# Write the brief and shot list

Lesson 1 of [Plan and produce your first AI video](https://aivideogen.fyi/academy/plan-and-produce-ai-video.md), 20 minutes.

A product video fails in pre-production, not in generation. The weekend workflow starts with a written brief and a shot list, because every later decision (prompts, credits, edits) depends on them.

## Write the one-sentence job

Fill in this sentence: "This video makes [viewer] understand that [product] solves [problem] and tells them to [action]." If you cannot fill it in, the video will not land. Every shot serves this sentence.

## Build the beat sheet

A 30-second ad is six to eight shots of 3 to 5 seconds each. Write one line per shot: what is on screen, what moves, what the viewer should feel. A structure that works: a hook in the first 3 seconds, the product reveal, two or three benefit shots, a proof or detail shot, and a closing card with the name, offer and call to action. For 60 seconds, double the benefit section and keep the close at 3 to 5 seconds.

## Sort each shot into one of three piles

- **Generate**: atmosphere, motion backgrounds, abstract transitions, stylised scenes where exact detail does not matter.
- **Animate**: real product photos run through image-to-video.
- **Film or design**: the closing card, any shot with real people, any shot with legible text.

Most product videos need only 3 to 5 generated shots. Your real product photos and footage carry the rest. This split is the biggest quality decision in the project. Text-to-video invents labels, shapes and proportions; a wrong product on screen is worse than no product.

## Pick the tool to match the pile

Match each pile to a category, not a brand. Generated shots go to text-to-video or image-to-video tools. Animated stills go to image-to-video. Presenter shots go to AI avatars. Assembly goes to video editing or a clip maker. Dubbing is its own category. The tool picker on this site suggests a category from your answers.

## Write the prompts now

For each generated shot, write the four-part prompt: subject, action, camera, style. Keep the style sentence identical across every shot so the clips cut together. Save every prompt that works; they are your shot library for version two.

## Budget the credits before you generate

Credit plans punish vague planning. Count your generated shots, find the per-clip credit cost on the vendor's page, and multiply. Pika's pricing page puts a 5-second 720p clip at about 122 credits on Starter; Runway lists 60 credits per 5 seconds for Gen-4.5. Eight shots with two takes each is roughly 12 to 16 generations, inside one mid-tier monthly plan or spread across free tiers if you are patient. Add 30 percent for retries you cannot predict.

## Sources

- [Pika pricing](https://pika.art/pricing)
- [Runway pricing](https://runwayml.com/pricing)
- [HeyGen pricing](https://www.heygen.com/pricing)
- [Luma Dream Machine](https://lumalabs.ai/dream-machine)


Also on the [web page](https://aivideogen.fyi/academy/plan-and-produce-ai-video/write-the-brief-and-shot-list).