Working to a brief

Contractual Brief
Definition
Contractual briefs are a contract where a media company will be employed by said
client to work on a project within the briefs guidelines which said company must
follow. Exactly what the client wants will be stated in the brief and guidelines are
put in place to ensure the company follows to the letter, if they fail to do so this
can result in a breech of contract which then can lead to further legal issues.
Advantages
Contractual briefs are good for the media company that agrees to them as they will
know exactly what the project will consist of and due to the help of the brief their
instructions should be clear and easy to follow, ensuring as little as possible
confusion between the two sides.
Disadvantages
As the client has the power to set guidelines that the company being hired must
follow this can put caps on the level of creativity the company can produce in their
product as they must follow what client wants unless legal action will be taken.

Formal Brief
Definition
A formal brief is given to a media company by the client that outlines the product that
they wish the company to make. This brief is open and gives only information
needed to produce said product, any issues or questions that the company would
like to go over can be discussed during the formal brief, both companies may
formally agree on the project in this stage however this doesn’t mean it is legally
binding.
Advantages
This type of brief allows both company and client to be open with each other with
ideas and issues, allowing the company room to negotiate terms and guidelines to
ensure the best product is made for the client.
Disadvantages
For this type of brief one of the disadvantages can be the lack of information given to
the company being hired, if not enough information is given to the company in this
stage then the project can be unclear to them which can result in declined offers.

Informal Brief
Definition
The informal brief is often not documented and is usually conducted verbally only.
This is when the client and said company that is being hired will meet to discuss
the requirements for the product they will be making.
Advantages
This type of brief allows the two sides to verbally begin to discuss the project that is
going to unfold, allowing the client to begin the initial planning of their product
and expressing the views of what they want to the company and clearly as
possible.
Disadvantages
The project will be discussed however contractual terms or formal briefs will be set,
meaning nothing is yet in stone and could possibly change.

Co-Operative Brief
Definition
This is when two production companies or freelancers work together to produce a
brief for a client. After both companies have received the brief they can proceed to
begin production together on the brief, negotiation briefs can be held if any
disagreement or conflict arises between the two.
Advantages
This type of brief helps to put more perspective for the companies on the creation of
the product needed by the client. Also having a co-operative brief allows a wider
range of creativity having two companies involved instead of just one.
Disadvantages
Having two companies working on a project instead of just one means that conflicts
and disagreements are more likely to occur due to the two possibly having
different visions on what the product will be.

Negotiated Brief
Definition
This type of briefs will be withheld if a co-operative brief is given to the two or more
media companies that are involved. This brief is given to allow the two companies
to communicate and initially discuss what they are going to create. Through the
negotiations the brief can then be changed in order to suite each member taking
part in production.
Advantages
This type of brief allows more room for perspective between the two companies
involved, it allows the two to negotiate terms for the client and discuss what is
needed to complete the work. Allowing the two companies to gain a clearer
understanding.
Disadvantages
Negotiating the brief can sometimes be time costly and not always the best way of
spending that time.

Tender Brief
Definition
A client will advertise their brief stating the media product that they want to be made,
the company applying to create their product will then create a proposal and come
up with a budget for the ordeal and will pitch it to the client. This type of brief is
open for other companies to offer their proposal for the client to pick the best.
Advantages
The is good for the client as it means they have options of companies to choose from
deciding what they see to be the best pitch to ensure they come up with the best
product for their company.
Disadvantages
For the media company pitching their proposal to the client this means that there is
more competition and can mean that they don’t get the job, this urges the
companies to create the best possible proposal.

Competition Brief
Definition
competition briefs are open competitions for the public held by a client company,
inviting a diverse range of different groups to take part, sending in their replies to
the brief. Once the competition has ended the client company will decided the
most ideal product to best represent their brand image, a winner is picked and
their product is used and typically a cash reward is won. Channel 4 and their ‘E-
stings are an example of this.
Advantages
This is useful for the client as when the client is open for a range of products and given
ideas by a diverse group range then more imaginative ideas are produced. This
also allows public members to get involved and considered when normal they
might not.
Disadvantages
Creating a competition for the public to create can mean that wouldn’t get the same
professional quality as you would if you employed professional media companies
to produce your product.

My Brief
Which type of brief is being used in the corporate promotional project? Explain your
response.
In the production of my corporate video for the client I have chosen, we are using a
formal brief. We first began by choosing our client, in this case it was Harvey’s dads
tile business, European Ceramics. We composed an email for the manager stating
how we would like to create a corporate promotional video for their company, in
the email we explained that our college had tasked us with the challenge of
choosing a company to create a promotional video for. We then went on to explain
our initial ideas, stating what kind of look we were hoping to go for, including shot
type ideas, angles, sounds and techniques.

Reading the Brief
Why is it important to thoroughly read your brief?
When a client has given you your brief for the project they have hired you for, it is very
important that you thoroughly read through the brief that is given. You must
ensure that everything asked by the client is understood and stated in the brief, if
there is any miscommunication between the two, if the brief is not fully
understood by the company hired then the final product may not be what the
client was looking for, which then in result can lead to legal action being taken by
the client. if the legal contract is breached or what is discussed in the brief has not
been met then the client has the right to take such action. I must ensure that I
read through the entire brief given to me by my client to ensure that I fully
understand the job that I have been tasked and that there will be no
miscommunication and confusion between me and my client on the project that
they wish me to create. To avoid this happening I will take time to understand the
brief given to me, ask that the brief be detailed on exactly what they wish me to
do or at least make it clear to me the ideas that they wish to set in motion and
remain good communication with my client to ensure that the end product I
produce meets the guidelines set in the brief from my client.

Negotiating a Brief
Why is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production?
Discussing the brief with the client before production is important as both parties
should clearly understand the task being decided before attempting the
production of the product. If either one of the parties does not fully understand
what is going to be made/ what is being asked of them then this can lead to the
incorrect product being made, resulting in the client being unhappy with the work
produced which can lead to legal action being taken. It is important that the brief
is fully understood as when the terms are set and an agreement is made then
guidelines and restrictions will be contractually agreed, this means that if the
guidelines are not followed then the client has the legal right to take action if they
believe the contract has been broken. Discussing the brief prior to production
means that a clear and detailed plan will be set in motion and it will allow you and
said client to discussed ideas and gain a more trusting and confident agreement.

Negotiating a Brief
What are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion with a brief?
Employing discretion with a brief and the client is important as it allows you to both
discuss what ideas will work and what will not. If a client is requesting you to
perform something that you can not do then it is important for you to discuss with
them why the task can’t be performed, this is when you can suggest alternate
methods that produce similar results as to what the client is requesting, for
example if a client is adamant they want to use a copyrighted sound track, you as
the producer would have to speak with them and inform them that it is not
possible due to law infringements however alternate soundtracks can be used if
they are not copyrighted or in another case the client depending on who they are
could even pay royalties to said soundtrack to enable them to use it over a video.
Discretion with a brief helps to give more understanding between you and your
client, using your own skills and knowledge to the inform them on what is and isn’t
possible, what will work and what won’t which then helps to give the client a
better understanding of your work process and how it will be conducted.

Negotiating a Brief
Are there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues when negotiating a brief?
There are a number of different potential issues that can occur when negotiating a brief for your client.
Legally there a numerous restriction that can hinder the production process of a promotional video,
for example copyrighted sound is one of the biggest, the copyright law is put in place to stop people
from stealing others work and using at their own. There is also the legal issues of what kind of
content you are allowed to include in a public video, for example content deemed inappropriate
and violent can be banned from airing so it is important to not included content with a high level of
inappropriateness. Filming on sites with permission is also an issues that can hinder the production
process, there are places in which you need permission to film on site, in our case we had gained
permission to film at the company show room so this was not an issue. Ethical problems can also be
a potential issues when creating a promotional video, this can also include the type on content
included in your video, for instance the type of language used, if hateful or intolerant dialogue is
featured in your video then it will create issues with both the public who see it as well as it being
legally and ethically wrong. We did not have any of these issues as we were only creating a
promotional video for a tile company so these type of issues should never arise. Regulatory issues
can included ownership of the product once finished, as a client would pay the producer to create
the product for them then in turn they own the rights to said product, it can be then discussed
between the two what usage the producer can get from the product for example show reel use to
promote the producer for more work. In our case no money was exchanged and it was made clear
before hand that this was going to be made for educational purposes so the client would had to
agree to let us use it for that.

Negotiating a Brief
From the brief you were given were there any limitations? In terms of production, budget or
timings? Please explain.
As we were only creating the promotional video for educational purposes that we would in turn
be graded on, this meant that there were limitations to the level of content we were to
create. As we are only college students this meant that there would be no budget for the
video, we would not be funded by anyone to create this video so that meant we had to plan
around this, knowing what we can and can’t do due to money issues. This meant we would
have to plan around the budget we had, meaning the equipment we would have to hire out
from college would be our only equipment, this limited the production side of our video, it
hindered us from making a promotional video with an outstanding use of techniques with
expensive equipment. We were also limited to how long we had to create our product for the
client, we were given as set time and deadline to have finished our product by so this meant
we would have to be organised with our timings, with full knowledge of what we were going
to do on what days. Given our non apparent budget this meant the production of the video
would have to be of low standards, but the challenge what to make it of high quality would
possible could, we had to make the best of what we had.

Working to a brief

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