If you’re looking to commission a video or animation, here are our video brief tips. They’ll enable you to bring your ideas together in a way a production company can understand.
1. What is the Target of your video?
We know you want to grow your business, but what do you want your audience to do after they see the film? Do you want them to go to your website? Do you want them to pick up the phone? Or to visit your bricks-and-mortar store?
2. List your When/Why/How/Who/Where/Whats?
What information do you want to communicate? What are the important facts the script will be built on? Most importantly, what of this information is new to your audience?
3. Define your Market
Who do you want to send the video to? Clients? Employees? Why would they want to use your product or service? Why is your story important to theirs?
4. The style you would like to have
Film? Animation? Or a bit of both? Whiteboard animations are always popular, but then, they’re also getting a bit too popular…
Send links to YouTube clips you that you think work for your audience.
5. The duration of your video
We recommend keeping your video under 3 minutes for the classic explainer video. However, you may need longer if your messaging is more complex.
6. Voice-over/Presenter/Actor Requirements
Do you want home-grown talent from your company to tell the message, or would you rather have a professional actor lead the piece?
7. Locations Involved
Where you want it to be filmed? In your offices? Or an external location where your customers are likely to actually use the product or service?
8. What Budget have you allocated for this project?
At this moment in time, a ‘ballpark’ figure is fine. Video is very flexible, so you can make a video on £3,000, £12,000 and £24,000. You won’t get the same result, but you can get something done on any budget!
9. Your deadline
If you have a launch deadline in mind, let us know. We generally aim to deliver two days before, to allow you to be completely happy with the content before it’s used.
10. Remember: The brief isn’t set in stone
Your brief is only the start of the journey to your finished video. Along the way, a good production will challenge what you’ve put in the brief to ensure what you’re getting is going to work for your audience.
Looking for a Production Company?
Well, those are our video brief tips. When looking at production companies, it’s worth taking recommendations from friends and colleagues. LinkedIn can be a good place to see who within your network has recommended a production company. At Napoleon Creative, we regularly get referrals through our personal LinkedIn profiles.
Drop the companies you’ve shortlisted an email with your outline brief. Go into as much detail as you can with each question. This enables the production company to respond to your idea more specifically. Be prepared to spend a little time on the phone with them; a good production company ask questions about the brief before responding.
If you’ve found these video brief tips helpful, check out these other posts:
How to choose a Video Production Company
