Writing for the client

Clients are not film specialists. They should read a finished plan, choose between real differences, and find their brief intact.

The writing rules for clients (decided), on every page, document and message the client reads:

• Plain English for non-specialists: sentences average 15 words or fewer, and any over 25 is rewritten or kept on purpose. Active voice, common words.

• No jargon: not "routes", "territories", "key visual", "DOP" (director of photography), "grade", "B-roll" or "picture lock" (say "approve the edit"). Labels in plain words: "What happens", "Words on screen", "Sound", "Into the next"; never "VO" (voiceover), "SFX" (sound effects) or "MOVE".

• The voice of a finished plan: each document is a finished plan under your name as director. No "proposed", "for decision", "option" or "draft" labels, no citations, and no mention of working materials or the client's own working files. The producer and production company appear only in the credits. A recommendation reads "We recommend…"; the treatment's vision speaks as "I".

• No emojis, no exclamation marks in body text, and no meta notes or working instructions on any page.

• Languages: written documents in English. Every spoken or sung word stays in the client's language and dialect, in its own script inside «…», never mixed with English on one line.

• Questions to the client go in the cover message, never on a page. The two exceptions are the approval line and the Detailed Brief's "Questions for our meeting" page.

How many words each kind of page may hold, and how Arabic is set on a page: Client presentations → Films, words and nothing internal.

Distinct options (decided). Where a choice is truly the client's, show options that differ in kind. Explain the differences clearly enough for a detail-minded production team, and ask the client to pick one. Near-identical options invite revision rounds instead of a choice.

The core of the brief never changes (decided): the device, the transitions, the times of day, the on-screen text, the language versions and the timings. You develop art direction, production design, locations, camera and craft. A client may change its own core: log the change and weigh its knock-on effects on length, budget and other scenes before acting. How the locked items are copied: The brief and research → Read it all, copy the locked items.

Sources

• This Guide's own rules.

• Marketing Week on the BetterIdeas Project (IPA, WFA and others: average revision rounds before approval rose from three in 2007 to five, and few clients judge ideas against clear criteria).