Working to a brief

A new BLOG and different working briefs.

In this blog I am going to formally talk about working to a brief and how to professionally work towards a client brief. A brief is what you receive from a client instructing you that a client would like you to create something for them. There are different types of briefs in media industries and I am going to talk about the benefits and the downsides of each type of brief, how you would work within that type of brief, what opportunities you would gain, and examples of these briefs. Firstly I am going to go over how to read a brief initially and then I am going to talk about the different types of briefs.  When first receiving a brief to respond to a brief you would first look at the pre-production and planning needed to complete the brief. This would include initial planning like mood boards and mind maps to produce ideas and Gantt charts to get an idea of a timeframe for completing the brief. Each brief is different to the next however we can still use the same techniques to complete these briefs because they follow the same codes and conventions. For example for a filming brief we can produce ideas for a film by using mood boards and mind maps backed up with recce’s. Following this we would get all production requirements for completing the brief before moving any further into production. Here are the different types of brief’s that can be received by a client.

Here is a list of different briefs:

Contractual:

A contractual brief is given from a client in a professional manner to you and contracts you for a period of time to create what the brief asks. A Contractual brief is employment. Usually you will have a meeting to discuss the agreements of a contract and this will certify what the client asks of you in the brief, and what you can deliver. When you’re given this type of brief when working within its requirements you will be expected to work very professionally and to a deadline, whilst meeting deadlines and at least trying to go over the expectations of the client. To respond to this type of brief you would telephone the client for a meeting. The opportunities you would gain from this type of contract are a good reputation and most likely more employment.

Here is an example of a contractual brief:

http://www.silcom.com/~tomjolly/contract.htm

Formal:

A formal brief is given to you by a client again in a professional manner and you will have a meeting were the client will show you what they will need from you, and discuss the agreements of the brief. To respond to this type of brief you would telephone the client or E-mail them asking for a meeting. When you’re given a formal brief you are expected to work professionally and to deadlines, whilst making sure the client is happy with what you’re providing. The opportunities you would gain from this type of employment would be the opportunity to move onto a contractual employment and also you would gain a good reputation.

Here is an example of a formal brief:

 A client from Huntsman pigments approached the college with the request that a short training video be made of new employees to watch as part of an induction. We had to specifically follow what the client asked and we provided for them sufficiently.

Negotiated:

A negotiated brief is where the terms, aims, and objectives of the brief can be discussed and agreed on between you and the client themselves. You may also be asked to help develop the brief with the client. To respond to this type of brief you would telephone the client or E-mail them asking for a meeting, however a meeting may not be necessary. When you receive a negotiated brief you would be expected to work with the client and help them develop their ideas with your input. You would also be expected to meet the deadlines that they ask for but again that can be negotiated too. The opportunities you would gain from working in this type of brief would be a good reputation and the likelihood of increased work to be given.

Here is an example of a negotiated brief:

As a project we were given the task to create an induction video for new students to St.Peter’s catholic school. The video could be anything that the school prospectus included and we negotiated between the school with the ideas we suggested to them.

Informal:

An informal brief is where you are given a brief from a client via e-mail or telephone, and can be discussed with the client using this method. You will normally be contacted in this way if a client isn’t sure about the brief. To respond to this type of brief you would telephone the client or E-mail them asking for a meeting, however a meeting may not be necessary. In this type of brief it is good to work professionally and meet deadlines however as this is informal it is not expected from the client or yourself for any reason. The opportunities you could gain from working with this type of brief are gaining a good reputation, and gaining more opportunities to work formally and move onto employment.

Here is an example of an informal brief:

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From: T.Metcalfe@mbro.ac.uk
To: danielclementcharlton@hotmail.co.uk; timofq@hotmail.com; a.angell0675@googlemail.com
CC: A.Chiswell@mbro.ac.uk; filmutopia@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 13:15:29 +0000
Subject: Pants to Poverty filming

Hello Dan, Adam and Tim,

Many thanks again for your excellent work last week during the filming… you were professional, focused and most of all effective with the footage you captured…I’m hoping to come along to see you in action on Wednesday with the editing!

Re. the other project – Pants to Poverty… If you are still happy to help it would be appreciated enormously as the two teams are in a tight situation to each get a YouTube video completed. Each video needs to be 3-5 minutes in length and each team is planning to do the following:

1. Dance video shot in VPA studio – it’s a very simple dance which will take 5 minutes to choreograph. It will be based on the ‘Thrift shop’ song with the dancers wearing the merchandise…The plan is that the team will then move in front of the dancers to explain their business/sales plan.

2. Harlem Shake – in Reception, basically capturing the huge dance in 2 parts…the first part with the dancer on his/her own…the second part with many, many people all wearing pants over their clothes…

My concern with the 2^nd part is that they need to advertise it so Thursday will probably be a better time for them – how would Thursday lunchtime/afternoon work for you three?
This team are then planning to do a very brief introduction to camera and a sequence with voiceover.

So in summary, we’d ideally capture 1 team video tomorrow lunchtime and the other team video on Thursday. Let me know how this sounds and thank you so much for offering to help!

Kind Regards,

Tom

Projects Coordinator

Quality Department

Tender:

A tender is a brief that is sent by a company or business to you and other people via e-mail or telephone asking you to give ideas for a set brief. Following this, the company or business will select someone to fulfil the decided brief from the people that have originally asked, however a meeting may not be necessary. To respond to this type of brief you would have to send an E-mail to the client and then produce what the brief outlines even though the client may not want to accept or pay for your work. The way you should go about working to this brief is to provide work to show to the client so that they may hopefully employ you. The opportunities you would gain from this would be that you could go onto employment and gain recognition.

Here is an example of a tender:

http://www.iamcreative.org.uk/briefs