# How To Write An AI Video Brief That Gets You What You Want

2026-09-29 · CarlosGanzales69

Most disappointing AI videos were decided before generation started, in the brief. A brief that says "something stylish and eye-catching for my page" gives the studio nothing to be right about, so the first pass is a coin flip and the revisions are spent discovering what you actually meant. A brief that takes fifteen minutes to write usually saves a week.

This is a practical walkthrough with a template you can copy, plus the specific things that cause rework.

## Brief vs Prompt: They Are Not the Same Thing

A prompt is a single instruction to a model. A brief is the project document: goals, length, audience, character, scenes, constraints, deliverables. People conflate the two because hobbyist tools only ask for the first one.

A prompt is a line inside a brief. The brief decides what happens when the prompt is ambiguous — which it always is. When you commission work from a studio, the brief is the contract of intent; everything downstream, including the shot list and the reference frames, is derived from it.

## The Eight Parts That Matter

**1. What the video is for.** One sentence. "A 20-second vertical clip for a profile page" and "a 60-second piece for a landing page hero" produce different pacing, different framing and different captions. This line resolves more downstream arguments than any other.

**2. Length and format.** Runtime in seconds, aspect ratio (16:9, 9:16, 1:1), and whether you need captions. Decide all three before ordering — switching aspect ratio after delivery is a re-render.

**3. Character description.** Fixed attributes only: apparent age range, build, hair, eye colour, wardrobe, distinguishing marks. Write it once and do not reword it later; rewording is how drift starts. Remember that only fictional characters are used — no real people.

**4. Setting and mood.** Where it happens and what it should feel like. Mood words are fine here because you are describing a target, but pair every mood word with one concrete visual: "cold and clinical — white tiles, hard overhead light, no colour in frame."

**5. Shot list.** What must happen, in order. Not "she walks in" but "shot 1: door opens, she steps in, pauses. Shot 2: close-up, looks toward camera. Shot 3: wide, crosses the room left to right." Numbering the shots is what makes the first pass reviewable.

**6. Must-not-haves.** Text on screen, particular props, particular framing, anything that is off-limits. Negative constraints are the cheapest form of quality control you have.

**7. Delivery deadline.** Say it up front. CarlosVideo18+ guarantees 7 days standard and can compress to 24–48 hours on a rush schedule when we know before kickoff.

**8. Deliverables.** Which formats, which aspect ratios, captioned or not, and where the files should go.

## A Template You Can Copy

Fill this in and paste it into the order form:

```
PURPOSE: [what this is for, one sentence]
LENGTH: [seconds] | RATIO: [16:9 / 9:16 / 1:1] | CAPTIONS: [yes/no + language]
CHARACTER: fictional, [age range], [build], [hair], [eyes],
           wearing [wardrobe], distinguishing marks: [none or list]
SETTING: [location], lighting: [quality and direction], time: [day/night]
MOOD: [two words] — visually: [one concrete detail]
SHOTS:
  1. [action, framing]
  2. [action, framing]
  3. [action, framing]
MUST NOT: [props, text, framing, anything excluded]
DEADLINE: [date]
DELIVERABLES: [formats and ratios]
```

That is roughly 150 words of your time. It is worth several revision rounds.

## Why Shot Lists Beat Adjectives

Adjectives are cheap and unverifiable. "Glamorous, high-end, cinematic" cannot be checked against a frame — everyone defines them differently, so feedback becomes "I don't know, it just doesn't feel right." A shot list can be checked: either she crosses the room left to right in shot 3 or she does not.

The same goes for pacing. "Fast-paced" means nothing; "cut every 2–3 seconds, no shot longer than 3 seconds" means something a studio can execute and you can measure.

If you are struggling to write shots, describe it as you would explain it to a person standing next to you with a camera. That is literally the mental model.

## Where Rework Actually Comes From

Looking at revision notes across projects, the same five requests appear over and over, and all five are brief problems:

* **Late scope additions.** New scenes requested after the first cut — the biggest schedule cost of all. Put every scene in the shot list at the start.
* **Character description changes.** Changing hair or wardrobe mid-project forces regeneration of every shot the character appears in.
* **Undecided format.** Realising at delivery that you needed vertical as well as horizontal.
* **Mood-only feedback.** "Make it feel more premium" with no visual anchor; ask yourself what would have to be visible in the frame for that to be true.
* **Reference images sent after generation.** References are most valuable at the top of the project.

For what a well-run schedule looks like once the brief is in, see [How Long Does a Custom AI Video Take?](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/how-long-does-custom-ai-video-take).

## The Two-Paragraph Test

Before you submit, read your brief and check that a stranger could not produce two wildly different videos from it. If they could, you have not specified enough. The fix is almost always the same: replace one adjective with one concrete visual, and add one shot to the list.

A useful companion is a quality checklist — [How to Judge AI Video Quality](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/ai-video-quality-checklist-2026) — because the acceptance criteria you use to review the first cut should be written before the first cut exists, not invented while watching it.

## A Filled-In Example

Abstract advice is easy to skim and hard to reuse, so here is the template completed for a realistic small project — a 20-second vertical clip for a profile page:

```
PURPOSE: 20-second vertical clip for a profile page, plays muted first
LENGTH: 20 s | RATIO: 9:16 | CAPTIONS: no
CHARACTER: fictional, mid-20s, slim, long dark hair, brown eyes,
           wearing a black satin robe, small tattoo on left shoulder
SETTING: hotel suite at night, warm practical lamps, city lights through
         the window behind her
MOOD: unhurried, confident — visually: slow camera, shallow depth of field,
      light from screen-left only
SHOTS:
  1. Wide from the doorway: she crosses the room left to right, robe moving
  2. Medium at the window: she turns toward camera, pauses
  3. Close-up: eyes to lens, slight smile, hold for two seconds
  4. Cut to black
MUST NOT: on-screen text, logos, other people, fast camera moves
DEADLINE: 6 October
DELIVERABLES: 9:16 master, 1080x1920, plus a 1:1 crop for the grid
```

Read it once and notice what it does not contain: adjectives doing the work of specification. There is one mood line, and it is anchored to a concrete visual — light from screen-left, slow camera, shallow depth of field. Everything else is a fact that can be checked against a frame.

Compare the two shots in the middle. "She looks around the room" and "she turns toward camera, pauses" can produce very different videos from the same model, and only one of them is reviewable. That difference, repeated across a shot list, is the entire gap between a brief that takes fifteen minutes and a project that takes three revision rounds.

The deadline and deliverables lines are the ones people skip, and they are the ones that cause surprises. If you need a 1:1 crop as well as the vertical master, saying so at the top costs one line; discovering it at delivery costs a re-render.

## FAQ

### How long should an AI video brief be?

One page, or about 150–300 words. Long enough to specify purpose, length and ratio, character, setting, shots, exclusions, deadline and deliverables — short enough that a studio will actually read all of it.

### Do I need to write prompts myself?

No. The brief is a project document, not a prompt. A studio translates it into prompts, shot lists and reference frames. If you already have prompts you like, include them as reference — they are useful signals about the look you want.

### What is the most important section?

The shot list. It converts subjective feedback into something checkable, and it is the section that prevents late scope additions, which are the most expensive kind of revision.

### Can I change the character description later?

You can, but it is the costliest change available: every shot the character appears in has to be regenerated. Lock attributes before generation starts and change them only if something is genuinely wrong.

### Should I send reference images?

Yes, if you have them. References of the character, the setting or the visual style are the highest-value input you can provide, and they are most useful at the beginning of the project rather than during revisions.

### What if I do not know what I want yet?

Say so in the brief and ask for a discovery pass. A short conversation plus a reference board is a legitimate first step — it is far cheaper than commissioning a video against an unstated idea.

## Ready to Order?

[Order your custom AI video](https://www.CarlosVideo18.shop/order) — flat pricing from $94 to $250, 7-day delivery, revisions included, crypto accepted. Fictional characters only, never real people.

**More guides:**
- [How Long Does a Custom AI Video Take?](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/how-long-does-custom-ai-video-take)
- [AI Video Character Consistency](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/ai-video-character-consistency-guide)
- [How to Commission Custom AI Video](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/how-to-commission-custom-ai-video)
- [AI Video Production Process Explained](https://carlosvideo18.shop/seo/ai-video-production-process)

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## Related guides

* [AI Video for Startups: Explainers, Launch Clips and Demo Videos on a Pre-Seed Budget](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/ai-video-for-startups)
* [AI Video for Real Estate: Listing Clips, Neighbourhood Guides and Agent Branding](https://carlosvideo18.shop/blog/ai-video-for-real-estate)
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* [Order a custom AI video](https://carlosvideo18.shop/order) · [Pricing](https://carlosvideo18.shop/pricing) · [Portfolio](https://carlosvideo18.shop/portfolio)

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