Video brief template

What this is about

Productions rarely fail on ideas; they fail on unstated expectations. The video brief is where expectations become text: every deliverable with length, aspect ratio and platform, every language version, the licensing scope for music and people, the dates when feedback actually arrives. Each of these left open converts into a surcharge later — a vertical version discovered in post costs a multiple of one planned before the shoot, because framing, set design and graphics were never built for it.

A template is the starting point, not the goal: once it has been filled in by hand twice, it is worth asking whether the document should come out of the plan instead.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• A deliverables table with format, length, aspect ratio and target platform per line, because the word video hides a dozen products
• Usage rights spelled out — media, territory, duration — for footage, music and every person on screen, matched to the release forms
• Language and subtitle versions listed now, since a second language touches voiceover, graphics and titles all at once
• A timeline containing the client's own duties: who reviews, how many rounds, and how many working days each round may take
• Existing assets inventoried — brand guides, footage, music licenses — with the honest note of what is usable and what merely exists

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. List every deliverable as its own line with format, length, ratio and platform, and resist the phrase and some cutdowns.
2. Define the usage scope with the client: where the film runs, how long, in which markets — this drives casting, music and budget.
3. Fix languages and subtitle needs, and decide now whether graphics must be built text-free for later localization.
4. Write the timeline backwards from the publication date, inserting the client's review rounds with named durations.
5. Collect existing assets and licenses, verify what may legally be reused, and note gaps as production items.
6. Have the brief confirmed by the person who controls the budget, then treat every later addition as a priced change.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Usage rights discovered at delivery, when the buyout no longer matches what marketing plans to do
• Formats appearing in post that the shoot never framed for
• A timeline that schedules the production's work but not the client's feedback days

With TillyGen

TillyGen reads the brief as structured input: deliverables and constraints shape the shot list and schedule from the start, so a 9:16 version is planned coverage, not a post-production regret.

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.