# AI History Documentary Brief Template

> A production-ready brief for a sourced, narration-led history documentary with realistic reconstruction and an explicit publication review.

Canonical: https://onira.studio/templates/history-documentary-brief
Audience: History, civilization, and cultural-heritage YouTube creators
Production job: History documentary
Runtime: 1-3 minutes for a pilot; longer targets up to the workspace plan limit
Format: 16:9 landscape

## Use this brief

Produce a [target runtime] documentary about [subject] for [audience]. The central question is [question]. Use only the supplied sources for factual claims, distinguish confirmed fact from interpretation, and treat generated scenes as reconstruction rather than archive. Build toward [turning point], then explain the documented consequence and why it matters now.

## Required inputs

- A one-sentence central question and intended viewer
- Three to eight reliable sources, including at least one primary or institutional source where available
- Dates, names, places, pronunciations, and disputed points that require exact review
- A visual boundary describing what may be reconstructed and what must not be invented

## Editorial structure

1. Open on the documented consequence before returning to the historical setting.
2. Establish place, period, people, incentives, and the central pressure without an exposition dump.
3. Advance through three evidence-backed developments, each with a distinct visual and narrative purpose.
4. Resolve the turning point while labeling uncertainty and avoiding invented quotes or private thoughts.
5. End with the documented legacy, limits of the evidence, and a clean bridge to the channel's next film.

## Acceptance checks

- Trace every date, number, quote, and contested claim to a supplied source.
- Check period clothing, architecture, tools, geography, insignia, and material culture.
- Confirm that realistic generated scenes are not described or edited as authentic archive footage.
- Watch the final export for continuity, captions, pronunciation, music balance, and disclosure needs.

## Visual direction

Naturalistic period reconstruction with readable geography, material detail, restrained camera movement, and no invented documents or on-screen text presented as evidence.

## Narration direction

Precise, sober, and curious. Prefer causal explanation over breathless superlatives or false certainty.

## Product boundary

- Onira delivers a final MP4; it does not upload or schedule posts on YouTube or social platforms.
- Onira provides a reviewable production workflow; creators remain responsible for approving the story, facts, rights, disclosure, and final publication.
- Director chat is limited to regenerating one selected PREVIEW timeline video clip; other available Studio controls are separate direct actions.
- Creators must review facts, sources, rights, realistic-synthetic-media disclosure, and platform policy before publishing.
- Onira does not guarantee YouTube monetization, reach, factual accuracy, or legal clearance.