What to Prepare Before You Commission a Promo Video

“Please make a promo video” is not a brief. If you skip who watches, where it runs, and what they should do next, you get a finished file with nowhere to put it. The Reels tools and the pre-post check already use those boxes. A longer film needs the same boxes first.

This article does not talk about fees. It only lists what should be written on your side before you hand the work over: purpose, one sentence, channels and ratios, a board, rights, deliverables, and the approval order.

Purpose and one sentence

Write the action in one line — visit, inquire, apply, find a store. Name the viewer: a customer, an applicant, or a current member. Then keep one sentence to remember. Three sentences will not fit a 15-second Reel or a 60-second site film.

Write the banned lines too. Competitor claims, medical or financial certainty, and unfixed dates should die before the script.

Pick the placements first

Reels, YouTube, and a homepage crop the same shoot differently. Reels fill a vertical screen; UI covers the top and bottom.(1) A landscape-only master produces a clipped short. List channels and ratios before you brief.

A board keeps the message from changing on set.

Board and shot list

The drawings can be rough. You need order, who appears, when the product shows, and what type stays at the end. The shot list marks indoor or outdoor, day or night, speech, and on-screen captions.

A reference link with keep and drop marks beats “this vibe.” You are matching length, caption density, and speaking pace — not copying a look.

Rights and files you will receive

Reel audio follows the account and the library. Official help lists original audio, another creator’s original audio, and the Instagram audio tool.(3) Music, fonts, and stock used in ads or always-on cuts need a written channel and term. Likeness and location clearance come before the shoot. A logo that appeared in frame is not a license.

Write the files you will receive: landscape master, vertical cut, captioned version, clean version, cover still. Say whether raw media is kept and whether a recut is allowed. Separate copy fixes from a scene rebuild.

Approval order

1. Purpose, viewer, one sentence, banned lines

2. Channels and ratios

3. Outline and script — names and numbers

4. Board and shot list

5. Shoot

6. First cut — use the same eye as the Reels pre-post check

7. Final and derived cuts

A filled example — the page you hand over

Same made-up studio. Instead of “make a promo,” hand over the lines below. Leave the fee box empty.

One sentence: “After watching, book the Saturday class.” The viewer is a first-time guest. The only line to remember is “bowl on the wheel, Saturday 14:00.” Banned lines travel with it. “The only studio in the city,” “a beginner becomes an artist in a day,” and a weekday class that is not open yet stay out of the script.

Two channels. A 45-second 16:9 hero for the site. A 15-second 9:16 Reel. A horizontal master alone crops the hands on the Reel, so the shot list marks the vertical safe area. The first three seconds are the bowl. The last words are “Book from the profile.”

The storyboard can be clumsy. 1) bowl spinning 2) hands at the wheel 3) the door with the sign 4) one booking line. Indoors, daytime, no spoken lines, captions only. On the reference link, write “few captions, under 15 seconds,” not “this vibe.”

Sound is a named library track or your own recording. A chart song is not accepted. One instructor on camera, consent before the shoot. Guest faces stay out of frame. You receive a 16:9 master, a 9:16 cut, a captioned version, a clean version, and a cover still. Changing “14:00” to “15:00” is a copy fix. Reshooting the door is a reshoot.

An empty early box becomes a rewrite on set. A filled box lets the crew shoot and lets you decide. After it is posted, questions return through the DM window in the previous article.

참고

1. Instagram, Reels product page — vertical frame and length

2. Later, Instagram Reels guide — opening seconds and captions

3. Meta Help, audio you can use in a Reel