How to Plan a Video: Brief, Script & Shot List
A useful video plan answers four questions: who is watching, what should they understand or feel, what will they see, and what can you realistically produce? Start there before choosing an AI model or generating scenes.
1. Write a brief you can actually use
Describe one audience, one idea and one intended outcome. A product demonstration, a personal film and a social post can use the same editing tools while needing very different structures. Choose the viewing context and aspect ratio before you frame your shots.
Make a landscape video showing how I turn a small balcony into a reading corner. Use my before-and-after footage, explain three decisions in my own voice, and finish on the completed space. Keep the real transformation central.
This is an example brief, not a completed Fabrikk project. Replace its subject and constraints with your own. “Make a beautiful video” leaves nearly every important decision unresolved; a specific brief gives you something to judge each scene against.
2. Turn the idea into a scene list
Give each scene a job. It might introduce the situation, show a change, explain a detail or deliver the ending. Write the spoken line alongside the visual so you can see where words and pictures repeat each other unnecessarily.
| Scene | Visual | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Your wide “before” shot | Establish the space and the problem |
| The choices | Close-ups of seating, lighting and plants | Explain the three decisions |
| A transition | Your process footage or an illustrative generated scene | Connect the steps without inventing a real event |
| Ending | Your finished-space shot | Show the result and leave one clear takeaway |
3. Decide what to shoot, upload or generate
Use your own material when the video depends on a real object, person or result. AI can help illustrate an imagined setting or fill a creative role, but a generated scene is not evidence of an event that happened. Mark the source of every planned shot and make a short list of what is still missing.
For each AI scene, specify the subject, action, framing and mood. Keep a shot focused on a manageable action. For uploaded footage, note the strongest usable moment rather than assuming you need the whole clip. Our mixed-footage guide covers joining the two.
4. Plan sound and timing together
Read the script aloud before committing to visuals. Give an important image time to register, and shorten a sentence when it competes with the shot. Decide which scenes need narration, original sound or silence. Treat music as part of the edit, with permission to use the track.
A rough time allowance for each scene is a starting point. Review the assembled sequence and adjust. More scenes do not automatically make a better film, and a fixed duration should not force you to repeat the ending.
5. Set a budget before generating
List the scenes that require paid generation and leave room for rejected takes. In Fabrikk, AI work uses credits and shows an estimate before it starts; editing existing clips and downloading a finished video do not use AI credits. New narration can add a cost. Check how credits work rather than assuming every video costs the same.
A final planning check
- Could someone describe the point of the video in one sentence?
- Does every scene add something?
- Do you know where the footage, narration and music will come from?
- Have you allowed for revisions and watched the complete export before sharing?