Music video brief guide
What Should an Artist Include in a Music Video Brief?
A useful brief gives the production team enough truth to recommend the right route without forcing the artist to arrive with every creative answer.
Start with the track and release job
Share the final or near-final track and explain where this release sits in the artist's plan. Is it an introduction, a lead single, a supporting visual or part of a wider campaign? State what the video needs to achieve: show performance, build identity, tell a story, create a launch moment or supply a bank of rollout content.
Describe the artist and intended audience
Give enough context for the production team to understand the artist's world, current image, audience and any previous visuals that matter. Link to live profiles or releases where useful. Do not write a long biography. The purpose is to prevent a generic concept that could be applied to any track.
Use references with reasons
Three useful references are stronger than twenty unexplained links. For each one, say what matters: lighting, pace, performance, location, styling, camera movement, colour or story structure. A reference is direction, not a promise to copy another artist's budget or finished frames.
State the budget range honestly
A budget range lets the treatment match the production that can actually be delivered. It affects location control, crew, lighting time, styling, cast, art direction, shoot length, post-production and social assets. Hiding the range normally creates ideas that have to be rebuilt later. A good production team should explain the trade-offs rather than simply fill the budget.
Confirm dates and fixed constraints
Include the release date, preferred shoot window, artist availability and any immovable label or campaign deadlines. Mention known locations, access limits, travel, cast, products, choreography or usage requirements. Dates should leave space for treatment approval, producing, filming, edit, feedback and final delivery.
List the finished deliverables
Separate the main music video from teasers, vertical performance clips, BTS, stills, clean versions, captions and platform-specific exports. State likely lengths and aspect ratios where known. A request for every possible format without priorities makes the shoot and post-production harder to scope; rank what the campaign genuinely needs.
Separate essentials from open creative space
Mark the lyrics, image points, locations, people or brand requirements that must appear. Then show where the production team has room to develop the idea. This protects important decisions without turning the brief into a treatment before the director and producer have tested what is practical.
A compact brief structure
Use eight headings: track, release objective, artist and audience, creative direction, references, budget range, timing and constraints, and final deliverables. Add one decision-maker for feedback. That is enough for an initial production conversation; the treatment, quote, schedule and call sheet can then develop in the correct order.