# Brief and Treatment

Read this whenever a target video is being defined, whether it begins from a reference, a loose idea,
an existing project, or a requested revision.

## Brief preserves user authority

`BRIEF.md` records what the user wants and what only the user can authoritatively supply. It can be as
short as one sentence when that sentence is sufficient:

> Faithfully recreate this reference, but replace the presenter with the cat in `assets/miso.jpg` and
> the product with Hypit.

Add only facts that matter to the work, such as:

- the intended outcome, audience, platform, deliverable, or business purpose;
- the claim, product truth, offer, CTA, language, and facts that must remain accurate;
- references and what the user wants inherited from each;
- requested replacements, additions, removals, or style changes;
- private identity assets and exact brand material;
- hard duration, format, budget, or delivery constraints;
- choices the user explicitly reserves for themselves.

Quote or closely preserve the user's wording where reinterpretation could change the request. Do not
expand an example video's Hook into a format rule or mix implementation choices into the Brief.

In a faithful adaptation, unmentioned relationships normally inherit from the reference: structure,
the role of each layer, the promise/payoff relationship, and the visual or audio systems that make the
piece work. This is a starting interpretation, not pixel copying. Ask the user only when the available
facts leave materially different goals, private facts, meaningful value choices, deliverables, or
spending authority unresolved. Routine casting, art direction, shot choice, Caption treatment,
component design, prompts, and implementation belong to the Agent.

Preserve the user's agreed paid scope here as a production constraint: the billing accounts identified
by non-secret labels or Endpoint references, the work they cover, and the accepted estimate, range or
budget. Retain any limits the user attached to that agreement. Distinguish your proposed estimate
from what the user has accepted, and an estimate from a firm spending ceiling. Keep the agreement
current when the user changes it so another conversation can continue under the same authority.
Record their local or hosted setup choices and accepted preparation in the same ordinary language.
The Runtime Profile expresses how to execute those choices; Brief preserves what the user agreed to.
[Builds](../production/builds.md#work-within-the-agreed-paid-scope) owns how it applies to paid work.

## Treatment is the director's answer

`TREATMENT.md` turns the Brief, relevant reference understanding, and current creative judgment into
one complete creative design for the new work. It can cover:

- the creative premise and viewer experience;
- story movement, Hook, reveal, payoff, and CTA;
- target pacing and the jobs of major passages;
- character, performance, camera, locations, and visual world;
- A-roll, B-roll, Caption, Typography, MG, Effect, and Audio systems that the target actually needs;
- how requested transformations propagate through those systems;
- which generated or supplied media will act as identity and continuity anchors;
- open creative questions that genuinely prevent the design from becoming specific.

Write in director language. The Treatment may say that a ranking portrait accumulates into a board or
that a second podcast angle reverses the eye line while preserving the shared counter and light. It
does not need package names, element attributes, provider selection, Build order, or Result ids. Those
belong to production files.

Describe how the intended appeal reaches the viewer. If contrast carries the premise, say what
expectation the piece sets up and how its words, situation, reveal or response play with it. The
difference can suggest an idea; the piece still needs to express what makes that idea compelling.
Give the performer a clear attitude toward the subject and listener. Let
[voice direction](../playbooks/craft/voice-direction.md) and
[video direction](../playbooks/craft/video-direction.md) carry the choice into casting and performance.

Reference Analysis says why the old piece works; Treatment says what the new piece will be. Original
work reaches Treatment from the Brief, relevant examples, and the Agent's judgment rather than from
one dominant reference. These are different sources of creative evidence.

## Keep one formal Script

The spoken wording becomes authoritative only in the Author Source's `<script>`. During drafting, copy
may live in `drafts/`; once adopted, move it into Source and stop maintaining a second full transcript
in Brief or Treatment. Brief can preserve mandatory claims or exact user-supplied phrases. Treatment
can describe what each passage must accomplish. Source owns the actual words, roles, Cue breaks,
Selections, and Moments.

## Revise the owner of the changed fact

- A changed user goal, claim, constraint, or requested substitution changes the Brief.
- A changed story, shot logic, visual system, performance, or creative approach changes the Treatment.
- A prompt refinement, component geometry correction, Candidate choice, or timing-expression fix that
  preserves the same design changes Source, Recipe, Run, a project package, or generation input—not
  the Treatment.
- New evidence about the reference changes its Analysis or Timeline; it may then cause the director to
  reconsider Treatment.

Studio and built Results make the current design visible. If the work looks wrong because the
design itself was wrong, revise Treatment. If the design is sound and its implementation is wrong,
repair the production. Brief changes only when the user's truth changes.