How to brief a video editor

The round you are dreading is the fifth one. Notes going back and forth, the same two changes not quite landing, a video that was supposed to take a week now three weeks old and no longer about anything topical.

A short written brief gives the editor a clearer starting point. It cannot settle every later decision, but it can prevent avoidable rounds caused by missing context.

Why is the brief where the revision count is decided?

Because an editor without a brief is not guessing randomly. They are building the version that seems most reasonable to them, and then discovering your version by subtraction, one round at a time.

Some preferences and constraints can be shared before editing. Others become clear only when you see the cut. A useful process records what is known early and leaves room for that later judgement.

What goes in a ten-minute brief?

Six items. Written, not said on a call, because the person editing at eleven at night needs to be able to reread it.

The result, in one sentence

What is supposed to happen because this video exists. Views, enquiries, sales, subscribers, recognition. One of them, chosen, in a plain sentence. Without this, every other line in the brief is a preference.

Who it is for

Not a demographic. A person, described in a line, with what they already know and what worries them. Someone who has played piano for two years and thinks their hands are the problem gives an editor more usable direction than any amount of audience segmentation, because it settles pace, vocabulary and how much explanation survives the cut.

Three videos you like, and specifically what about each

The single highest-value item on the list, and the one people fill in worst. Send links. Then, beside each, say the specific thing: the way this one opens on the work rather than on a face, the way this one has no music under speech, the way this one puts text on screen only when it is answering a question.

Three references with three specific reasons is a style guide. Three with the note something like these is a rehearsal for disappointment, because you and the editor are looking at different features of the same video and neither of you knows it.

What must not happen

The list nobody writes. No shot of my hands. Do not speed up the demonstrations. No trending audio. Do not cut my pauses out, I use them deliberately. Never show the workshop in the background.

Mark firm boundaries clearly and explain their reason where it may affect the edit. Positive examples help too; a short list of prohibitions is not a complete creative brief.

Where it will be published

Which platform, which shape, whether it will be watched with sound. A video for a website is constructed differently from the same content on a phone, and an editor who finds out afterwards has to rebuild rather than adjust.

The deadline that is real

The real one, even where you would prefer another. The date something depends on, and if nothing does, say so. An editor who knows which of three jobs has the real deadline can sequence them properly. One told everything is urgent chooses on their own, and the video that matters most is not reliably the one they pick.

Showing beats describing

The words we use for video are shared and the meanings are not.

Punchy means fast cuts to one person and short duration to another. Clean means minimal graphics to one and colour-corrected to another. Professional means almost nothing at all. Two people can agree on all three words and produce completely different videos, then argue about which one is wrong.

A reference gives both people something concrete to discuss. Name the feature you mean, whether pacing, colour, framing or sound, because the same video can suggest different things to different viewers.

What is wrong with "make it more dynamic"?

It describes an effect on you rather than a change to the video.

The editor now has to reverse engineer a cause from your reaction, and there are perhaps nine candidates: pace, music, shot variety, section order, the length of the opening, movement in frame, the grade, the sound, or content that is thin in the middle and cannot be edited out of being thin. They pick one. If they pick wrong, that is a round.

Locate the issue with a timecode and explain the effect you want. Suggest an edit if you have one, or ask the editor to propose it. You do not need to know the technical fix to give useful feedback.

The fastest improvement available to you

Watch your own last video and write down three things you did not like about it.

Write a few things to keep and a few to improve in your previous work, with examples. Send them alongside the brief. A short discussion can resolve anything the notes leave uncertain.

Send it with the footage. The next thing you send is either the same three lines again, which tells you something, or three different ones, which is what progress looks like from the inside.

Sources and evidence

Our method. Keep a written record of the goal, audience, references, boundaries, destinations and deadline. Use a conversation where it helps, and record its decisions. References work best when the relevant feature is named.