Commission an AI short film: a buyer’s checklist

Commission the outcome you can describe

A strong brief tells a filmmaker what the film must accomplish and leaves room for them to solve it. Explain the audience, message and intended use, then specify the deliverables: a finished runtime, aspect ratios, languages, caption files and whether you need stills or shorter adaptations. A request for “one AI video” hides decisions that will otherwise reappear as revisions.

Ask who will direct, edit and finish the work. A portfolio is a useful starting point, but it does not establish who performed each task or whether the same team is available. Discuss the particular contribution you are hiring and the production method proposed for your project.

Approve the direction while changes are manageable

Use staged approvals: first the concept and script, then the visual direction, a representative test, the rough cut and the final master. For an unfamiliar process, a small paid test can expose a continuity or performance problem before the whole film depends on it. Agree what the test must demonstrate and who owns the material it produces.

Name one person who consolidates feedback. State how many revision rounds are included and distinguish a correction from a changed brief. A request to fix an unreadable end card is different from introducing a new character after the cut has been approved. Put the effect of late changes on budget and schedule in writing.

Make usage and provenance explicit

Describe the planned channels, territories, campaign period and any paid advertising. Ask the producer to identify the permissions needed for supplied images, music, voices, likenesses, logos and other third-party material. Agree who obtains those permissions and what evidence will be delivered. A tool subscription or a publicly viewable film does not, by itself, answer every rights question.

If exclusivity, copyright ownership or a recognizable person matters to the project, obtain suitable professional advice and a written agreement for the actual circumstances. A checklist helps surface questions; it cannot promise that every asset is cleared or every requested right is available.

Define the handover and check it

Request an organized final delivery with the agreed masters, captions, audio versions, credits and any source or project files included in scope. Confirm that opening those files will not require an unexpected account or subscription. Agree the payment milestones, cancellation terms and process for fixing a delivery defect before work begins.

• Watch every deliverable from beginning to end, including titles and closing frames.
• Check continuity, names, spellings, subtitles, pronunciation and audio levels.
• Review the intended phone, desktop or presentation playback experience.
• Confirm the approved usage terms and permission records are included.
• Record acceptance against the brief, with any remaining fixes stated precisely.