How to Plan a Brand Video Shoot: A Pre-Production Checklist
A successful brand video starts before the camera comes out. Clear decisions about the audience, message, deliverables, and approval process give your crew a useful plan and help your editor turn the footage into a finished story.
Use this checklist to prepare for a brand video, product demo, or social content shoot.
1. Define one clear objective
Decide what the video needs to accomplish. Are you introducing a product, explaining a service, answering a customer question, or encouraging someone to book a consultation? Choose one primary action for the viewer to take.
Write down the audience, the problem you are helping them solve, the main message, and the call to action. If stakeholders have different goals, resolve those differences before scripting.
2. List every deliverable
A single hero video and a library of social clips require different coverage. Specify the number of finished edits, approximate lengths, intended channels, aspect ratios, captions, and alternate openings. Include still images or clean product shots if your team needs them.
For example, a launch could need one website video, three vertical social edits, and a short product demonstration. Treat that as a defined production scope rather than assuming every version will come from the same shots.
3. Build the script around the message
For a scripted video, read the copy aloud and time it. Written sentences often need simplifying when someone has to say them naturally on camera. Leave room for pauses, demonstrations, and visual storytelling.
For interviews, prepare questions that invite complete, specific answers. Ask for examples and follow up when a useful story appears. Avoid building the edit around an exact line that an interviewee has never seen.
4. Turn the story into a shot list
Connect each key point to the footage that will explain it. Include the main interview or presentation, product details, hands using the product, establishing shots, and supporting activity. Prioritize the shots that the edit cannot work without.
When horizontal and vertical edits are required, plan the framing for each. Some scenes can serve both formats; others need a separate take so the subject, graphics, and action fit comfortably.
5. Confirm the location and logistics
Check access, parking, load-in, available power, background noise, and space for lighting. A location that looks good in a photo may sit beside a loud air conditioner or have changing daylight throughout an interview.
Confirm who is responsible for location permission, participant releases, and any required permits. Share arrival instructions and an on-site contact with everyone attending. For a Los Angeles shoot, account for travel between locations when building the day.
6. Schedule the actual work
Allow time for load-in, lighting, sound checks, wardrobe adjustments, rehearsals, breaks, and breakdown. Group shots by location and lighting setup where possible. Changing an entire setup for every line can consume time that should be spent capturing useful performances.
Mark essential and optional shots clearly. If the schedule slips, that priority list helps the producer protect the story.
7. Prepare the post-production handoff
Gather approved logos, brand colors, fonts with appropriate usage rights, product names, pronunciation notes, and reference videos. Decide who will supply graphics, music, captions, and any required disclaimers.
Choose one person to consolidate feedback. Set review dates and agree on what each revision round covers. Conflicting comments from multiple stakeholders can turn a simple edit into repeated rework.
8. Check the plan before shoot day
Before calling the plan final, confirm the brief, script or interview questions, shot list, deliverable list, crew, location, schedule, and approval contacts. Flag anything still awaiting a decision.
A useful final question: could someone joining the project today understand what we are making, who it is for, and what must be captured? If the answer is yes, the brief is doing its job.
Your shoot preparation checklist
Audience, message, and call to action agreed
Deliverables, formats, and lengths confirmed
Script or interview questions approved
Essential shots prioritized
Location access and permissions checked
Crew schedule and arrival details shared
Brand assets ready for the editor
Review dates and approval owner confirmed
Ready to plan your next video?
RBM Productions brings over 15 years of video and media production experience to projects from concept through final cut. Tell us what you are making, where it will live, and when you need it.
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