Every job on Filmer starts with a clear, informative and inviting brief that essentially becomes the road map that guides the creators along the path of how to best solve your business content need. For creators to respond with a great idea or treatment, they need a good brief. The better the brief, the better the response and ultimately, the work. This is a fact.

So how does one write a good solid clear brief on Filmer? Well its all quite easy in fact. Just follow the guidelines on the Filmer briefing template. But for some more insight, please continue on with this article.

Now a well-thought through brief with a single minded ask and clear set of deliverables can be seen as a road map that guides the creative team on how to visually communicate the goals of your brand, campaign, or content.

The more detail you can go into, the better. Specifically about what is expected from the creators to best communicate the requirements of the campaign. An example of a great creative brief,  is one that includes anything and everything that will help the creative team understand the brand and the product better.

The most important elements of a brief need to include:

A short brand statement.

An overview of the campaign’s background and objectives.

Key challenges that the campaign aims to solve.

Who the target audience is for the campaign.

Any and all direct competitors.

Core messaging describing the brand’s values and market positioning.

Communication channels on which the campaign will run (Online, Social Media, OOH etc.)

Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s get into writing the ultimate creative brief for the Filmer.tv platform. Here’s a step by step guide on each line item and how best to fulfil the requirements of the briefing template in order to get the best out of any creative or filmmaker. Below each guide point is an example of an existing brief that was written in collaboration with one of our clients. Let’s call them Brand X.

PROJECT NAME This is what the name of the project is. 

Example: Brand X Image and Video Content Bank

CATEGORY Here is where you categorise the type of media required.

Example: Video Content / Still Images 

BRIEF STRAPLINE A single sentence that summarises what the project requirements are.

Example: Create a collection of engaging and premium video content and still images for Brand X based on four passion points.

SHORT DESCRIPTION A short summary about the brand, as well as what the project entails.

Example: Brand X is a modern lifestyle brand and the disruptor that is here to challenge the status quo. We would like a creator / production company to conceptualise and produce a varied collection of videos and stills content that explores the passion points of our market. The four passion points are: music, fashion, art & travel.

KEY DATES These are the dates that each below mentioned line item is required by:

Treatments Due:  The date for the treatment submission by the creators. One should give the creators a minimum of 5-7days to put together their visual treatments.

Selection Date:  Once the treatments have been received and reviewed, this is the date that the client will need to choose their preferred treatment, or at least have a shortlist to choose from.

Deliverables Due:  This is the final material deadline when all the elements that were briefed and created should be delivered to the client in their required formats.

PRODUCTION LOCATION

This is the location where the production will take place. Country, province, etc. If there are no specifics around which province the content needs to be shot in, one can leave this information out.

BUDGET (ex VAT)

The production budget allocated to the project excluding VAT

FULL DESCRIPTION

This is where you go into greater detail about what exactly needs to be communicated visually or what the job of the content is.

All the nitty gritty details are needed here, as well as any information about the brand that would assist the creative team with bringing the project to life. The more information and context one can give, the more informative the brief will be and the better the response will be. This is also a great place to communicate the expectations around the job and what level of content is needed.

Aside from writing out the brief, one can add links to previous work, relevant content, competitor work or anything else that helps to paint the picture of what this brief is all about. It is also helpful to indicate how long the content will run for. ie: 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, etc. This info is needed for any usages on cast.

Example:

Brand X needs an experienced and skilled creator / production company to shoot quality video and stills content that feels local, on-trend and relevant to our consumer, with high emphasis on lifestyle orientated shots that bring a level of authenticity to the overall look and feel of the content. 

You need to deliver on static images and videography that looks at different scenes per passion point but that links together and brings consistent lifestyle imagery across the different touch points and channels that this content will be used on.

It is important that you capture the essence of 4 passion points that have been identified as key strategic pillars for our brand. These passion points are:

– Music 

– Fashion 

– Art 

– Travel 

The lead passion points are Music and Fashion. Art and travel are secondary passion points to our market.

These passion points should be inclusive, collaborative and constantly evolving. Please capture consumption and product focused moments within the content. It’s very important that the content feels genuine and not like stock imagery.

Along with bold scenes, we must also include some realistic and relatable moments – at a coffee shop, in a room with headphones etc. Essentially moments that show Brand X usage in a way that feels relatable. 

And please create variety in the scenes. Band X would rather have 5 music related pieces of content of very different scenes, than 5 images that are all based on the same scene. So please put forward multiple scenarios that you will create and shoot. 

In this content, Band X would like you to create a tone for the brand and visuals where the cast are enjoying moments of inspiration that are relevant to our consumer. These could be any outstanding moments or even experiences in their daily lives that connect with the passion points. We are completely open to your interpretation of the brief and what the scenes are that will truly make this content feel interesting, engaging, and memorable. The stories can have a narrative structure OR they can be completely non-linear and more of a collection of impressions. You tell us! 

So… if you choose to pitch on this exciting project, Brand X requires a visual treatment that outlines the type of scenes you’ll be shooting for each passion point and your production approach to capturing these multiple scenes in video and stills. 

We want this content to come alive and essentially be a bank of images and videos that we can continue to use over the next year. 

*Please allow for a 1-year usage on all cast. 

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target audience is your consumer base. The people you are trying to reach who will benefit from the message, and drive traffic to your platforms and/or business. Again, as much info as possible will help Filmer creators understand the audience and exactly who this content is for.

Example:

Our target consumer is multiracial and generally in the Gen Z age bracket. They are defined by their attitude; they want to be different with a mindset that is focused on authenticity. They are passionate, energetic, inspiring, courageous, agile with rich cultural diversity.  

Our consumer is often driven into the creative space, inclusively and socially aware. The re-emergence of ubuntu and a great deal of collaborations with meaningful purposes. A self-navigator that over and above the 9-5, keeps hustling. 

KEY INSIGHTS

This is where you share any brand related insights that would assist the creative team in formulating the language required to communicate with the target audience.

Example:

“I love being the centre of attention and looking good. I am optimistic, energetic, a hard worker and try my best to get what I want… we can reinvent anything the way we want”

“I would like to spend my time doing things I want instead of what society pressures me into doing”

CREATIVE DIRECTION

This is where you share any direction or thought starters or creative recommendations that you would like the creative team to take into consideration, or follow directly when creating the project.

Example:

The Brand X consumer is bold, relatable with a multi-faceted character and attitude that is difficult to ignore but easy to notice. Images need to represent that and be energetic and spontaneous, making inspiration tangible. Models used in the shoot need to represent a creative individual who seeks inspiration in different places and moments, fusing different experiences, connecting dots, and creating something new.

AUDIO REQUIREMENTS

Any audio requirements to accompany the creative. This could include library music, or original music, or voice over.

Example:

Depending on your treatment, library music will probably be needed for the video content. All library music costs will need to come out of your production budget.

DELIVERABLES

This is where you communicate what the final deliverable for the project will be. This is very important so that all expectations for the job can be understood and met from the get go. Your deliverables should mention.

• Social Media requirements and sizing
• OOH and print media requirements and sizing
• TV and radio requirements and formats

If you don’t know, or not sure of what formats you need, or need to be advised, we can help you! Just contact us at Filmer and we will happily talk you through what final deliverables will work best for your content needs.

Example:

In total, our list of digital deliverables:

Music:  5-6 Videos (16×9) / 10-15 Still images

Fashion: 5-6 Videos (16×9) / 10 – 15 Still images

Art: 4-5 Videos (16×9) / 10 -15 Still images

Travel:  4-5 Videos (16×9) / 10-15 Still images

– All videos can be between 15” and 30” in duration. Whatever works best for the content. We would like all videos in 16×9 and 4:3 ratio.

– Generic lifestyle and daily moments should be part of the stills across the passion points. 

– Photographic stills can be shared with client in raw format, but ideally we would like you to work retouching into the budget.

Chaselist on Stills:

Facebook/twitter: 1280(w) x 720(h)

Instagram feed post: 1080(w) x 1080(h)

Instagram story: 1080(w) x 1920(h)

Website homepage banner: 783×576

RELATED MEDIA

References always help. We encourage brands to include any and all related media that can visually illustrate what you would like to communicate. Any previous work that you would like referenced, or any examples of work that speaks to the project requirements, etc.

You can also upload Brand Bibles, CI guidelines, Briefing Documents, Consumer Reports, Research, etc. in this section of the brief.

Example:

OTHER NOTES

Here you may add any additional notes that would further assist with direction or need-to-know points on the briefs. Literally, any bit of info that completes the picture and empowers the creators to make the right choices.

Example:

Please see the attached PPT with a deep dive into our target audience, as well as our previous campaign.

FINALLY…

Of course, we at Filmer are more that happy to help you write that brief and are always available as a soundboard, to brainstorm the brief with you, and advise you along the way. It’s part of what we do here: Optimise briefs and get them ready for our hungry community of skilled creative professionals to see.

In closing, this is also an article that we found to be quite useful in guiding the process of writing a creative brief: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/creative-brief