A corporate video brief often lands as three requests in one email: a culture story, a product launch that is “also in there,” and a hope the CEO can stop by if the calendar opens. Those are different videos. A crew in one conference room from 10 to 2 cannot shoot all of them well, and the mismatch usually shows up after the first setup is already lit.
This guide is for comms, marketing, and producers who need the same corporate video brief: the owner, the job, the room, the files, and what has to be decided before call time.
Start with the decisions
Color words do not say whether this is a website film, onboarding clips, or a leadership interview. Before the look conversation, write the job, the viewer (a role, not a persona nickname), where the primary file plays, what must be said, what you can show, who approves a change, and what is out of scope. If those lines are blank, a mood board will not settle the argument on set.
Name one decision owner
A committee can comment. It cannot answer a producer at 7:40 a.m. when the window is shorter than the schedule. You will usually have a comms lead, someone from legal, the assistant who booked the room, and a producer who needs a yes or a no.
Pick one owner who can settle a conflict before the crew is on the clock. Other people can comment. They should not email the editor five versions of the same cut.
That owner is often not the most senior person on camera. A CEO can be the subject and still not be the person who decides whether the opening is the product or the team. If the owner will be in meetings on shoot day, name a deputy in the brief, with a phone that actually gets answered. “We’ll loop leadership in later” is how a locked opening becomes a rewrite at lunch, while the crew waits on a setup they already built.
Legal and brand review miss dates. If the piece has claims, product screens, or customer names, put that review on the calendar before the shoot. A cleared script is not still cleared if someone adds a number in the margin the night before. If the company has not sourced the figure, take it out. Do not ask the crew to invent the proof on set.
Write the job the video does
“Raise awareness” does not tell a crew what to point at. Name the use. A corporate video brief that treats five jobs as equal will drop the primary one when the clock slips.
Recruiting or culture. You need people who work there and a place that looks like that workplace. A glass lobby that could belong to any company will not carry it.
Product or service explainer. You need the product, someone who can show it, and whether the viewer is a customer, a buyer, or an internal team.
Leadership or subject-matter interview. You need the speaker, a quiet room, and questions that fit the window. A twenty-minute block with a twelve-minute hard out is a different brief than an hour of conversation. Executive interview videos covers how that day runs once the time and the questions already match.
Internal training or a policy update. You need the process owner, steps that are still true, and where the file will live. If the process is still changing, say so.
An event that also needs a corporate edit. A conference highlight and a leadership message are different coverage plans. If both are in the ask, say which one wins when the run of show slips. Multi-camera vs single-camera event video is the camera decision that follows. The brief should name the output that forces it.
One day can carry a primary job and a small secondary. If the list wants culture, product, a CEO message, customer quotes, and social films from one half-day, write down what will not happen, or split the days. Leaving that until lunch is how the primary cut gets thin.
Where the file will actually play
Placement changes length and sound more than a style word does. A lobby loop needs a clear first frame and cannot depend on a voiceover that disappears in a noisy room. A LinkedIn cut usually needs on-screen words, because a lot of people will watch it muted. An intranet module can run longer if someone can skip through it.
Write the primary placement in the corporate video brief, and name the viewer by role: a procurement manager before a vendor call, a new hire in week one, someone who will see this once in an all-hands. A square crop with captions is one edit. A recruiter story is another.
Message, proof, and lines you will not say
Write the sentence the video has to land, then the points under it, in order. If you cannot rank them, the edit will rank them by whichever speaker was easiest to cut.
If the video says a team shipped something faster, name who can say that on camera and what they may show. If nobody can say it, drop the line. Do not ask an editor to imply it with music.
Leave unsourced percentages out. “The team moved faster after the change” can stay qualitative. A number needs a source the company will stand behind. If that source is not in hand by the review date, cut the number.
Customer names, logos, and employee stories need a permission note and the person chasing the release. A name in a draft is not a yes. Write who owns the release, facilities or legal, and the date you need it back.
Rooms, time, and what the location will not do
Corporate locations look easy until they are booked. Write the constraint. “The crew will make it work” is how a twelve-minute window turns into a conversation about a reshoot.
Talent time. Name, role, window. “The CEO might stop by” is not a window. If the executive has twelve minutes, the questions have to fit twelve minutes. Give the producer the assistant who can move that window, and a backup if it becomes a phone call.
The room. Quiet matters more than a branded wall. HVAC, sun across a glass office, a room that turns over every hour, and lobby music the building will not kill all belong in the brief. Say whether you can control lights, blinds, and sound. If you cannot, lighting and audio get planned as a limit, not a surprise. Face lighting itself is covered in how to choose video lighting for interviews. Here, say what the room allows: power, and whether a stand can sit in the hallway.
Access and marks. A floor, lab, or screen needs someone who escorts the crew, a note on PPE, and a list of what cannot be filmed. Unreleased UI needs a name who clears it. For brand rules, skip the pasted brand book. Write the lines that change the day: lower thirds, words you cannot say, no competitor product in frame, no patient information, no unreleased packaging.
References a director can use
Two or three links are enough: one you want, one you do not, each with a sentence. “More cinematic” is not shootable. “Slower pace, the speaker finishes the thought” is.
A walking interview through a sunlit floor needs that floor, the time, and a person who can walk and talk. A boardroom with one window and forty minutes does not become that film because the link was good. If the reference and the room disagree, believe the room, and write it down so nobody reopens it at call time.
If AI tools are in the plan, put the limit in the same note. Transcription, a rough assembly, and captions are a different decision from generated pictures of real employees, products, or customers. The split is in when to use AI in video production.
Deliverables and how notes will move
List files, not a mood:
- One primary edit, with a length range (60 to 90 seconds, or 3 to 4 minutes), not the word “short”
- Captions or a transcript, and the language
- Cutdowns only if they are the same story, shorter
- Stills, if a page actually needs them
- Where the file goes, and who confirms it plays
Say how many revision rounds are included, and what a round is. A new opening after someone watches a cut is a revision. A new interview because a speaker disliked their own answer is a pickup day. Those are not the same line item.
One person sends notes. If five people email the editor, round two becomes round six and nobody has decided. Opinions can sit in the comments of one document.
If you need graphics or music, name who supplies fonts, an approved track, and the end card. “Use something clean” is how an editor picks a track legal will reject.
What crew needs before you compare quotes
Two vendors should be pricing the same day. The brief needs:
- Date range and hard outs
- City, locations, and how many moves
- How many cameras, and whether anything is live or switched
- Sound: lavs, a boom, playback, a room you already know is loud
- Whether the look is available light with a little help, or a controlled interview
- Who is on camera, and for how long
- Media handoff: a drive, a cloud folder, same day or next, and who signs for the cards
That block is what a producer turns into a video shoot day timeline and, closer to the day, a call sheet. If the brief hides the move count or the hard out, the call sheet can be neat and still wrong.
Send the same brief to each company or crew you ask. Quotes against different assumed jobs are not a comparison. What to check in the people you book is in how to hire film and video production pros.
If your shoot is in Colorado, start with our list of Denver corporate video production companies and send each one this same brief.
A brief you can finish this week
Use this as the document, not as a second brainstorm.
- Decision owner and deputy, with a phone that works on shoot day.
- One primary job, and a line that says what this day will not cover.
- Viewer role and primary placement.
- The sentence the piece must land, plus points you can prove.
- On-camera people, time windows, and who books them.
- Locations, access, noise, power, and what you cannot change.
- One reference you want, one you do not, and why.
- Deliverables, revision rounds, and who sends notes.
- Date, city, crew shape at a high level, and media handoff.
- Open items, each with an owner and a date. “TBD by production” is not an owner.
If item 10 is long, you can hold a date. Do not call the creative locked. Named open items can be prepped. A blank cannot.
After the brief looks finished
A finished brief does not freeze the company. The window shrinks. A screenshot is not cleared. The booked room sits next to a demo that morning. What still helps is the out-of-scope line and the ranked job. The producer can drop the secondary item, add time, or book a pickup. Pretending the new request was always in the day is how the meal break goes and the primary cut loses the proof.
Send the brief to the people on camera, not only to the producer. A speaker who sees the questions and the window the day before is usable. A speaker who sees them in the chair spends that time in the setup.
Keep the open-items list alive until the items close. A brief with three blanks, treated as finished, is the one crews walk into on the day.