S2 Ep10. How to write a video production brief

So you’ve decided to make a video. You and your team have spent hours workshopping how it might look. Who it will feature. Where it should be published. And (quietly) how many views it might gain. 

You’ve Googled a few video production houses in your local area. Reviewed more showreels than you’d like to remember. Sent a few emails, made a few calls. You’ve talked your idea through so many times, you’ve got it down to a succinct but compelling soundbite now.  

Finally, you’ve found a group of filmmakers who get you and what your brand’s all about. 

Now it’s up to them to take your idea and turn into a world-changing, viral video …right? 

Oh. If only it was that simple. 

As excited as you might be to dive head first into the production process, there is something you need to do days, weeks, maybe even months before you roll camera. And that’s writing a detailed brief for the creative team. 

On this episode of Moonshine Moonshot, Sue walks you through how to write a killer video brief for the production team you're working with. 

Here links to those eps that Sue referenced: 

S2 Ep 3 - A Recipe For Great Storytelling. Listen now: https://www.buzzsprout.com/846682/10164222 

S1 Ep 22 - Video Types of Videos. Listen now: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/846682/4692350 

S1 Ep 17- How to Cast Your Talent. Listen now: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/846682/4190798 

S1 Ep 10 - Who Is The Messenger? Listen now: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/846682/3425152 

You can also check out the companion blog to this episode over here: https://moonshine.agency/how-to-write-a-video-production-brief/

To learn more about Moonshine Agency and our work, please visit: www.Moonshine.Agency 

To find out about the Moonshine Communications Academy and the Define Your Ideal Audience online course here here: https://www.moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com/

Check out episode 12 in season 1 over here: https://youtu.be/UM8Nl-eutG4

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Moonshine Moonshot over here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC58nfY3gDeEuytZT_ZWQhaw

You can also follow us on social via these links: 
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Twitter @moonshineagency 
https://twitter.com/MoonshineAgency
LinkedIn Mike Hill 
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehillmoonshineagency/
LinkedIn Sue Collins 
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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

You've decided you want to make a video, that is excellent. I love it. But now what? Do you really have to figure it all out yourself? Surely you can just hire a production company. Tell them you really want an engaging video that will make people fall in love with your brand and voila, they'll just do their movie magic and woo, you have a hit. Ah, would that it were so simple. Anyone else seen Hail Caesar? It's a really great film and uh I've always loved that line, it's very hard to say. But I digress because sadly it is not simple. If you don't give a production company a good brief, they'll have to try and figure out what you have in mind, and if they're not good at reading minds, most of us aren't, you might set yourself up for disappointment. Now that doesn't mean you have to have it all figured out, storyboarded, and scripted before you engage your production company. And that is what this episode is about, how to write a production brief so that you get the video that you want. And why am I the one to talk to you about this? Well, I've been producing video content for over 12 years and I've worked with many people wanting a great video. So not only do I know what a great brief looks like, but I also know how important it is in making sure things run smoothly and that you get what you want. A great video that does what you need it to do. You're listening to the Moonshine Moonshot podcast, I'm Sue Collins and this show is about helping you make better videos. I don't want to see boring, poorly crafted videos any more than you do. So to help combat the onslaught of rubbish content, you know what I'm talking about, that's being served up on social. I am sharing what I've learned over a number of years about how to make great videos, and the good news is it's really not as hard as you might think. I know no one sets out to make boring content, but that is exactly what can happen when you don't have the skills or information to make it great. Sometimes just a few small pointers can take something dull and make it really shine online. So back to what we're talking about today, it's the brief. Perhaps you've already spent hours workshopping how your video might look, who will star in it, where's it going to be published, and quietly you may have even imagined how many views it might gain. So if you've Googled a few video production houses in your local area, reviewed their show reels, and you're ready to connect with them for quotes, that's fantastic, but perhaps you haven't even got that far yet. Or maybe you're going to produce the video in-house. Wherever you are at before you dive headfirst into the production process, there's something you need to do before you roll camera and that is writing a detailed brief for the creative team. When you commission a video production company to make your video, you need to give them an outline of what you're trying to achieve and what needs to be delivered. Sure, meetings, emails, and phone calls all have their place in the pre-production phase, but nothing compares to a brief. It's the best and most transparent way to get everybody on the same page. So to write an effective video production brief, there are a few key points that you need to get really clear on. So let's get into it. What is the purpose of your video? This is the first thing. Getting clear on the objective of your video is really, really important. Do you want your video to boost brand awareness? Maybe you need to increase sales? Are you trying to educate your audience? Or are you just simply trying to drive more traffic to your website? Having measurable end goals will help you and the production team decide on the type of video you need. A strong purpose will also serve as an important cornerstone for establishing your call to action. We'll discuss call to actions later. But when you think about your purpose, you're thinking about why you're making your video. What do you want to achieve? What is the end result you're striving for? Sales, brand awareness, advocacy, fundraising. They're just a few of the things a video can do. So you've got to get clear on what you need yours to do. We actually did an episode on a recipe for great video storytelling, and you can find it on the podcast platform that you're listening to. It was actually episode three in this series, too. So jump back to episode three in the moonshine moonshot, and you can find out the great recipe for video storytelling where I went more into detail on purpose. I'll also put the link in the show notes so it's easy for you to cycle back to it. Next, you're going to be thinking about who is your messenger. If you're familiar with the content the team and I produce at Moonshine Agency, then you'll be familiar with what I mean by the term messenger, but it is industry jargon. So to simplify, in short, the messenger is the person who is delivering the key messages in your video. I'll talk more about key messages later, but when you're thinking about the messenger, you may have heard of the messenger as referred to as talent or your host or your presenter or the hero of your story. These are all common ways to describe the role of the messenger. When you're thinking about who to cast in this role, the key is to figure out that the person you choose is able to carry your message effectively and in a way that will generate the impact and result you're looking for. The messenger also needs to be someone that your target audience can relate to. So it could be a staff member, an expert, you might even cast an actor, or even do it yourself. You've got to weigh up a few options before you land on the right fit for your video. But what you're really trying to think is, does the person telling this story connect with my audience? And are they the right kind of person to be sharing my video message? Once you've got that nailed down, you're up and running. And if this has got you a bit stumped, you can check out some previous episodes that I made called Who is the Messenger and How to Cast Your Talent to help demystify who that messenger could be for you? And I'll put the links in the show notes so it's easy for you to find later on. So we talked about the messenger, but what are the key messages you want to communicate? And what's the call to action? So your key messages are the core ideas you want your audience to take on board. Try and keep them short and concise and specific. And in any one video, I would never normally put more than one or two key messages, especially if it's quite a short video. It's just too much for people to take on board. So getting really specific on what's the most important thing that your video needs to communicate. And you can also indicate the type of action that you want your audience to do once they finish watching your video. This might be subscribing to your YouTube channel, signing a petition, contacting you, or if it's a sales video, hopefully they click the buy now button and that is your call to action. So what is it that you want someone to do when they finish watching your video? Adding that call to action is extremely important because if you don't ask people to do something, they won't. If you don't ask them to buy, subscribe, whatever it is, if you don't ask, they simply won't do it. I know that's frustrating, but you've got to ask people. They just won't think to do it for themselves. And I don't really know why I don't know the psychology around that, but asking generally works. So once you've got all that bedded down, we're gonna talk about next is what style are you looking for? Now, what do I mean by that? I'm really talking about how do you define the type of video you want. Because once you've done that, it will go a long way to helping your video production company capture the right footage. And by type, I don't just mean genre like action drama or thriller, although that does play into it a little bit. But what you really need to drill down on is whether you need an about us video, a case study video, a testimonial video, or is it something else entirely? And you also need to give some thought to where you'll publish your video. Will it just be simply going on your website, or do you need something for LinkedIn or Instagram? Or maybe you're making a feature-length documentary with a view to have it ending up on a streaming channel. All this information is going to be incredibly useful to your production team. So try to be as clear and as specific in this as you can be at this stage. And hopefully, whatever production company that you're working with will be able to ask you a few questions to help with this as well. If you want to learn more about different types of videos, we did a deep dive on an episode. I did that with Mike Hill, my co-producer actually, and it was called Video Types and Their Uses, and it was from series one. You can find that on whichever podcast platform you're listening on, and I'll also, of course, put the link in the show notes. Alright, so you've got your purpose down. Next you're going to figure out who your video is for. So understanding who your audience are is critical for anyone preparing to create a video, and it's likely to be one of the first questions any good production company is going to ask. If you don't know who you're making your video for, then it's going to be really difficult, possibly even impossible, to make something that anybody is going to watch. Working out who your audience is will ensure that you not only create terrific and engaging video content, but also content that speaks directly to your audience, answers their pain points, and establishes you as an authority in your industry. So if you need a little bit of extra help in this department, we've just released an online course and it's all about defining your ideal audience for your next video project. Talk about good timing for you. You can learn more about that over at Moonshine Communications Academy.com. And again, I will put the link to that in the show notes. But don't forget your audience, knowing who they are, knowing what they care about, knowing what they value is essential to figuring out who your video is going to be for. Alright, the next thing that I want to run you through is the call sheet. It's something that I think can be a little bit overlooked, but it's kind of like your blueprint for how to make the shoot run smoothly. So if you've written an excellent creative brief covering all the steps we've talked about till now, and you've got everybody on board with your incredible video idea, you've found a location, you've picked a date, you've booked all your talent, it's time to hit record. It's so exciting, but not so fast. There is one final thing in pre-production that you have to do to make sure that that filming goes as smoothly as possible, and that's creating a call sheet. And that's going to outline everything your cast and crew can expect to happen before and while the camera is rolling. It's the who, the what, the when, the where, and without one, your video is going to be a bit of a challenging day in the shooting because nobody's quite going to know where to put what and what time anything's meant to happen. So this is why call sheets are so important because they detail the game plan for your cast and crew on the shoot day. In most cases, your video production company will put the call sheet together, but particularly if you're shooting in-house, it's a good idea to have an understanding of what a call sheet includes just in case it ever ends up on your to-do list. So here's a rundown. Your call sheet should include the date and day of the shoot. Is there more than one shoot day? And if there is, you could label it, you know, day one of four or day six of ten or whatever makes sense, but you need to have the day and date. Then you have the call time. Make sure your cast and crew know exactly what time they need to be on set, ready to start work. Location, always list the address, and if you can, a map reference. There may be multiple places at the address you're going to, so be really specific about you know room numbers, what level it's on, is there a reception desk? Do people need to sign in? All of that information is critical, and especially parking. You've got to let people know if there's parking available and what their options are for that. Then it's going to have the shooting schedule. It's going to outline the scenes that will be filmed, the cast and the crew required for each scene, and whereabouts that scene is being filmed. Is it in it all in the same room or are you filming across a variety of rooms in the same building, or are you even moving location? You want to include lunch and an expected wrap time as well. Wrap time meaning what time are you going to finish for the day. You'd also put key contacts. What's the name of the director, the producer, the assistant director, and anybody else in the team that's there that could be a useful person for people to contact, you know, if they're running late or they can't find something or you know, anything like that. Got to have those contacts everywhere. So they're the key components to a call sheet. And if you jump over to the companion blog for this episode, you'll be able to see all this written out as well. And you'll find that on the Moonshine Agency website, moonshine. So if you just go to the blogs tab, you'll be able to find this one, and that's going to have that detail written out clearly for you. So let's go over the brief once more. Briefly. Okay, yeah, okay, bad joke. I know you're itching to get cracking on your video, but I want to ensure you make an amazing video that wows the pants of everybody who watches it. And it all begins with a great creative brief. Here's those points to get clear on once more. First, you're gonna define the purpose or objective for your video. Then you're gonna figure out who your target audience is. You're gonna pick your talent or your messenger. You're gonna lock down your key messages and call to action. And you're gonna pick a video type or style. And hey presto, you will be on your way to having an awe-inspiring video that achieves exactly what you hoped it would. So I hope this was helpful. And if you want more great tips on how to make great videos, please subscribe to the Moonshine Moonshot podcast on whatever preferred platform you listen on. It really helps me to reach more people. Know that the content is working for you, and you'll also get good vibes from the universe for being so amazing by subscribing. The next episode is all about who should tell your story. So think back to the bit we talked about today on who's your messenger from this episode, and next week I will deep dive into who that messenger should be for your video. So tune in for it next week.