Corporate Video Production
How to Write a Corporate Video Brief (Free Template)
A good corporate video brief is not a formality. It is the single document that decides whether the quote you get back is a sharp, fixed number or a vague range with a dozen caveats. Get it right and a production company can price your project accurately, often within a day, because they are not guessing at scope. Get it wrong and you invite scope creep, surprise invoices and a finished video that does not do the job you needed it to do. The good news: a strong brief comes down to answering 10 questions clearly. Below is exactly what an Adelaide production crew needs to know, why each answer matters, and a copy-paste template you can fill in and send today.
Key takeaway
A corporate video brief works when it answers 10 things: the goal, the audience, where the video will live, the core message, the duration, the deliverables, the budget range, the deadline, the assets you already have, and who signs off. Answer those clearly and you will get a sharper, faster, more accurate quote, and a video that actually moves the needle for your organisation.
Why a written brief gets you a better quote
Most quoting delays are not the production company dragging its feet. They are the back-and-forth caused by a brief that leaves scope open. If a crew does not know whether you need 1 video or 5, whether it is going on a trade-show wall or a LinkedIn feed, or whether there is a hard launch date, they have to either pad the price to cover the unknowns or come back with questions before they can quote at all. Both cost you time.
A tight brief flips that. It lets the production company map your goal to a clear shoot plan, a set number of filming days, a defined edit scope and a fixed deliverables list. That is what produces a firm number rather than a range. It also protects you: when the scope is written down and agreed up front, nobody can quietly bill you for the extra cutdowns or the second round of revisions later, because the brief already said what was included. Think of the brief as the contract's foundation, not just an enquiry.
The 10 questions your corporate video brief must answer
Work through these in order. Each one removes a guess the production company would otherwise have to make.
1. What is the single goal of this video? Not "raise awareness" in the abstract. Be specific: drive demo bookings from the homepage, cut onboarding time for new staff, win over investors in a pitch, explain a product that people keep misunderstanding on sales calls. The goal dictates everything else, including tone, length and structure. If you list 4 goals, you will usually get a video that does none of them well. Pick the one that matters most and make the rest secondary.
2. Who is the audience? Prospective customers, existing clients, new employees, a board, a regulator, the general public. Describe them like a real person: their role, what they already know, what objection or question is in their head when they hit play. A video for cold prospects and a video for staff who already work for you are built completely differently.
3. Where will it live and play? The platform changes the entire build. A 15-second vertical cut for Instagram, a 2-minute explainer embedded on a landing page, a looping piece on a screen at a conference, a full case study for the sales team to email, a training module inside your LMS. Each has different aspect ratios, caption needs, sound assumptions (social autoplays muted, so on-screen text carries the message) and length norms.
4. What is the one core message? If a viewer remembers only 1 sentence afterwards, what should it be? Writing this down forces clarity and stops the video becoming a list of everything your organisation does. It is the spine the script hangs off.
5. How long should it be? Give a target and a hard ceiling. "Around 90 seconds, absolutely no more than 2 minutes." Duration drives scripting, shoot time and edit hours more than almost anything else, so a realistic length is one of the most useful numbers in the whole brief.
6. What are the exact deliverables? Spell out every file you expect: 1 main edit plus 3 social cutdowns, a 16:9 version and a 9:16 version, captions burned in or as a separate file, a thumbnail, raw footage handed over or not. This is the single biggest source of quoting mismatches, so be exhaustive here.
7. What is your budget or budget range? This is not the production company trying to find your ceiling. It is how a good crew tells you what is achievable. $3,000 and $30,000 buy genuinely different things, and knowing the range means the proposal you get back is built to fit rather than wildly over or under. A range is fine if you are not sure: "somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000."
8. What is the deadline, and is it fixed? A conference date, a product launch, a financial-year cutoff, an EOFY campaign. A real hard deadline changes scheduling and sometimes cost (rush turnarounds carry a premium). If the date is soft, say so, because that flexibility can save you money.
9. What assets and access already exist? Existing brand guidelines, logo files, a voiceover artist you want used, drone footage you already own, product shots, a music track you have licensed, locations you can get into and when. The more raw material and access you bring, the less has to be created from scratch, and that shows up directly in the price.
10. Who has final sign-off, and how many revision rounds? Name the decision-maker. A brief that has to please a committee of 6 needs more revision rounds built in than one signed off by a single founder, and unlimited revisions is where budgets quietly blow out. Agree the number of rounds in the brief (2 is a common, sensible default) so everyone knows where the line sits.
Copy-paste corporate video brief template
Fill this in and send it to your shortlist. It maps 1:1 to the 10 questions above, so a crew can quote straight off it.
PROJECT: [Working title of the video] ORGANISATION: [Your business name and a 1-line description]
1. GOAL: The single most important thing this video must achieve is [___]. 2. AUDIENCE: This is for [role/type of viewer]. When they press play they are thinking [___] and I want them to feel/do [___] afterwards. 3. WHERE IT LIVES: This will run on [platform/s], in [aspect ratio/s], and will/won't rely on sound. 4. CORE MESSAGE: If the viewer remembers 1 sentence, it is: [___]. 5. LENGTH: Target [___] seconds, hard maximum [___] seconds. 6. DELIVERABLES: [List every file, e.g. 1 x 90-second master in 16:9, 3 x 20-second cutdowns in 9:16, burned-in captions, 1 x thumbnail]. 7. BUDGET: We are working to [$___] or a range of [$___ to $___]. 8. DEADLINE: We need the final files by [date]. This deadline is fixed / flexible. 9. ASSETS WE ALREADY HAVE: [Brand guidelines, logos, existing footage, music licence, locations and access, preferred voiceover, on-screen talent]. 10. SIGN-OFF: Final approval sits with [name/role]. We expect [number] rounds of revisions. ANYTHING ELSE: [Competitor videos you like, a tone you are chasing, no-go's, compliance requirements].
That is the whole thing. It looks short because it is meant to be. A brief this clear routinely gets a firm quote back faster than a vague 3-page document ever will.
Adelaide-specific things worth adding to your brief
A few local details save real time and money when you are commissioning video in Adelaide.
Name the locations and confirm access windows. Filming at a working site, a hospitality venue on North Terrace, a warehouse in the north or a winery in the Adelaide Hills each carries different logistics, permits and travel. JLM Studios covers Adelaide metro and within 100km of the CBD as standard, and travels Australia-wide, so if your shoot spans multiple suburbs or heads out to McLaren Vale or the Barossa, flag it early rather than on shoot day.
Say whether you need people on camera and whether they are staff or actors. Staff testimonials are cheaper but need scheduling around their workday. Professional talent adds cost but removes the coaching time.
Mention any brand or compliance constraints up front. Regulated industries, franchise brand rules, or a parent company's visual identity all shape the edit, and finding out at revision stage is the expensive way to learn them.
And be honest about what you do not have yet. If there is no script, no brand guide and no clear message, say so. A crew with 25 years of production experience can help shape all of that, but only if the brief admits the gap instead of papering over it.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a corporate video brief be?
1 page is plenty. A brief that clearly answers the 10 core questions (goal, audience, platform, message, length, deliverables, budget, deadline, existing assets, sign-off) gives a production company everything it needs to quote accurately. Longer is not better. A tight 1-page brief usually gets a sharper, faster quote than a rambling multi-page document, because the scope is unambiguous.
Do I need a budget in the brief if I do not know what video costs?
Yes, even a rough range helps. A budget is not the crew hunting for your ceiling, it is how they tell you what is realistic. A corporate video can range from a few thousand dollars for a simple single-location shoot to tens of thousands for a multi-day, multi-location production with talent and animation. Giving a range like "between $5,000 and $8,000" means the proposal you get back is built to fit, rather than wildly over or under what you had in mind.
What is the difference between a corporate video brief and a creative brief?
A corporate video brief is the practical scope document you send before quoting: goal, audience, deliverables, budget, deadline and sign-off. A creative brief goes deeper on the storytelling, tone, visual style and script direction, and is usually developed with the production company after the project is confirmed. Start with the 10-question brief in this article to get a quote, then let the creative brief evolve out of it once you have chosen your crew.
How many revision rounds should a corporate video brief allow?
2 rounds is a sensible default for most projects. The key is to agree the number up front and write it into the brief, because unlimited revisions is where budgets and timelines quietly blow out. If your video has to be approved by a committee rather than a single decision-maker, build in an extra round and name who has final sign-off, so feedback comes back consolidated instead of in conflicting pieces.