The corporate video brief template

Why a brief changes everything

A vague request gets a vague quote. "We need a video about our company" can mean a $1,500 half-day shoot or a $15,000 multi-day production — and the studio has to guess which one you meant. Guessing leads to padded estimates, surprise change orders, and revisions that drag on for weeks.

A good brief does the opposite: it lets the studio price exactly what you need. At VIDEO DEPT., briefs that answer these ten questions get a fixed quote within one business day — and that price doesn't move.

The 10 questions

1. What single business outcome should this video drive?

Not "brand awareness" — the real outcome. More demo bookings? Fewer support tickets? Investor confidence? Recruiting? One outcome decides everything downstream: script, length, and call to action.

A good answer looks like: "We want facility managers to book a walkthrough after watching — currently 2% of site visitors do."

2. Who exactly is watching?

"Everyone" is not an audience. Name the role, industry, and what they already believe about you. A video for CFOs sounds nothing like a video for new hires.

A good answer looks like: "Operations directors at Florida logistics companies, 40–55, skeptical of vendors."

3. What's the one message they must remember?

If the viewer remembers one sentence a week later, what is it? If you list five messages, you have no message — pick one and let the rest support it.

4. Where will the video live?

Placement dictates format: a 90-second homepage hero, three 15-second cutdowns for LinkedIn ads, and a 5-minute trade-show loop are three different productions. List every placement and the length each one needs.

5. What exactly should we deliver?

Be literal: one master film plus how many cutdowns, which aspect ratios (16:9, 9:16, 1:1), captions, thumbnail, raw footage. Undeliverables agreed upfront are the #1 source of "but I thought that was included."

6. What's the budget range?

This is the question clients skip — and it's the most useful one. A range lets the studio design the right production for your money instead of guessing. For reference, most VIDEO DEPT. corporate projects land between $2,500 and $3,000; a single shoot day with crew and gear is $1,500.

7. What's the hard deadline — and why?

"ASAP" isn't a deadline. "The sales kickoff on October 14" is — and it tells the studio whether normal timelines work (first cut in about two weeks, 3–5 weeks call-to-delivery) or you need a rush.

8. What are the shoot logistics?

Locations, how many interviewees, shoot-day access and parking, brand assets (logo, fonts, colors), anything that needs permits. Logistics surprises are the most expensive kind.

9. Which videos do you like?

Two or three links with one sentence each: "the pacing here," "this interview style." Taste is hard to describe and easy to show.

10. How will you measure success?

Views? Bookings? Sales-team usage? Agreeing on the metric before production keeps everyone honest about whether the video worked.

Copy-paste template

Steal this. Fill in what you know, send it to nikita@videodepartment.org or paste it into our quote form.

What happens after you send it

• We review it — usually the same day. If something's missing, we ask one round of sharp questions, not ten.
• 30-minute call — free. We align on creative direction, lock logistics, and confirm the deliverables list.
• Fixed quote within one business day — the price we agree is the price you pay. No change orders for anything in the brief.
• Production — first cut in about two weeks, two revision rounds included, 3–5 weeks from call to delivery.

Prefer to talk it through instead of writing? That's fine too — book the call and we'll build the brief together.

FAQ

More resources: South Florida video pricing guide · Conference video checklist