Wavemaker’s planner reads your brief the way a director reads one: it honors your explicit choices and fills the gaps with craft. Knowing what is honored verbatim helps you get exactly what you want.
Things Wavemaker honors exactly
Your script. Paste voiceover or dialogue in quotes and it is used word-for-word — never paraphrased, never trimmed. The video is even sized to fit your copy: a fully-scripted ad gets the runtime the words need.
Narrator says: “Every great morning starts the night before. Cold brew, done right.”
Wordless videos. Say “no narration”, “wordless”, or “no voice-over” and no narrator is added — the piece carries on visuals, ambient sound, and music.
How people look. Describe your on-screen subject (“a tall redhead in her 30s”) and that description binds the casting in every scene.
Real people. Name a public figure and Wavemaker finds a real reference photo and keeps their likeness consistent across scenes.
Brand pronunciation. Unusual brand names are pronounced correctly in spoken dialogue — the planner detects them and locks the pronunciation.
Format and length. Explicit aspect ratio and duration are always respected; broadcast durations are frame-exact.
Music direction. Ask for a specific musical feel (“a Macarena-style Latin party track”) and the score is written to it rather than a generic bed.
Structure of a strong brief
A useful mental template:
- What it is — “a 30-second TV ad”, “a vertical TikTok explainer”, “a product launch teaser”.
- Who/what it’s about — the brand, product, or story. Include your website URL if you have one: Wavemaker researches it and grounds the video in real facts, your real logo, and real product photos (see Brand videos from a URL).
- The feeling — tone, pace, visual style: “warm and handmade”, “fast-cut and loud”, “shot like an A24 trailer”.
- Must-haves — exact copy in quotes, a specific closing CTA, a scene you can picture, the platform it runs on.
What to leave out
You don’t need shot lists, camera jargon, or scene-by-scene timing — the storyboard stage handles cinematography (and you can review it before production). Over-specifying every shot usually reads worse than giving a clear intent and letting the planner design coverage.
Grounding rules worth knowing
- URL prompts are never embellished. If your prompt has a URL, the brief is not expanded by AI — the facts come from your actual site, so nothing is invented about your business.
- Prices are never invented. An on-screen price appears only if it exists in your source material.
- Ad closes carry your identity. An ad always ends with your brand name, site, and (when found on your site) real contact info on the closing card.
Quick examples
| Goal | Prompt |
|---|---|
| Brand ad | ”A 30-second cinematic TV ad for https://fieldbar.com — premium, outdoorsy. End on the logo with ‘Built for the field.’” |
| Scripted spot | ”A :15 spot. VO, exactly: ‘Softer than it has any right to be. The new CloudKnit hoodie.’ Cozy morning-light visuals.” |
| Social explainer | ”A 45-second vertical explainer on how espresso crema forms, playful tone, word-synced captions, no on-screen presenter.” |
| Story | ”A wordless 60-second short: a paper boat’s journey down a rainy street gutter, whimsical, orchestral score.” |