Write a promotional-video brief
Define one audience, a supported message, production constraints and accessible deliverables, with a complete fictional workshop-video brief.
A useful video brief lets the producer explain how they will make the message clear, what they need from you and what the quoted work includes. Describe the viewer's task before requesting a particular camera move or editing style.
This guide uses a short service explainer. A product demonstration, recruitment film or event recording would need a different scope, but the same questions about evidence, delivery and approval still matter.
Decide what should change for the viewer
Write one intended result: “A potential customer understands how to prepare photos and arrange a workshop inspection.” That result can be checked. “A cinematic video that gets attention” leaves the audience, information and next action undefined.
List what the viewer needs to know to reach the result. Then remove material that belongs in a different film or on the full service page. A short explainer does not need to contain the entire business history.
A completed fictional production brief
Teaching scenario: Alder & Grain is an invented workshop repairing wooden dining-chair joints and minor wooden-table faults. The brief below is original planning material. No real shoot, client or video-production service is being claimed.
| Item | Agreed brief for this example |
|---|---|
| Audience | People with a wooden chair or small wooden table who are unsure how to start a repair enquiry. |
| Objective | Explain the photo-review and workshop-inspection process before someone travels with furniture. |
| Single message | Start with clear photos; the workshop assesses the proposed work and price before approval. |
| Viewer action | Read the full service process and prepare the requested photos. |
| Required sequence | Identify the problem; show useful photos; explain booked inspection; show written scope and approval; explain repair and arranged collection. |
| Boundaries | No upholstery, home visits or national collection. No guaranteed price, repair outcome or turnaround. |
| Source of facts | The approved fictional service fact sheet used in the website example. Any change to the offer requires a script review. |
| Visual material | A staged wooden chair, a close-up of a joint, sample photo views and a fictional quotation sheet with no real customer details. |
| People | Hands-only demonstration with agreed participation; narration recorded separately. |
| Sound | Clear narration; no music is necessary for this scope. Workshop noise must not mask the spoken information. |
| Primary placement | A play-on-request explainer beside the full service instructions on the business website. |
| Secondary placement | A separately checked vertical crop for a social post, preserving the message and readable captions. |
| Working duration | About one minute, subject to a read-through. This is an editorial choice for the message, not a platform rule. |
| Production boundary | One planned workshop shoot, one principal edit and one consolidated revision round; any additional version requires agreement. |
| Deliverables | Agreed landscape and portrait video exports, a reviewed timed-caption file, a descriptive transcript, thumbnail and an asset/permission record. |
| Accessibility approach | Speak essential visual information in the narration; review captions; provide the transcript; test the chosen player. |
| Approval roles | The business decision-maker confirms facts and permissions; the editor checks sequence and readability; one person consolidates feedback. |
| Acceptance | The message remains understandable with captions, important visual facts are conveyed in audio, the next step is accurate and all agreed files are present. |
In an actual commission, record the output dimensions, file specifications, licence terms, price and deadline with the selected producer. Check the destination platform's current requirements before export. Do not assume that cropping a landscape video is sufficient for a vertical placement.
Explain how constraints change the production
The hands-only approach reduces the need for on-camera dialogue but makes narration more important. The sample quotation must be readable enough to communicate “scope, price, approval”, without introducing fictitious prices as a live offer. The absence of music keeps the message focused and removes one asset from the permissions workflow.
For the portrait version, frame the important object centrally during the shoot and test the crop in advance. Otherwise a caption, the chair joint or a pointer may disappear when the image is reframed. These are practical decisions for this example, not universal filming rules.
Record assets and permissions before filming
List each photograph, logo, document, music track and identifiable participant. Record the source, intended use, agreed permission and any restriction. Include the locations and channels where the final material will appear. An asset being available online does not establish that it belongs in the production.
For a staged teaching scene, say that it is staged. For genuine customer work, confirm permission and preserve an accurate account of what the footage shows. Do not imply a repair result or endorsement that the evidence does not support.
Make accessibility part of the quote
W3C's planning resource explains the different needs of audio and video media. Specify who will create and review captions, who will check important visual information and where the transcript will appear. Naming these outputs in the original scope makes them easier to schedule and review.
Ask the producer to account for them in the storyboard. A scene that says only “do this” while pointing at an object needs a clearer script. The storyboard example shows how to record speech and visual meaning together.
Review in the right order
Approve the message and factual sequence first, then the storyboard, then the edit. Review factual accuracy before spending the final revision on transitions or background colour. Keep feedback in one list linked to the brief: the issue, why it matters and the requested change.
After delivery, check the actual files in their intended placements. A video can look correct in the editor's preview and still have unreadable captions or a cropped next-step message on a phone. Keep the approved brief with the delivered files and the brand usage notes.
The source notes
Sources and further reading
- W3C: planning accessible audio and video Checked 4 November 2026