Write a brief, not a wish.
A real creative brief for AI scripts, images, video shots, voices and music. Get a clear prompt with your decisions first, catch the vague words and risky asks, then judge every result against your own criteria.
1. What do you need?
2. The brief
Every line is a decision you’d make anyway. Fill in what you know; the check below shows what’s missing.
Acceptance criteria (how you’ll know it’s good enough)
3. Your prompt
Paste it into the AI tool you use. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
The loop
- Brief: who it’s for, what it has to do, what to include and avoid, and how you’ll know it’s good.
- Generate one try, or a small batch.
- Evaluate against the brief, up close. Not “does it look impressive.”
- Verify facts, names, numbers and rights somewhere that isn’t the AI.
- Refine one thing at a time, then produce and save what worked.
Stays your job
- The idea. Start from your own seeds; AI on its own leans toward the most common version.
- The truth. It’s confident whether it’s right or not.
- The evidence. Film tests, products and results for real; illustrate only what can’t be filmed.
- The label. If it looks real, say so the way each app asks.
How it works
It’s the book’s AI Creative Brief, built into a form. Pick what you need (a script, an image, a video shot, a voice or a track), and it asks for the decisions that kind of job needs: framing and light for an image, one action and one camera move for a shot, casting and pace for a voice, tempo and shape for music.
It turns your answers into a prompt with the most important decisions first, because most tools pay more attention to what comes early. The brief check flags words that describe a hope rather than a decision, missing criteria, and asks that need permission or a label. Then the checklist helps you judge each result honestly, and the try counter tells you when to switch to plan B.
Common questions
Why not just ask for a “viral” video?
“Viral” isn’t an instruction. It’s an outcome that depends on your viewer, your idea and luck, and the AI can’t see any of those, so it fills the gap with the most common phrases it has seen. Ask for decisions instead: who it’s for, what it promises, how long it is and how you sound.
Which AI tools does this work with?
Any of them. It writes plain-language prompts that chat assistants, image, video, voice and music tools all understand. Paste the prompt in, attach your reference image if the tool takes one, and judge what comes back with the checklist.
What are acceptance criteria?
How you’ll know a result is good enough, written down before you generate anything: “names the problem in the first two seconds,” “the fox’s left ear tip is black in every shot,” “85 to 110 words.” They stop you judging by “looks impressive.”
What’s the try limit for?
Generating is fast; judging isn’t. Decide how many tries a result gets before you switch to plan B: a closer framing, splitting the shot, filming it for real, or cutting it.
Do I need to label what I make?
If it looks or sounds real (a realistic person, place, event or voice), most big apps ask you to label it, and the EU’s AI Act requires it for deepfakes from August 2026. Help with scripts, ideas and captions usually doesn’t need a label.
Is my brief saved anywhere?
Only on your device, in My Studio. Nothing you type is sent to any AI tool by this page: you copy the prompt and paste it where you choose.
Part 7 of Worth Watching covers making video with AI, from how generative AI works to directing images, motion, voices and music, a complete AI video and responsible publishing. Template 27 is the full AI Creative Brief.
Read the free sample →