Concepts and references

From the brief to two or three ranked concepts in one presentation, and the references that sharpen every stage: what counts, how to read one, and how a sourced still reaches a client page.

The idea

This section turns an understood brief into two or three whole concepts, ranked, in one concept presentation. It works the way a full creative agency does: the proposition, many ideas, a hard cut, an originality search, then the concepts. Start once the brief is understood and the client meeting is done. The pages of the presentation are designed in Client presentations.

• The proposition, and the five obvious ideas: One sentence says what the film must do.

• The MENA lens: The strongest work in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) trusts its own audience and explains nothing to outsiders.

• Generating wide: Many ideas, from many different engines, before any one is judged.

• AI inside the idea, two ways: Your films are made with AI.

• Fits the length: An idea that needs 50 seconds dies in a 30-second slot, however good it is.

• The idea bar: Set every top idea next to the nearest award film with the same mechanism, and be honest about which is stronger.

• The three jury kill checks: Three yes-or-no questions from the jury room, asked before any ranking.

• Ranking, and the originality check: Rank what survived.

• Two or three whole concepts, ranked: Each concept is a whole answer to the brief, built on its own engine.

• Writing a concept: A concept reads like a short story a client can picture, in 2–3 minutes.

• Lines at native quality: A line that sounds translated spoils the best idea in the room.

• Refining an agency's concept: When the client or its agency has already written the concept, you keep it.

• The optional mood reel: For an idea that lives in rhythm or music, a still page can't show it.

References

This section covers what counts as a reference, what each stage studies, how a reference is read and logged, and how a sourced still reaches a client page. References prove or sharpen a decision you have already written.

• What counts: The bar is the best human craft.

• Which layer each stage studies: Study only the layer the stage needs.

• Analysing a reference: Stills show what a frame looks like.

• The reference breakdown: One page per reference, covering only the layers the stage needs.

• Sourced stills on pages: Film stills, photography and art have always built treatments.

• Award exemplars per genre: A short, dated seed list that holds the bar when the archives won't open.