How to Brief a Video Editor So You Do Not Pay for Revisions
Answers how to brief a video editor
Most revision rounds are not caused by an editor who misunderstood. They are caused by decisions that were never made, which the editor then had to make alone, and which the client only recognises once they can see it. The fix is not a longer brief. It is four decisions, made before the first cut exists.
Decision one: who the film is for
Not "everyone". Not "our customers". One person, described well enough that you could pick them out of a queue: what they already believe, what they are sceptical about, and what they are doing in the four seconds before the film starts.
This decides pacing more than anything else on this list. A film for someone who already knows the product can start in the middle. A film for someone who has never heard of it cannot.
Decision two: what the one thing is
Every film has one thing it wants the viewer to remember. If the brief contains three, the film will contain none, because thirty seconds cannot hold three.
Write it as a sentence in the viewer's voice: "so that's the one that does not need a subscription". If you cannot write that sentence, the film is not ready to be cut, and no amount of editing will find it.
Decision three: what the ending asks for
A film ends on an action, an impression, or a question, and the three are cut differently. An action ending needs a beat of stillness before the card. An impression ending needs the last shot to be the best one. A question ending needs the sound to stay up.
Say which one. It is the difference between an end card that lands and one that is stepped on.
Decision four: what is off the table
This is the one everyone skips and the one that saves the most money. Name the things you already know you do not want: no stock music, no voiceover, no on-screen text longer than four words, no slow motion, no testimonials. An editor who knows the edges works faster inside them than one who has to guess and be corrected.
The brief that takes an hour
Four sentences, one per decision, plus the footage and the deadline. That is enough, and it is more than most briefs contain.
Where revisions actually come from
Three sources, in order of frequency:
The structure was never agreed. The client sees a cut of the beats for the first time and disagrees with the order of the story. This is the expensive one, and it is why a structure pass is worth paying for separately. Agreeing the shape in a rough assembly costs an hour. Disagreeing with it in a finished cut costs days.
The one thing was never named. Four people watch the cut and each is looking for their own priority. Fixing that afterwards means four rounds.
Nobody said what was off the table. The editor used slow motion because it suited the shot. The client hates slow motion. Both were behaving reasonably.
What a revision round should cost
Nothing, within the brief. One round is included in any sensible quote because a cut is a proposal and the first response to a proposal is often a correction. What costs money is a change of mind about one of the four decisions, and the honest way to price that is not per hour but per decision: which of the four moved, and how far.
If you have the footage and the four sentences, the contact page takes them together, and the quote will name which of the four is doing the work.