How To Write A Video Production Brief (With A Free Template)
Last Updated: 9 seconds ago by Astral Studios Staff
A weak brief costs you time, and it costs you money too. A colleague once described a client who sent three different briefs to three different people on their team, each one slightly different. The production company built a proposal from all three combined. Nothing matched. The whole project had to restart from scratch, two weeks lost before filming even began.
A good video production brief stops that from happening. It gets everyone, your team, your production company, your stakeholders, working from the same page. Below is a template you can fill in and send straight to a production company. A few sections are marked optional, useful mainly if you’re briefing on behalf of a government department or NGO with a longer approval chain.
Why Bother With A Brief At All?
Some clients skip the brief and just hop on a call. That can work for a very small project. For anything with a real budget, multiple stakeholders, or a hard deadline, skipping the brief almost always costs more time than writing one would have.
A brief forces you to answer the hard questions upfront. What’s this video actually for? Who needs to sign off before it goes live? What happens if the budget runs short? Answering these before the first camera rolls saves everyone a lot of back and forth later.
The Video Production Brief Template
Copy this into your own document, or download the plain text version at the bottom of this page. Fill in each section as fully as you can. If a section doesn’t apply to your project, just say so rather than leaving it blank, that tells your production company you’ve considered it.
1. Project Overview
Give a short summary of the project in two or three sentences. What’s the video, and why now?
2. Objective
What do you want this video to achieve? Pick one primary goal. If you have more than one, note which is most important.
Examples: raise awareness of a new service, train staff on a new process, explain a policy change to the public, support a fundraising campaign.
3. Audience
Who is this video actually for? Be specific rather than general.
Include age range, location, and language if relevant. Note whether your audience will mostly watch on mobile data, since that affects video length and file size. Note whether they’re internal staff or an external public audience, since that changes tone completely.
4. Key Message
What’s the one thing you want your audience to remember after watching? Keep this to a single sentence. If you can’t get it down to one sentence, the video probably needs to be split into more than one.
5. Tone And Style
Describe the tone you want, formal, warm, urgent, celebratory, and so on. Link to two or three videos you like, from any organisation, as a style reference. This helps your production company understand what you mean far faster than words alone.
6. Deliverables And Distribution
List every version of the video you need. A long-form version for your website is a different deliverable to a 30-second cut for social media.
Note where each version will be shown, your website, a conference screen, social media platforms, internal training systems, and so on. Include any technical specs you already know, aspect ratio, maximum file size, caption requirements.
7. Timeline
Work backwards from your final deadline. Note the date you need the finished video, the date you need a first draft to review, and the date filming needs to happen by.
Be realistic. A standard corporate video usually takes four to eight weeks from an approved brief to final delivery. Animation often takes longer per finished minute than live action footage does.
8. Budget Range
You don’t need an exact number. A range is enough, and it helps your production company suggest something realistic rather than a concept that gets cut back later once a quote comes in.
9. Stakeholders And Contacts
List everyone who needs to be involved, and what they’re responsible for. Note who has final sign-off. One missing decision-maker can stall a project for days.
| Name | Role | Responsibility | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final sign-off | |||
| Reviews first draft | |||
| Provides footage or assets |
10. Brand Assets And References
List what you’re providing, logo files, brand guidelines, existing footage, photography, music preferences. A logo on its own isn’t a brand brief, so include tone of voice notes if you have them.
11. Anything Else
Use this space for anything that doesn’t fit above, technical constraints, past production issues to avoid, or specific people who must appear in the video.
Optional Sections For Government And NGO Clients
These next sections aren’t always needed for a straightforward corporate video. They matter a lot more when you’re working through a government department, an NGO with donor reporting requirements, or any project with a longer approval chain.
Approval Chain
Government and NGO projects often move through several layers of sign-off before a video goes live. List each approval stage, who’s responsible, and how long they typically need to respond. If one approver is likely to be slow or unavailable at any point, flag it now rather than discovering it mid-production.
Language And Subtitling
South Africa recognises eleven official languages, and your audience may need more than one. Note which languages the video needs to be available in, and whether that means subtitles, full dubbing, or both. Also note whether different regions need different language versions.
Location Logistics
If you’re filming outside a studio, note any permit requirements for your chosen location, and how long those typically take to secure in your city. Also worth a line here, whether your location has reliable power for a full shoot day, and what the backup plan is if it doesn’t. Load shedding isn’t the daily disruption it once was, but it’s still worth a contingency line for longer outdoor shoots.
Data And Privacy Considerations
If your video includes members of the public, note any consent or data handling requirements your organisation follows. This matters particularly for footage involving children, vulnerable communities, or personal testimonials that will be used in fundraising or awareness campaigns.
A Quick Note On Length
A brief doesn’t need to be long to be useful. One to two pages is enough for most standard projects. Longer briefs make sense for multi-format campaigns with several stakeholders, but specific always beats long.
Ready To Send Your Brief?
Once your brief is filled in, you’re ready to approach a production company for a proposal. Contact us and we’ll talk through the details with you, brief in hand.
