How to Write a Creative Project Brief

Reading Time: 3 mins

Here at Haunted Basement we were raised on the 5 P’s: “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.” Every video project benefits from the hours of thought and development that occur before anyone steps foot on set. With that in mind, let’s talk about an overlooked but essential part of the video production process: creating a project brief. This is the first step of the process and it’s filled with endless possibilities and directions that you could take with your project. 

A project brief is a 1-2 page document that outlines the objectives, target audience, deliverables, and timeline of completion for the project while also establishing the tone and vision. It’s a crucial document for getting everybody involved in the project on the same page from start to finish. All project briefs are different but the basic steps to writing one are the same.

Even if you already know the budget, success metrics, and goals of your video before you draft a brief, each project begins with the same first step: write everything down. At Haunted Basement we call this the discovery phase. All those ideas you had in the shower, on your daily walks, while drifting off to sleep– write them down immediately. It’s easier to determine which ideas are working when you can read them or say them out loud rather than fantasize about them. We recommend keeping a small notebook and pen on you or jotting down notes on your phone. 

Invest the time to pinpoint who your target audience is and what the goals for your video are. Ask yourself questions like: What am I trying to communicate and who do I want to communicate that message to? What is something unique about what I am promoting? What deliverables will express those goals most effectively? (Check out our blog post on deliverables here.)

The final step of the discovery phase is editing. Remove anything from your draft that is unclear. The scope of your project should be clearly defined in the project brief so as to avoid those pesky last minute additional changes that we call “scope creep.” Make sure that your project brief contains answers to the goals for your project, what success means to you, what the budget is, what deliverables you will need, and the timeline for its completion. 

And that’s it. Much easier said than done but if you follow these simple steps you will have a project brief that clearly expresses your vision to any potential collaborator. Check out our project brief template to help you get started or reach out to us and we can work together on creating a project brief.