How a video production works — plus a brief template to copy

What are the phases of a video production?

Six phases, and each one ends with a decision on your side.

Pre-production carries two points with legal weight. In Germany, publishing recognisable images of people generally requires their consent (§22 KUG (opens in a new tab)), so collect signed releases before the shoot — from employees too. And filming on a public street in Berlin counts as special use of the street and needs a permit from the district office; processing takes about a month, sometimes two (service.berlin.de (opens in a new tab)).

What should a video brief include?

One page that says who the film is for, what they should do after watching, and where it will run. Everything else follows from those three answers.

A brief isn't the creative idea — that's the studio's job. It's the facts and limits the idea has to work within. Fill in what you know, write "open" where you don't. A half-filled brief still saves a meeting.

VIDEO BRIEF — [project], [date]

1. Goal: what should this film achieve?
   The ONE action the viewer should take after:
2. Audience: who watches? What do they know
   already? What do they doubt?
3. Key message, in one sentence:
4. Proof points (max. 3 facts, figures,
   customer voices):
5. Channels and formats: where will it run?
   e.g. website 16:9, feed 1:1 or 4:5,
   Reels/Shorts 9:16, trade-fair screen
   Lengths, e.g. 90 s master, 30 s, 15 s, 6 s:
6. Languages: spoken, subtitles, voice-over?
7. Usage: which media (web, social, paid ads,
   TV, events)? How long? Which countries?
   Paid ads: yes / no
8. Deadline and fixed dates (launch, event,
   trade fair; days people are available):
9. Budget range (from – to, net):
10. Decision-makers: who gives feedback? Who
    approves the final film? Who has a veto
    (CEO, legal, medical, partner)?
11. People on camera: who? Consent collected
    by whom, by when?
12. Locations and access: address, contact,
    access times, security/IT rules, noise,
    parking and loading:
13. Brand guidelines: logo files, fonts,
    colours, tone of voice, music do's and
    don'ts (link):
14. References: 2–3 videos you like and why,
    1–2 you don't and why:
15. Agency projects: who talks to the end
    client? Is the production partner named?

Four fields cause most of the trouble later:

• Goal and action. "Raise awareness" gives a director nothing to work with. "Book a demo after watching on the pricing page" does.
• Usage. Decide it now, not after the edit. If a contract doesn't name the uses, German law limits the rights to the purpose both sides had in mind (§31(5) UrhG (opens in a new tab)) — a website film isn't automatically cleared for paid ads. Music and on-camera consent are handled separately. More in our guide to video usage rights and buyouts.
• Budget range. A range lets the studio design the right film instead of guessing. See what a brand film costs in Germany.
• Decision-makers. List everyone who can stop the film. A senior person seeing it first at the final cut is a classic cause of late changes.

What should you have ready on shoot day?

Briefed people, free rooms and one person on your side who can say yes. Whether you're on set or not, check this the day before:

• Call sheet shared with everyone involved: times, address, contacts, who is filmed when.
• One decision-maker on set, or reachable by phone all day.
• Signed releases from everyone on camera. Anyone who hasn't signed stays out of frame.
• Interviewees know the topics and their time slot — not a script to memorise.
• Clothing in plain colours; fine stripes and small checks flicker on camera. A spare top.
• Rooms booked, colleagues told, loud equipment paused. Access badges, parking and a loading route for kit.
• Screens, whiteboards and desks cleared of confidential information and customer data.
• Product ready: charged, clean, current version, demo accounts with dummy data.
• Brand items you want in shot (roll-ups, signage), and anything that must stay out.

How does feedback work without endless rounds?

One person collects every comment, sends one timecoded list per version, and settles disagreements before the list reaches the editor.

Extra rounds rarely come from bad edits. They come from feedback that arrives in pieces, contradicts itself or quietly changes the brief. What works:

• One consolidated list per version. Not five emails from five colleagues. Where two people disagree, the named decision-maker decides before sending.
• Timecodes. "00:42 — lower third says 'platform', should say 'tool'" takes a minute to fix. "Feels long" is useful too, if you say where it drags.
• The problem, not only the fix. "The customer's point gets lost here" leaves the editor room to find a better solution than the one you'd prescribe.
• The right level at each stage. Rough cut: story, structure, message. Fine cut: pacing, graphics, details. Final: spelling, names, captions. A story change at the final stage means going back two steps.
• Review days in the schedule. Your deadline depends on your turnaround as much as on the edit.

What delays a video production — and how do you avoid it?

Almost every delay traces back to a decision that was postponed.

What does this look like on a real project?

No handovers from first idea to final cut. For Maxfusion's RIZZ launch film (opens in a new tab), we led the whole thing: concept, script, direction and edit, phases two to five. The client credits the film with driving sales at launch.

"People" in pre-production isn't only who appears on screen. For the World Warfare & Economics release trailer (opens in a new tab), it also meant a film composer for an original score and a voice actor we cast.

How we approach this

Our four-step process maps onto the six phases:

1. Tell us what you need (phase 1). A real conversation, not a discovery deck. We walk you through what we'd do and what it would cost, and the written quote usually follows within a day or two, longer when some costs need checking first.
2. Get a clear plan (phases 2–3). We turn your goals into a brief and visual direction everyone signs off on before any camera rolls. Releases from people on camera are usually yours to collect. At events, if someone asks not to be filmed, we respect that and avoid filming them.
3. We make it (phases 4–5). Freelance crew and partners join us on larger jobs. Feedback runs through whatever your team already uses: Frame.io, Dropbox, Notion or plain email.
4. You walk away with something that works (phase 6). The final film plus the cuts you've planned for your channels, and new formats whenever you need them. You usually get the raw footage too, on a hard drive (charged) or by transfer, and we archive it for at least a year.

Rough timelines:

These are rough guides, not commitments. Every project gets its own timeline in the quote, and complexity, creative development (concept, script) and approvals can change it.

By default you get full usage rights to the films we deliver for the uses agreed in the quote, and music and stock media we buy for a project come licensed for those uses. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, unless we agree otherwise.

One client put it this way: "myCreative.Pro demonstrated a deep understanding of the video production process." — Netanel T, CEO, Okron Studio

This is general information, not legal advice.

Bring the template to a first call — half-filled is fine. We'll bring the rest. Let's talk.