Answer in brief
You do not need to know how to film. You need to name the constraints: where the clip will play, how long it runs, whether anyone hears the sound, and what has to appear on screen literally. Here is what to write in each part of the brief.
The short answer: a brief is a list of constraints, not a description of an idea: A video brief is a list of constraints: placements,…
A video brief is not a description of an idea and not an attempt to phrase a creative task. It is a list of constraints: where the clip will play, how long it runs, whether anyone hears the sound, and what has to appear on screen literally.
You can write that brief without any specialist knowledge. Nobody expects you to name codecs, storyboard a sequence or discuss coverage. What you are expected to know is your own business: the placement, the date, the product, and the details nobody is allowed to get wrong.
Constraints help both sides. The studio stops guessing and you get a predictable result: revision rounds go on refinement rather than on rebuilding a clip that was cut for the wrong placement and the wrong length from the first working day.
The sections below go through each item — what to write, which phrasings carry real information, which ones say nothing at all, and how to attach reference clips so they are read the way you meant them. A one-page template closes the article.
Where the clip will play: placements set the format
A brief opens with the list of placements. Reels, Stories, the feed, YouTube, a screen in the showroom, a slide in a deck, a banner on your own site. Each placement fixes the frame proportions, the length it tolerates and how sound behaves there.
Proportions do not convert for free. A horizontal cut squeezed into a vertical frame loses its edges, and any text that sat near those edges walks out of the picture. If there are two placements, that has to be known before the shoot, not after the edit.
The Single Reel package is $70 and covers captions, a licensed track and exports for every vertical placement, with a timeline of 1-2 working days. Shooting, scripting and actors are not included: that part of the job stays outside the package.
File format belongs to the placement question too. MDN describes containers and codecs as separate things: MP4 is a container, H.264 is a codec carried inside it. Say where the file is being uploaded and export settings stop being a thread of messages.
Duration: name the ceiling, not a preference
Duration in a brief is a ceiling, not a preference. "Thirty seconds, though a minute would be fine" describes two different jobs. Write it as a limit instead: no longer than thirty seconds, because that is the slot the pre-roll gives you.
The limit almost always comes from outside — the platform cap, the length of a slot you bought, the patience of somebody scrolling a feed. Put the reason next to the number, so the editor knows what can be shortened and what has to survive every version.
Duration decides how much footage you need. Thirty seconds on screen is not thirty seconds of filming; every shot needs several takes. If you are filming it yourself, film generously: long shots can be trimmed, while missing ones have to be shot again.
When several versions are needed, list them separately: thirty seconds for the ad, fifteen for Stories, six for a banner. The Campaign Edit package at $180 is built for exactly that — a hero cut plus short derivatives.
With sound or without: write the brief for muted playback
Clips in a feed are opened with the sound off, and the brief should be written on that assumption. The meaning has to survive as pictures: text on screen, a demonstrated action, captions. Sound adds atmosphere, but it should not carry the single fact you need delivered.
Write it plainly: the clip is watched muted, the key lines appear as text. That one sentence saves a revision round, because the editor leaves room for captions from the start and keeps them away from the strip the platform interface covers.
In Single Reel, captions and a licensed track sit inside the $70 package. That means subtitles are not a separate line in the budget, and music does not turn into a delay at the point where the edit is already assembled and approved.
WCAG 2.2 asks for captions on prerecorded synchronized media under success criterion 1.2.2, level A. If the clip lives on your own website, that requirement lands on your page, and captions stop being a matter of the client's taste.
What has to be shown literally
A separate part of the brief lists what must appear on screen without interpretation. The product in its current packaging, the current logo, the correct spelling of the name, the price in the right currency, and any legal line you are obliged to show.
Phrase it as an inventory, not as a wish. "Show the product beautifully" is not a constraint. "The packaging is the new grey one; the label close-up runs at least two seconds; the name is written as one word" is a constraint somebody can check.
The same list holds what must not appear: the old logo, a competitor in frame, an employee who has since left the company, music playing from a phone in the background, or bystanders whose faces were never cleared for filming.
That inventory is what protects you at handover. Its items are verified as facts — the shot is either there or it is not. Everything else in a brief stays open to discussion, while this list holds firm by default.
References: attach the clip and explain what you are pointing at
A reference without an explanation misleads. A link to somebody else's clip reads as "make one like this", when all you meant was a single detail: the cutting rhythm, the quality of the light, or the way text arrives on screen.
Put one line next to every link: what you are pointing at, and what you are not. "I like the rhythm of the first five seconds, the colour is wrong for us" is enough to turn a reference into information somebody can actually work from.
Two or three references work better than ten. A long list contradicts itself, the studio picks from it by its own taste, and the disagreement then moves into a revision round that you never had to spend in the first place.
An anti-reference earns its place as well: a clip that is wrong for you, with the reason attached. It narrows the field faster than five more examples of what you like, and it settles arguments about style before the edit begins.
What you already have: footage, fonts, the mark, previous clips
Describe what you already have. Footage and the device it came from, the logo as a vector file, brand fonts and the licence covering them, photographs, previous clips, and a music track if you bought one and its licence is still current.
This changes both the price and the choice of package. Reels Pack is $90 for up to 5 edits with 2 rounds on the edit, and a timeline of 1-2 working days from footage delivery; filming is not part of it — you supply the footage.
Plain language is enough for the files: how many clips there are, what shot them, whether original files exist or only a copy pulled out of a chat. A re-compressed file loses quality, and no edit can put that quality back afterwards.
Name the prohibitions too: stock photographs whose licence has expired, and frames from an older clip made by a different studio when the rights to that material never actually passed to you under a contract.
Who approves and how revisions arrive
The brief should name the person who signs the work off. When notes arrive from three colleagues in turn, they contradict one another, and every round is spent settling an argument inside your company instead of improving the edit.
Gather the notes into one list and send it whole. Single Reel includes 1 round of revisions, Reels Pack gives 2 rounds on the edit, and Campaign Edit gives 2 rounds on the cut and 1 on the grade.
A note is written by timecode and by fact: "00:07 — the name is misspelled", "00:12 — the product shot is too short, hold it longer". "Something feels off" is not a revision round; it sends the work back into conversation.
Agree in advance on what counts as a new job. A changed concept, a different script or an added placement is not a revision, and calling things by their names before the start is easier than renegotiating halfway through.
Timelines: what your clock actually starts from
Write the deadline together with the publication date and the reason behind it. "Needed by Thursday, because the opening is on Friday" is a constraint. "As soon as possible" is not one, and it gives nobody a way to plan the queue.
Check what your clock counts from. Single Reel runs 1-2 working days. Reels Pack runs 1-2 working days from footage delivery. Campaign Edit is quoted as 3-5 days in the price list — days, with no mention of working days at all.
Reels Pack Express is $150: 1 working day, a 24-hour turnaround from footage, and 1 round of revisions. Shooting is not included, and neither is licensing beyond the supplied track, so both belong in your plan from the beginning.
Your own approvals occupy the calendar as well. If footage goes over on a Friday evening and the person who signs off returns on Wednesday, the timeline the studio quoted has nothing to do with that gap.
Rights: music and third-party material in the brief
A brief has to answer who buys the rights. The terms differ package by package and cannot be generalised. In Single Reel a licensed track is included. In Campaign Edit licensed music is not included: the licence is purchased by you.
Monthly Content Engine is $290/mo and leaves filming days and paid stock outside the package; volume is agreed at the start of each cycle, and stopping takes 30 days notice. One line in the brief records which side that sits on.
If you chose the track yourself, attach the licence rather than the song. A familiar record from a playlist becomes somebody else's property the moment it sits in a commercial clip, and replacing it happens once the edit is already built.
The same applies to people and places. Consent from the staff on camera, permission to film inside premises you do not own, other brands' logos in the background — these are constraints you know about and the studio does not.
On-screen text, languages and accessibility
You write the on-screen text. Names, prices, the address, the job title of the person on camera, the legal line — none of that should be guessed. Send it as text, not as a photograph of a document and not as a voice message.
If the clip goes out in several languages, say so at the start. A translated line is longer than the original, and the room for it is built during the edit. Re-laying captions after the first version is approved costs more than a warning.
Caption contrast is a checkable requirement. WCAG 2.2 sets 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text in success criterion 1.4.3, where large means from 18 point, or from 14 point when the type is bold.
If the clip starts by itself on a page, other criteria apply: 1.4.2 asks for a way to stop audio that plays automatically for more than three seconds, and 2.2.2 for a way to stop automatic motion running longer than five seconds beside other content.
A one-page brief: what to write when you are not a director
A brief fits on one page. Placements. Duration and the reason for it. Sound or the absence of it. The list of what is shown literally. The list of what must never appear. Two or three references with explanations. What you already have.
Then comes the organisational half: who approves, the publication date and what the clock starts from, who pays for the music rights, and which languages the text goes out in. Those items are enough to get a considered quote back.
You are not required to propose the solution. "I don't know how to film this, but this is what has to be visible" is a legitimate line in a brief. Constraints are your responsibility; craft and delivery belong to the studio.
Packages and timelines are listed at /services/video-production. Hold your list of constraints against what a package includes, and it becomes clear which part of the work you cover yourself and which part you hand over.
Practical checklist
- List every placement the clip has to play in before discussing the idea.
- State a maximum duration and the reason that number exists.
- Say the clip is watched muted and send the caption copy as text.
- Write two lists: what must be shown literally and what must never appear.
- Attach two or three references with one line of explanation each.
- Name one person who approves the work and consolidates the notes.
Questions and answers
What goes into a brief if I am writing one for the first time?
Placements, duration with its reason, whether there is sound, the list of mandatory shots, the list of prohibitions, two or three explained references, and an inventory of what you already have. That is enough to be quoted against packages from $70 to $290/mo.
What does it cost to edit one vertical clip from a brief like that?
The Single Reel package is $70 with a timeline of 1-2 working days, and it includes 1 round of revisions, captions, a licensed track and exports for every vertical placement. Shooting, scripting and actors are not included.
Should the brief say that the footage already exists?
Yes, because the package depends on it. Reels Pack is $90 and is built around your footage: up to 5 edits, 2 rounds on the edit, and a timeline of 1-2 working days from footage delivery. Filming is not part of it — you supply the footage.
What do I write about the deadline if publication is tomorrow?
Give the publication date and the reason. For a compressed schedule there is Reels Pack Express at $150: 1 working day, a 24-hour turnaround from footage, and 1 round of revisions. Shooting is not included, and neither is licensing beyond the supplied track.
How do I describe several versions of the same clip?
List the versions and the placement each one serves. Campaign Edit at $180 is a hero cut plus short derivatives, quoted at 3-5 days, with 2 rounds on the cut and 1 on the grade. Licensed music is not included — the licence is purchased by you.