The Narrative Brief
A half-day working session for organisations with a complex situation and no clear story yet.
Some organisations commission a film before they know what they're trying to say.
They arrive with a brief, a budget, and a deadline. They've decided the format before they've understood the problem. The result is a film that looks right but lands wrong, because it was built on an assumption about the story, not the story itself.
The Narrative Brief is designed to prevent that.
Before we make anything, we think. Together. For half a day, we go deep on your situation: who's affected, what's at stake, what real understanding would change. We work out what kind of story would actually do the job. You leave with a clear narrative direction and a written document your team can act on.
It is the most useful work we do.
What happens in the session
The Narrative Brief is a four-hour working session. In-person where possible. No slides, no facilitation activities, no sticky notes on whiteboards. Just a focused conversation with someone who has spent fifteen years asking the kinds of questions that surface the story underneath the story.
Before we meet, you complete a short intake document: five questions that help us arrive prepared, not blank. We read it carefully, research your context, and come into the room with a point of view. Not conclusions. Hypotheses to test.
In the session, we work through:
Your situation: what's actually happening, who is affected, and what is genuinely at stake
Your audiences: who needs to understand something, and what they currently believe
The gap: what needs to shift, and what authentic story could shift it
Narrative direction: what to make, who should tell it, and what it needs to show that isn't currently being shown
Practical implications: access, sensitivities, approval processes, and what a production pathway might look like
We end the session with a clear recommendation. One direction, with reasoning. Not a menu of options.
What you receive
Within five business days of the session, we deliver a Narrative Brief Document: one to two pages, written in plain language.
It contains:
A summary of the situation as we understood it
The recommended narrative direction: what story, who tells it, what it needs to show
The rationale: why this approach, and what it will do that other approaches won't
Production and access considerations
A high-level view of what the next phase could look like
It is written so you can put it in front of your GM or executive team without modification or translation. That is the test we apply to every document we deliver.
Who this is for
The Narrative Brief is for senior communications, marketing, or external affairs professionals navigating situations with real complexity: community consultations, infrastructure projects, stakeholder relationships under pressure, organisational change, or programs that need to demonstrate impact to funders and boards.
It is not for organisations that already know exactly what they want to make. If you have a locked brief and need a production partner to execute it, we can talk about that too. But if you're at the stage where you know something needs to be communicated and you're not yet sure how, this is where to start.
Investment
The Narrative Brief is $3,500 + GST payable in full before the session date is confirmed.
If you proceed to a production engagement within 60 days of the session, the Narrative Brief investment is recognised within the production fee. You’re not paying twice for the thinking.
What happens next
After the Narrative Direction Document is delivered, we schedule a short follow-up call, typically ten to fourteen days later, to see how the document has landed and whether any questions have come up internally.
If the direction is right and the timing works, the natural next step is a production proposal. We will tell you what that looks like, clearly and without pressure, when we talk.