Working to a Brief LO1

Hayley Brown & Katie Scruton

Contractual Brief

Definition - This is the brief which is discussed and signed with a contract between the client and the company. The company signs a contract agreeing to complete a

project in a certain time period with a specific fee.

Advantages- Advantages of this type of brief is that the Company and the Client both have control over the situation. Without a contracted agreed brief the Client could refuse to pay the company or the company could take too long to complete the specific tasks.

Disadvantages- Disadvantages of this specific brief include things such as the client and company disagreeing on certain agreements of the contract.

Formal BriefDefinition- A formal brief is a type of brief that is more relaxed than the contractual

brief as the client provides the company with a brief that mainly only establishes the type of product they want to be made. The brief also only contains the basic information needed for the project. This type of brief is similar to the contractual brief as both the client and the company will agree on the project however the formal brief is not always legally binding unlike the contractual brief. This is more reliable and professional than informal brief as they meet in a boardroom and have written tasks.

Advantages- This brief is more relaxed for the company and allow the company to also work on other deadlines and projects as there is no completion date. This contract is also a bit more informal than the contractual brief as things can be changed as the project progresses.

Disadvantages- This type of brief can be slightly risky due to not having a contract

involved.

Informal BriefDefinition- This type of brief is only done face to face through a brief meeting. It is a

lot more informal than the formal brief as it is usually agreed in a relaxed place and environment unlike the formal brief that would be usually agreed in a boardroom meeting and have written down tasks.

Advantages- Relaxed for the company, good relationship between the client and the company. No pressure as there is no set deadline.

Disadvantages- As there is no contract , nothing is set in stone . The client could change the amount of pay to a lower amount. This could mean that the producer has missed out on another opportunity which offered more money. Also the only proof that you had the job (for future employers) is the final published work, if it is published.

Co-Operative BriefDefinition- A Co-Operative brief is where more than one production companies are

hired to work on a specific brief, the companies then have to work together in order to complete the given tasks.

Advantages- Advantages of the Co-Operative brief are the fact that they’re is more than one company working on the project. This means that tasks are shared and there will be more idea’s produced. This should make the final piece a quality product.

Disadvantages – Because the brief is shared between two companies, there will be something’s disagreed. If there is a major amount of disagreeing the brief will become a negotiated brief. Also the profit made won’t be as high as a brief that’s not split between two companies.

Negotiated Brief

Definition – When two or more companies come together to work on a brief but have conflicting ideas for the project they will negotiate a brief.

Advantages – An advantage is that the brief will be changed to make all the companies, including the client, content. This could include a visual change, content change, anything as long as it stays within legal or ethical obligation.

Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that both parties will have to compromise for the project to continue.

Commission BriefDefinition – This is when a large media company hires a smaller, independent

company to create the final product for them.

Advantages – An advantage is that the independent company will be paid for making the product AND each time the product is sold/broadcast/published.

Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that the brief is negotiated between two companies rather than an overall client which means there is no set view from the start and the two companies will have to negotiate a brief, eating into their production time.

Tender BriefDefinition – This is when a client publishes that they need a media product to be

made. A production company then goes onto create a brief, along side a proposal and a budget to then pitch it to the client. Many companies may enter a brief to the client to secure the project. The final brief is chosen by the best proposal and then offers the project to that company.

Advantages – An advantage is that you get to see what other companies have to offer before you decide who to spend your money on. Another advantage is that a company might offer a lower price than what the product is worth, making the client better off.

Disadvantages – A disadvantage is that the budget from the best sounding brief and proposal is unrealistically big. Also the final product might not be as visually appealing as the proposal made out to be.

Competition BriefDefinition – This is when a brief is made available to all participating production

companies each of which then completes the brief. All companies involved have their projects judged and the winning company has their product published.

Advantages – An advantage for the client is that they only have to pay the winning company. Another advantage is that they get to see what they have been offered before committing to a company.

Disadvantages – A disadvantage for the companies involved is that if they don’t win they don’t get paid for their time which is then wasted.

My BriefWhich structure/structures will the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief use? Reference your reasons for choice/choices

The Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief structure consists of both a contractual brief and a formal brief.

Contractual because there is a set brief that has been given that has to be done in a set time for a set fee (nothing).

Formal because the brief only contains the necessary information needed to complete the project. Also because the brief is in writing, if it was informal it would just be by word of mouth.

Reading the BriefWhy is important to thoroughly read your brief?

It is important to thoroughly read the brief so that everything is understood and the company making the product knows what they are doing. This avoids the project being totally wrong which could then lead to the company who created the final product being sued.

Reading the brief thoroughly will lead to success in the project. This means your company will be gaining a good reputation, leading to other external clients hiring your company in the future.

Reading the BriefWhat is the nature and demand of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?

The nature of the brief we have been given is vegetarian food.

The demand of the brief is to create recipe cards containing vegetarian recipes with a certain theme running throughout the cards that can be published by the client.

Negotiating a BriefWhy is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production?

It is important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production so that you can clear up any issues that you may have or any uncertainties. Doing this will lead more toward success rather than failure.

Negotiating a BriefWhat are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion with a brief?

Advantages• The producer of the product might come up with an idea for the product that isn’t in the brief

but the client thinks it is a good feature.• It allows for some freedom with the product being made, things like colour scheme, font, layout

etc.• The producer might come up with something worth more money than he’s paid so the client

comes away better off.

Disadvantages• The producer might take their freedom of choice too far and that will waste time if the client

doesn’t like it, causing deadlines to be missed.• The client might not get what they visualised in their head and it might be a worse final product

than wanted.• It might make the producer over paid or under paid, depending on the quality of the final

product.

Negotiating a BriefAre there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the brief’s proposed product?

The only real issues that could be raised with the making of this product would be the models used, if we use any at all, the ethnicity of the model used. Another issue could be the fact that if a meat replacement is used (such as Quorn) that it is positively meat free. However, hopefully, the company we are designing the recipe cards for should be well known and trusted.

Negotiating a BriefAmendments you have considered to;The ProductFor the product we know that it’s a vegetarian recipe card that needs to be made but we thought if we

did it for children we could make the products recipe look like a popular kids food or a meat because that’s what kids like. The recipe cards will be colourful and child friendly so they will appeal to kids if they are shown it by their parents.

The BudgetThe budget will be self financed by our little team but we will probably only have to buy the food to

create the recipes. Then we have sourced equipment to use for free of charge to complete the rest of the tasks.

The ConditionsThe conditions specified in the brief include the paper and ink cartridge types and the fact that they are

recycled. We might not have this type of paper or ink but because it is a prototype of the finished product it doesn’t matter if we print it on different paper because they will be printing the main ones. That’s if we print it but we would more likely be emailing the final products designs.

OpportunitiesWhat opportunities could this brief allow you to explore? Self DevelopmentThe development in ourselves will include developing current skills that we have, creating new skills

and increasing them to a good degree, testing how well we work in teams, testing how well we work in teams and more.

Learning new skillsThe different tasks that we will be taking on will be teaching us some new skills. Even if it doesn’t

teach us that many new skills it has the opportunity to increase skills that we already have.Multi-skillingThe task will require us to take on multiple task. Each task will require a different set of skills. For

example, one task will require writing skills, another will require photography skills etc. Because there is only two of us, we will have to take on these different tasks and using our skills in the different departments to the best of our degree.

Contributing to a briefContributing to the brief will allow us to ask any questions and maybe even suggest some ideas

toward the clients ideas.