How to Write a Video Production Brief (2026) + Free Template
TLDR - A usable video production brief needs four things:
Where the film will run, the one job it has to do, a budget range, and the name of the person who signs it off. Four lines at the top of the document.
Everything else (deadline, references, deliverables, existing assets, usage) makes the quote more accurate, but without the four lines the quote is a guess.
Hiding the budget does not get you a cheaper quote. It gets you three quotes for three different films.
There is a copy-and-paste template below, and a four-check test before you send it.
We quote within 48 hours. Get a free, no-obligation quote.
Introduction
Most video briefs we receive are a paragraph about the company, a paragraph about the product, and a sentence that says "we'd like a video". Nothing in that tells a production company what to make or what it should cost, so the first week of the project is spent asking the questions the brief should have answered.
A brief is not a creative document. The treatment is the creative document, and writing it is our job as a commercial video production company in London. The brief is the four or five facts that make a treatment possible to write and a quote possible to price. Get those on the page and a good production company can come back with a number in two days. Leave them off and you get a discovery call, a delay, and a quote built on assumptions you never saw.
This is the long version of a LinkedIn post we published on the same subject. The post said four things. This article shows what each looks like done badly and done well, adds what else belongs in a brief, and gives you a template you can fill in before lunch.
What is a video production brief, and why does it decide the price?
A video production brief is the short document a client sends a production company before anything is quoted, and it decides the price because every line in a quote is an answer to a question the brief should have asked. Where the film runs sets the usage fees. What it has to do sets the production type and crew. The budget range sets the tier. The sign-off chain sets how many revision rounds will be needed.
The same product can be a one-day founder film at £3,500 or a two-day paid social campaign in the high teens, and the difference is entirely in the brief. The published breakdown of what moves a London video production budget is in our cost article and its video production cost calculator.
What must a video brief contain? The four essentials
Four things, in this order. If the brief is one page, these are the top four lines.
1. Where it is going
Homepage, paid social, a screen at an event, a sales deck, the side of a building. Each is a different film: different length, different shape, different first three seconds, and different usage fees. A film that is meant to "work everywhere" works nowhere, because the version that holds attention on a feed is not the version that plays under a presenter at a conference.
Bad: "We'd like a brand video we can use across our channels."
Fixed: "Primary: 30-second cut for paid Meta and TikTok, UK only, running for twelve months from launch. Secondary: 90-second version for the homepage and sales emails. No broadcast."
The fixed version prices itself. The production company knows it is cutting for vertical first, that UK paid social usage applies to talent and music, and that nothing needs clearing for TV. Most of the films in our video production portfolio started as a line like that one.
2. The one job it has to do
Sell the product. Explain the product. Make people feel something about the name. Pick one. A film asked to do all three will do none of them, because the structure that sells (fast, benefit-led, a reason to click now) is the opposite of the structure that explains (slow, sequential, a reason to understand).
Bad: "Raise awareness, drive sign-ups and show our culture."
Fixed: "Get a cold paid audience to click through to the product page. Awareness is a side effect; the culture film is a separate project for Q1."
If you cannot write the one sentence, the brief is not ready, and the quote will be for the wrong film.
3. The budget
The most common thing missing from a brief, and the one that costs the client most. The reasoning is usually that a hidden budget gets a sharper quote. What it actually gets is three quotes for three different films, because each production company has guessed a different scale, and now the cheapest one is cheapest because it has quoted one day where another quoted two.
Give a range. A range tells the production company which tier you are in and lets them tell you what that tier buys. If you do not know the range, the video production cost calculator will give you one in thirty seconds, and its "Copy this brief" button produces a budget line you can paste straight into this document.
Bad: "Budget to be discussed."
Fixed: "Budget range £12,000 to £16,000 including usage. If the right version of this is cheaper, tell us."
4. Who signs it off
If the person with the final say first sees the film at the second round of revisions, you are starting again, and the two revision rounds included in the quote are gone. Name them in the brief. If there are several stakeholders, say who among them has the casting vote and get them into the room before the first cut, not after it.
Bad: "Marketing team to approve."
Fixed: "Approver: Head of Brand (named). Input from Sales Director on the product claims only. Both will review the treatment and the first cut; the Head of Brand signs off the final."
None of this takes long. Four lines at the top of the document. A good production company will ask for all four if you forget, so you may as well arrive with them.
What else should a strong video brief include?
Beyond the four essentials, five things sharpen the quote and shorten pre-production. Each one is here because leaving it out has cost a project time or money; none of them is padding.
A deadline tied to a real date. "ASAP" is not a deadline. "Live on the product page by 3 March for the launch, so final files by 24 February" is a schedule the production company can work backwards from, and it tells them whether a second shoot day is even possible.
Deliverables, as a list. One hero film and three platform cutdowns is the standard set at LutherMEB Productions. If you need six cutdowns, a stills set from the shoot, captions files and a square version, say so. Each one is a known cost; discovering them at delivery is not.
References, with the reason. Two or three films you like, each with one line on what you like about it. "The pacing of this one, the colour of that one" is useful. A link to a Super Bowl spot with no comment is not, because nobody can tell whether you want the idea, the scale or the celebrity.
Existing assets. Brand guidelines, logo files, previous films, product photography, music you already own the rights to. Anything that exists and can be reused takes a line off the quote.
Usage, in writing. Which channels, which territories, for how long. This overlaps with "where it is going", and it should, because it is the line most likely to be renegotiated after the shoot if it is not pinned down before it.
Video production brief template (copy and paste)
Video production brief
Fill in every line. If one does not apply, write “none” rather than deleting it. Send it as the body of the email, not an attachment.
VIDEO PRODUCTION BRIEF Company: Contact and role: Date: 1. WHERE IT WILL RUN Primary channel and format: Secondary channels: Territories: Duration of use: 2. THE ONE JOB In one sentence, what this film has to make the viewer do or feel: 3. BUDGET RANGE £ to £ (including usage: yes / no) Not sure? Run the brief through the cost calculator: https://www.luthermeb.com/insights/how-to-estimate-video-production-cost-london 4. SIGN-OFF Final approver (name and role): Other stakeholders and what they input on: 5. DEADLINE Live date and why: Final files needed by: 6. DELIVERABLES Hero film (length): Cutdowns (number, platforms, lengths): Other (stills, captions, versions): 7. REFERENCES Link, and one line on what we like about it: Link, and one line on what we like about it: 8. EXISTING ASSETS Brand guidelines / logos / previous films / photography / owned music: 9. ANYTHING ELSE People or products that must appear: Anything that must not appear: Send to: hello@luthermeb.com Written quote within 48 hours. LutherMEB Productions, London.
Is your brief ready to send? The four-check test
Before it goes, run the brief through the same four questions a production company will ask on receipt.
Can you say what it has to do in one sentence? If not, write that sentence first. A launch film and an explainer are priced differently, and nobody can quote until they know which one this is.
Do you know every place it will run? If not, decide before anyone is cast. Paid use is licensed on top of talent and music rates, and the cheapest moment to agree it is before the shoot.
Is there a budget range on it? If not, add one, even a wide one. The cost calculator will give you a defensible range in thirty seconds.
Is the person who signs it off named? If not, name them, and get them in before the first cut.
Four yeses? Send the brief. Anything else: it is not ready, and sending it anyway buys a week of questions.
Vague brief lines, and what a production company hears
Seven lines we see in briefs every month, what each one makes a production company assume, and the version that gets you an accurate quote.
| What the brief says | What the production company hears | Better version |
|---|---|---|
| “A brand video for our channels” | Guess the format, guess the length, guess the usage. | “30-second cut for UK paid social, 90-second for the homepage.” |
| “Budget to be discussed” | Quote the smallest film that could plausibly fit. | “£8,000 to £12,000 including usage.” |
| “We want it to feel premium” | No reference, so no shared picture of what premium means. | Two links, one line each on what you like about them. |
| “ASAP” | No deadline, so no schedule, so no crew hold. | “Live 3 March, final files by 24 February.” |
| “Marketing to approve” | Revisions will arrive from people who have not seen the treatment. | “Head of Brand signs off; Sales Director inputs on claims only.” |
| “A few cutdowns” | Three, which is what is included, until it turns out to be nine. | “Six cutdowns: 3 x 15s vertical, 3 x 30s square.” |
| “We’ve got some footage you can use” | Unknown format, unknown quality, unknown rights. | “Four minutes of 4K b-roll from the 2025 shoot, rights owned.” |
The Bottom Line
A video production brief is four lines and a page of support. Where it runs, what it has to do, what it can cost, who signs it off. Write those four and any competent production company can quote in two days and build a treatment that lands first time. Leave them out and the first fortnight of the project is spent reconstructing them in email.
Use the template. Run the four checks. Then send it.
Your Next Steps:
Where to go next
- Budget Video production cost calculator Seven questions, thirty seconds, a range built on our published 2026 rates. Copy the brief line straight into your template. Estimate your brief
- Service Commercial video production in London Brand films, campaigns, corporate and short-form social. Published pricing, process and FAQs. Written quote within 48 hours. See the service
- Work Video production portfolio Williams Racing, Hellmann's, Smurfit Westrock and more. See what a brief like yours turned into. Watch the work
Video Briefing Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers on what a video production brief should include, how long it should be, whether to state the budget, and what happens after you send one to LutherMEB Productions in London.
Click each question below to reveal its answer
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Four things at minimum: where the film will run (channels, territories, duration of use), the one job it has to do, a budget range, and the name of the person who signs it off. A stronger brief adds a deadline tied to a real date, a deliverables list, two or three references with a line on each, existing brand assets, and usage in writing.
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One page. The four essentials are four lines; the template above fits on a single side with every optional section filled. A longer brief usually means the creative work is being done by the client, which is the production company's job.
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Yes, as a range. Without it, every production company guesses a different scale and the quotes cannot be compared. With it, they can tell you what that range buys and whether a cheaper version would do the job. LutherMEB Productions publishes its rates, so the range you give will be measured against numbers you can already see.
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Yes. The template in this article covers the four essentials and the five supporting sections, and it is designed to be pasted into the body of an email. The cost calculator in our budget article also produces a budget line you can copy straight into it.
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A written quote within 48 hours, inside the range you gave if the brief supports it, and a plain statement if a cheaper tier would do the job. No discovery call is required, though we are happy to have one.
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The brief is the client's document: what the film has to do, where it runs, what it can cost and who approves it. The treatment is the production company's response: the idea, the structure, the look and the plan for making it. A good brief makes a good treatment possible. A missing brief makes the treatment a guess.
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Not to get a quote, but they make the first treatment much closer. Two or three links with one line each on what you like about them is enough. Links without comment are not useful, because nobody can tell whether you want the idea, the scale or the cast.
Recommended production partner in London
Commercial video production company that scales to 10+ crew. Strong video portfolio across sport, fashion, ecommerce, and 3D motion. Suits £5k to £50k briefs.
Ready to take your video content to the next level? Book a call with LutherMEB Productions and find out if we could be a good fit for you.
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