Write a video brief

What this is about

Most briefs fail in one of two ways: they describe a finished film instead of a problem, or they stay so vague that three stakeholders read three different projects into them. A usable brief pins down why the video exists, who has to act after watching it, and which single message carries that action. It also names constraints early — budget range, deadline, mandatory elements, approval chain — because a constraint discovered in week three costs more than one written on page one. Agencies and inhouse teams both need this document, and both tend to skip it when the timeline is tight, which is exactly when it matters.

The order matters more than the tools. Skip a step and you usually notice two steps later — by which point the fix costs several times as much.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• A brief defines the problem and the audience; the treatment that answers it defines the idea. Keep the two documents strictly separate.
• Budget range and deadline belong inside the brief — leaving them out invites concepts the project can never afford.
• One primary message per film. A brief carrying four messages is four briefs stapled together.
• The approval chain is part of the brief: who comments, who consolidates, who decides, in which order.

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Start with the business problem, not the film. Write one sentence on what should change after the video exists — more demo bookings, fewer support tickets, faster onboarding.
2. Define the audience precisely enough to exclude people. 'Decision-makers in mid-sized manufacturing firms' gives a direction; 'everyone interested in our product' gives none at all.
3. Formulate the single message the viewer must retain. If two messages feel equally important, plan two films or accept that one of them will drown.
4. List deliverables with formats and channels: lengths, aspect ratios, subtitle versions, where each file runs. Deliverables drive the budget harder than the idea does.
5. State the constraints: budget range, deadline, brand mandatories, legal requirements, people who must appear. A constraint on page one is cheaper than one found in the edit.
6. Name the approval chain with actual names and order — who comments, who consolidates, who signs off. One decision-maker per round, confirmed in writing.
7. Add references with a sentence each on what exactly they prove: pacing, tone, framing, grade. Unexplained links get read as 'copy this'.
8. Circulate the draft to every stakeholder for written confirmation before creative work starts. Silence is not agreement; a short reply is.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Describing camera moves and music in the brief — that is execution, and it locks the concept before anyone has thought.
• Writing the brief after the kickoff instead of before it, so the meeting has nothing to correct.
• Leaving the budget out 'so ideas stay free' — free ideas get expensive exactly once, at the estimate.

With TillyGen

TillyGen turns a confirmed brief into first drafts of shotlist, storyboard and schedule — the document stops being prose and becomes a plan you can react to.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.