in hand, the SPF claim on screen, the legal line.
References: two films, one for its pace and one for its light.
Exists: a tagline. No script.
Timing: on air 1 April. Two approvers, three working days each.
Budget: a range.
A page like that can be quoted in a day.
A brief is where the saving starts
Most of the money in a production is committed by decisions taken before the shoot: how many days, how many set-ups, what is built and what is found. A clear brief lets those be decided once.
A vague one means they are decided on set, at overtime rates.
Our director going over the plan with the cast between set-ups on the Samsung Galaxy S24: Nightography night shoot. Everything on that screen started as a line in the brief.
Quick answers
How long should a video production brief be?
One or two pages. Long enough to answer the ten points, short enough that everyone who has to approve the film will read it.
What is the difference between a brief, a script and a treatment?
The brief is the problem and its limits, written by the client or the agency. The script is what is seen and heard. The treatment is the director's account of how it will be filmed.
Should I send the same brief to several production companies?
Yes: the same document, at the same time, with the same budget range. It is the only way the replies can be compared.
Dream Media develops, directs, shoots and finishes brand films in-house in Ho Chi Minh City. See what we produce.