Working to a Brief LO1

Name

Contractual BriefDefinitionA contractual brief is where an agreement is decided as a specific task. This task is given

a specific time period for the company to complete it in for a set fee, and this is all agreed in advance.

AdvantagesAdvantages about this is everything is drawn up in writing, so everything is clear and

there should be no confusion. This is also legally binding so if either side breaches the contract then the contract enables the victims to take the other party to court and get justice.

DisadvantagesSome contracts can be long winded and this may put people off reading all of it and

signing it regardless of what is in it. This can mean some companies not being paid and not being able to take legal action because their signature has been signed meaning they have read, understood and agreed to the contract.

Formal BriefDefinitionA client produces and gives a media company a brief that tells the company exactly what the client

wants from the company and what they want them to do. The brief contains all the essential information for the company to produce the product how the client wants it. Other negotiations and additional information is notified and agreed by the client and company later on.

AdvantagesThere is more flexibility and room for changes when a formal brief has been drawn up. There is

also more input from the company, with their experience they can put their own experience into practice by giving ideas to the client that they can decline or accept. Everything is formally agreed so there is no confusion.

DisadvantagesThe main disadvantage with this formal brief is that it may not always be legally binding and clients

may be able to get away with tricking the company so the company doesn’t end up getting paid and there is nothing the company can do because the law wasn’t involved and nothing was signed.

Informal BriefDefinitionThis is a verbal agreement between a client and company, nothing is written down and

no documents are signed. The client and company discuss and agree on the project and the tasks in hand, but there may not be a deadline or a completion date.

AdvantagesIt is more flexible, the company may be able to choose the way they want to run the

project and what goes on and what becomes of the end product.

DisadvantagesThere is no written formal agreement, so there may be misunderstandings that haven’t

been cleared or by either party so the end product may come out incorrect according to the client. It is also not legally binding and there is no evidence a case couldn’t be taken to court and the client could get away with not paying the company etc.

Co-Operative BriefDefinitionThis is where 2 or more companies are hired to work together on one specific brief.

They have to come together and work everything out collectively to complete the brief.

AdvantagesThere are more people working on it so there will be more ideas and more

perspectives on the project, there will also be more people so the project may be completed faster.

DisadvantagesThe two companies may have very different visions and ideas on how the project

should be run and how it should turn out, and if the company can’t agree then an appease has to be submitted to each company. This can be time consuming and delays the project being completed.

Negotiated BriefDefinitionThis is where two or more media companies are working on a project but there are

conflicting ideas and they don’t agree of the end result. So the negotiation would happen to the brief and the end result would be changed in order to appease the client and the companies working on the brief. The changes that could happen involve visual style, changing content, or changing the product so that it stays within the boundaries of legal obligation.

AdvantagesThis ensures that all parties in the project are happy with what they have to do and what

they are involved in. This means the product will turn out more accurate.

DisadvantagesBoth parties actually have to agree and be happy with the changes and negotiations

before the project can continue. It may take time for parties to decide so there may be delay in the project.

Commission BriefDefinitionThis is where a large company hires a smaller, independent to create a specific part of

the product for them. The brief is negotiated with the two different companies rather than the client being involved. The product made by the smaller company is then used in the final product. The larger company pay the smaller company as necessary and potentially they are also a part of the final profit that the larger company makes.

AdvantagesSmaller businesses get profit and funding for bigger projects, which keeps people in

jobs.

DisadvantagesLarger companies could under pay and take advantage of smaller companies that may

not have a lot of experience.

Tender BriefDefinitionThis is where a client publishes what they need in a media product and what they need

to be made. Lots of production companies enter a brief to the client to try and secure the project the client has given out.

AdvantagesThis is good for the client, meaning they get a lot of opportunity to be able to view all of

the talent and different companies, looking at their skills and styles, being able to compare different companies.

DisadvantagesIf the client is not very well known, if the client didn’t advertise enough or just people

didn’t see the advertisement. This means that there is no guarantee of a company taking up this project. Also the client may have no experience with a certain company so they don’t know whether the company produces quality work or the exact outcome they want.

Competition BriefDefinitionA brief is put out to companies to participate in like a competition, then each company

completes the brief and then each finished product is judged by the client and the one the client likes the best is awarded to have that product published. These briefs are usually free to enter competitions, and the client have to pay the winning company.

AdvantagesThe advantages of this is that there will be quite a lot of different companies competing

and sending in their product so their will be a lot of different variety and differences in styles that will range across each companies product.

DisadvantagesThe disadvantages of this is that the companies may not enter the competition

especially if there is an entry fee and difficult requirements to meet, or if the companies don’t think the prize money is worth all the effort.

My BriefWhich type of brief is being used in the recipe card project? Explain your response.

The type of brief we have been given for this project is a Formal brief. A Formal brief means that the brief is written for the client including basic information about what they would like done, though unlike a Contractual brief nothing is signed and there is much more discussion between client and producer about what they would like. I think that the brief for this project is Formal as nothing has been signed, though a rough idea about what the client would like has been written down.

Reading the BriefWhy is important to thoroughly read your brief?

It is important to thoroughly read the brief to make sure that you are capable of completing the project asked of you, and in the time scale required. By reading it thoroughly and checking the brief for aspects that you may struggle with you can then either negotiate with the client to come to a more suitable agreement, or back out of doing the project all together to avoid wasting money on completing the project when the client may not be completely happy with it and will not pay for it. If the brief is competition brief, or tender brief then reading the brief thoroughly making sure that you are doing exactly what the client has asked, to give you the best chance at beating the competition and getting your services paid for.

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

The clients brief says that we should use their branding strip that contains their logo some where on our cards. On the front we also need to include an image and the title. We need to use recycled, stiff paper and vegetable inks. Make sure that the cards are laminated as well, preferably with biodegradable laminate. All recipes must be vegetarian, some should be vegan. The brief also says that on the card you must include serving number, preparation time, cooking time and vegan suitability.

What is the demand of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?

The brief demands that we have 9 weeks to complete the project.

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

It is important to discuss the brief with the client prior to starting the project to check with them that you have understood the brief correctly. It may cost the company a lot to complete the project and find out it was wrong all along. It is also important to raise any concerns you may have about time or anything else, to see if the client can make any adjustments for you. It is also important to get more detail on the brief if it is contractual or formal. By talking face to face with the client they are able to go into more detail on the things asked in the brief so you can have a clearer understanding of what they would like.

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

Discretion means to do something slightly different from what the brief says, such as using a different type of paper or using a different layout to what they wanted.

An advantage of this is that you may be able to cut corners to make the project cheaper for the company. It also allows you some creative freedom, enabling you to add your own creative stamp onto the product. Though a major disadvantage is that the client may no longer want to use your product, and then the company doesn’t get paid at all.

Negotiating a BriefAre there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the Vegetarian Society brief’s

proposed product?

As all their products aim to be animal and environmentally friendly there are no ethical cases. The card to print on must be 100% recycled, the ink must be vegetable ink and all the food must be vegetarian and vegan. One slight issue is with laminating. They said they would prefer the laminate to be biodegradable though it is expensive so that may not be possible.

I cannot see any legal or regulatory issues coming up with this project however. When using there logo I will have the clients full permission so that I no copyright issues will come up.

Negotiating a BriefAmendments you have considered to;The ProductFor the finished product I think I will stick to all of the requirements given in the brief. The brief

allows us a lot of creative freedom and I do not feel like changing any of the requirements on the product written in the brief would benefit me or the product in any way.

The BudgetIn the brief it suggests that the price of biodegradable laminate is very high, so it would be useful

if we could find an alternative or a solution to it to save money.

The ConditionsThe main condition is that we get the product finished within a 9 week time scale. I would not

conceder changing that because I think that 9 weeks is very reasonable, and enough time to get it finished.

OpportunitiesWhat opportunities could this brief allow you to explore? Be specific with your responses. Thisbrief is quite different to others you have come across and offers lots of new experiences. Checkthe unit overview to help you with this. Self DevelopmentI will learn much more about team work and communication skills from working on this project.

Learning new skillsI will learn how to use software on the computer that I have never used before. I may learn some more about

cooking if I decide to cook the food myself to take pictures of it.

Multi-skillingIn previous project we have only focused on one area such as photography or graphic design. During this

project we will look at all kinds of areas, including cooking, photography, graphic design and writing.

Contributing to a briefI will have the opportunity to contribute my ideas to the project as well as working with the clients needs. This

projects allows me some creative freedom. I may also be able to choose or negotiate the recipes used for the cards.