How to write a video brief

Writing a brief is very personal, so I will describe how I do it. My brief for a video starts from images and ideas.

Starting from the images in my head

I usually picture images based on what I have in mind and on what the brand or the product conveys to me. I try to connect them in my head first, then I move to paper: literally pen and paper. I start writing words and slowly try to connect them, keeping the visual references I have collected open, to understand at which points and in which images it makes sense to add more elements.

Words, emotions and mind maps

I often write abstract words, emotions, sensations. Sometimes I literally write happiness, joy, fun, and then connect them to the product and to the video. I make a lot of mind maps, with lots of arrows linking the different elements: what kind of person is needed, so the characters; what I have to show in the video and whether there are specific elements that must appear; what music would make sense.

An example: a fashion video

For a fashion video I looked at the brand's website and wrote down the words that came to mind looking at those images: elegance, silhouette, conquest, refinement, poetry, sophistication, grace, fluidity, romance, heritage. From there I took other elements and associated them with dance, evening, gowns. Then I started building the images.

Talking it through, drawing, generating

While I write, I talk about it and compare notes with my colleagues. After the first draft I sometimes make sketches, drawings of the scenes, to see whether the composition holds and makes sense.

I start generating images already during the brief: for me it is not a later phase. They are images that do not necessarily have to do with the product or the commercial, and they help me see whether the style I am following leads somewhere and has the effect I expected. If it does, I have the confirmation I was looking for. Still in the brief, I try to give a duration to the video and to the single images.

The brief can change

The brief is not set in stone. In the later phases some small changes happen, and the sequence written at the start does not have to be followed to the letter.

The pilot image

Once the research is done and confirmed, I start the final images to build the sequence. I work on them a great deal, above all on what I call, in quotation marks, the pilot image: the union of the defined style with the defined product or service. From there I carry on with the writing and the drafting, and move on to the clips.

What happens next, from clips to editing, is described in the guide How to shoot a commercial that lasts. If you have a project and want to build the brief with us, write to us.