Working to a brief

Structure of briefs

Contractual

A contractual brief is a legal document which is created between the employee and the client. It describes the things that will be required by the company and how the company organises their work. The brief is clear and easy to read with strict guidelines and parameters set by the client, if the brief was not easy to read then the company could get confused in what the client is looking for. An example of a contractual brief would be actor with a company as the actor would be legally bound to do whatever they agreed to do on the contract. There can be good and bad points with contractual briefs, an advantage to this type of brief is that there is a guarantee of the agreed parameters for both parties of the contract, this ensures that neither of the parties can breach this without legal consequences. But a disadvantage is that once the brief is done you can not go back and change things.

Negotiated

A negotiated brief is where the client and the employee will come to specific agreements upon the project itself, they will trade ideas until they come up with a final idea for the project. It is important that the employee and the client make a decision and agree on the brief as it can cause problems in the long run if someone doesn't agree with something. The advantages of a negotiated brief is that it brings both parties ideas together which will make a stronger relationship between the client and the company, this will also make the client more comfortable so that they can openly talk about what they want in their project. The disadvantage with this however is that they may come to disagreements whilst making the brief, this may result in the employer loosing work if they don't finally agree with something.

Formal

A formal brief is a very detailed document that explains exactly what the client wants so that the company can clearly see the brief without any confusion. The brief is very open and only gives enough information to be able to produce the product, any issues or or information that the media company would like to go over can be discussed during the negotiations with the client. The advantages of a formal brief is that they are very easy to read which helps the client understand the different aspects of the brief. Another advantage is that the contract can not be changed which means you don't have to look at any other ideas but the ones on the brief, this is helpful as it means you have to do more research than you need to and there are no distractions. Even though the fact you can not change the brief is sometimes a good thing it can also be a disadvantage as if there was something that you wanted to change then you wouldn't be able to as the brief is non negotiable, this can lead to a fall out between the employer and the client.


Informal

A informal brief is very similar to a negotiated brief in the way that they include a discussion between the employer and the client, its set out like a meeting so that they can cover most things that they need to discuss. An informal brief doesn't include and contract or documents, but the brief has to appeal to the company before they actually go through with it. When they discuss the brief it means that there are no strings attached and can be changed anytime, the finishing date for the project can be set at any point as well which makes things a lot easier. The advantages of an informal brief is that there are no strings attached so if you change your mind about something all you have to do is discuss it with the employer and if they agree then you can go a head with the idea. A normal meeting would consist of rules and regulations that you have to follow, and going through all this can be time consuming. As with a informal brief it can be quick and easy. There are quite a few disadvantages with using this brief, the more serious one if the fact that it can be really unreliable. Because nothing is written in a contract, the company could go against what the client wants as it is not legally binded.

Commission

A commission brief is when a company hires a separate independent media company to create a product for them coming, finding there own research, proposals and ideas for the product which is then looked at by the commissioner. The advantages that come from this is that the independent company gets paid for doing there bit as well as having a chance to get a share in profits that the media company make. The company also profit from this as seen as though they have a independent company making the project, this gives the company a chance to sort out other projects they have on the go. This can be a downside at the same time as the company doesn't get such an active role in the decision making, so they could end up with something very different from what they had in mind originally. Also because you have so many people working for you on this project, you wont get much of a profit as most of it is going to investors and share holders.

Tender

A tender brief is basically were you advertise and publish a advert showing that they need a product to be made. Production company's will pitch or send in their brief and adaptations to what the client is wanting the try. They show things like the estimated cost and how the product may be produced. It is then left to the client to decide on who they want to go with. The good thing about using this type of brief is that the client has access to quite a few different ideas that have been submitted by people, so you have a lot of work with. The downside is only really for the companies as when they submit their ideas, they are not guaranteed a job.

Cooperative

A cooperative brief is when two or more companies are hired by the same client to work on the same brief. Once both the companies have received the brief they can work on the project together to come up with a final product. If there is any dispute between either of the companies then they can make a negotiable brief. Having this brief means there can be more ideas going into it and other people might see mistakes that others don't, so its always handy having more than one eye on a project at a time. Unfortunately this brief can lead to arguments between either of the companies as each one of them will want to put their ideas down first.

Competition

A competition brief is as simple as it sounds, companies take part in completing the brief that is set and the company with the best finished product wins. The chosen project is then published by the company. This is very similar to a tender brief in the way it is advertised and certain companies have to fight for the job, but with a tender brief you only have to sell your ideas to them, whereas with this you have to actually make the project. The advantages of this is that you get to see the finished products and choose the one you think is best, all you have to do is give the company the prize which is usually money, this can work out cheaper than any other way. The downside again is for the people actually making the projects as loads of people could participate but in the end only one company is going to win, so that leaves everyone else with worthless projects.

Reading a brief

It is very important that you read through the brief, as if you are doing a project and don't read the brief, you are most likely going to do the whole thing wrong and not to the clients liking. Doing this could result in you not getting paid for the work you have done. The nature of the brief basically explains what they want in their product, but is not demanded to be done. Briefs don't have to straight up say what they want in their product, they can talk about things that would be nice or the problems they face with existing projects, on which you would look at the faults and make them better in the new project. Furthermore, the demand of the product is things that the company want you to include for example if a client wants you to interview workers then that is a highly prioritized over other things that weren't demanded.

Negotiating a brief

It is highly important to discuss things with your client before you start your production, this gives the employer the chance to ask question about the brief in regards to the project. By adding discretion to your work, you will be able to complete the work to the best of your ability without any pressures from the client who will want to know how the project is coming along constantly, which may distract the employer from finishing the project on time. Sometimes the client will ask for something that you may not agree with and don't think you should include it into the project, if you think that what they have asked for is morally wrong then you don't have to do it. You can loose work because of this though, or they will allow you not to include it so they don't get a bad reputation. When making a project the employer and client will go through any ethical issues in the brief and check for any legal problems for example if something is copyrighted then it can not be used in the final product. Sometimes you will have to make amendments to the final product so that the client is happy, once the product is finished you can send it to the client and get some feedback if they have anything they want to change. Although its best to put a limit on how many times you can re send it as sometimes people only give one problem with it at a time so you end up having to send it back loads. Amendments to the budget can also happen if you need to go slightly over budget for something. If you run out of money for the project you can ask for funding off of an investor if he likes the idea of the project, this can help but a certain part of the shares will have to go to the investor once published. Sometimes it might be best to change the conditions, as if you have a project on the go you don't want the client to dictate everything that happens as you might have some better ideas than the client does.

Opportunities

Self development is very important when completing a project as it enables them to be more confident when it comes to future projects. It is often that you will get a brief were there is stuff included that you have never done before, doing this will give you new skills and achievements in which you did not have beforehand. The finished product will resemble the new skills that you learned and will advertise that you can work in that area. As well as learning new skills, briefs will sometimes ask for quite a few things that use a lot of different skills, so once you build up a lot of skills then work will become much easier, and quality will become much better. In a brief the client will be mentioning lots of their own views and opinions, they will expect you to voice your own opinions as well, rather than letting them dictate everything that happens as you have more of a professional mind set than the client.