The fastest start comes from four things arriving together: original footage, a brief, brand assets and a reference video. An editor can work out, ask about or fix nearly everything else in revisions. When one of the four is missing, the first draft is a guess, and a guess costs you a revision round.
What footage should I send, and in what format?
Send the original camera files, not exports, and nothing that has passed through a messaging app. Messengers compress video, and compression you can barely see on a phone turns to mush once the editor grades the color or punches in on a shot. If it came off the camera or phone as a .MOV or .MP4, send that file untouched.
Upload through a shared drive or transfer tool that keeps full quality. Keep the folders simple: one per shoot day or per camera, with audio from an external recorder in its own folder. Don't rename clips in ways that break the link between camera files and their sound files.
Send everything, including the takes you think are bad. A flubbed line often holds the best reaction, and b roll (the extra footage cut over the main shot) you forgot you filmed can cover a jump cut. If you already know your favorite moments, a note like "the warehouse story starts at 14:20 in clip 3" saves the editor hours of scrubbing.
The take you think is unusable is often the one that saves the edit.
What goes in the brief?
A brief doesn't need to be a document. Five or six lines in an email or dashboard field will do if they answer these:
- Who the video is for and what you want them to do after watching
- Where it will live: YouTube, Instagram Reels, TikTok, LinkedIn, a paid ad or your website
- Target length and aspect ratio, for example 60 seconds vertical or 12 minutes horizontal
- The one point the video must land, in a sentence
- Must haves and must nots: a product shot, a call to action, a topic to leave out
- The deadline, and whether that is when you need a draft or when it publishes
That last line causes more trouble than it should. If you publish Thursday and the draft lands Thursday, there is no room for notes. Give the editor the publish date and let them work back from it.
Do I need to send brand assets and music?
Yes, if you have them. Send logos with transparent backgrounds (PNG or SVG), your brand fonts or their names, hex codes for your colors, and any lower third (the name title on screen) or caption style you already use. If you have an intro, outro or end screen, include a clean export or the template file.
For music, tell the editor whether you have a licensed library account and whose name it is in. Music has to be licensed for the platform and the use, and a paid ad can need different rights than an organic post. If you don't have a library, say so and agree who sources tracks. Never send a song ripped from a streaming service, because that track can get the video muted or blocked.
Why does a reference video matter so much?
Words like "punchy", "clean" and "cinematic" mean something different to everyone who says them. A link to a video you like, with one line on what you like about it, settles pacing, caption style, music energy and how often to cut. One reference beats five that contradict each other.
Send something you don't want, too. "Not like this, too many zooms and whooshes" is as useful as any positive example. On a first project with a new editor, a reference does more than any amount of description.
One reference video tells an editor more about your taste than a page of adjectives.
What happens after I send everything?
Expect a question or two on the first project. A good editor confirms anything ambiguous before cutting rather than guessing. Then review the draft with time coded notes, comments pinned to the exact second in a tool like Frame.io, so "the music is loud in the middle" becomes "at 1:42, music too loud under the voice".
At Crispy Edits each customer has the same editor on every request, which is why we push for these basics up front: the assets, references and notes from the first project carry into every one after it. Whoever you work with, the first project is where you set expectations, and later projects get faster because the editor stops needing to ask.
Send original files, a short brief with your publish date, your brand assets and one reference. Get those right once and every project after starts faster.
