Video production is one of the few creative disciplines where an unclear brief doesn't just produce mediocre work — it produces expensive mediocre work. An inadequate creative brief on a $5,000 production day costs you the day's spend, the reshoots, the editing time, and often weeks of delay. Getting the brief right is the single highest-leverage thing you can do before engaging a production team.
01. Define the Objective First
Before anything else: what is this video supposed to make the viewer do? Watch to the end? Click a link? Book a call? Buy a product? The objective determines everything else — length, hook strategy, pacing, CTA. A brand awareness film is built completely differently from a direct-response ad. Define the one primary goal before you define anything visual.
02. Specify the Platform and Format
A 16:9 YouTube video, a 9:16 TikTok, a 1:1 Instagram Reel, and a 16:9 LinkedIn video all need to be shot and edited differently. Tell the production team which platforms this content is for and in what formats, upfront. Asking for a landscape video to be "adapted" to vertical in post almost always produces a compromised result.
03. Give Reference Videos, Not Adjectives
"Dynamic, modern, and energetic" means something different to every person who reads it. "Like this video [link]" is unambiguous. When briefing tone and style, always include 3–5 reference videos that represent the look and feel you're going for — and be specific about what you like about each one. Is it the pacing? The colour grade? The music style? The more specific you are, the less interpretation the team has to do.
04. Document What You Don't Want
This is as important as the positive references. Include examples of styles, treatments, or approaches you've seen and explicitly don't want. "Nothing like [link]" is extremely useful information that prevents the team from going in a direction you'd have to reject after the shoot.
05. Set the Revision Structure in Advance
Before the brief is finalised, agree on how many revision rounds are included, what constitutes a revision vs. a new version, and who has sign-off authority on your side. The most common production delay isn't slow editing — it's internal stakeholder disagreements that surface after the first cut is delivered. Know who has final approval before you start.