Working to a Brief LO1

Baya Lee SafhillStephanie Yarrow

Contractual BriefA contractual brief is where the media company signs an agreement tocomplete a certain task within a certain amount of time for a certain amount ofmoney. This type of brief is between the clients and employees. Contractualbrief explains how much the employee will receive from doing this certain task,it also includes areas which the employee has to agree with before signing it. An advantage of this type of contract is that a piece of work is guaranteedbetween a client and a media producer, meaning that a producer knows what toproduce, when to produce it and how much they will be paid for a piece ofwork.A disadvantage of a contract brief is if the media company or the client do notstick to what they arranged. This could result in a breach of contract and couldmean either side faces legal action. It is very important that both parties readany contacts very carefully before signing, to ensure that a party does not agreeto anything that they don’t want to or are unable to do.

Formal BriefA formal brief occurs when the client provides a media company with a brief thatsimply establishes the product they want to be made. A formal written documentcontaining detailed and exact details about the task that needs to be completed.

Thistype of brief is pointed at a group of people or a business rather than individuals.

The brief only contains the necessary information needed to complete theproject. Any additional information will need to be gained during negotiations withthe client.

Like the Contractual brief the parties involved will formally agree on the projecthowever a Formal brief is not always legally binding. A formal brief is not always alegal document.

Informal BriefAn informal brief is a verbal agreement between two or more parties. It has nocontract or written documentation involved in process.

An advantage of this is that a media producer can complete the work in their owntime and as a result not rush the work. It also means that a media producer canthink about the brief and adjust any ideas that they need to. There is no realcompletion date as a result the media producer and the client can agree anddisagree about the project openly, until both parties are happy.

However informal briefs have their disadvantages as there is no contract betweenthe two parties. This could mean that the media producer could produce work thatis unpaid for by the client. It also means that their could be arguments about whatthe project should contain as there is no structured and agreed brief to be referredto.

Co-Operative BriefA co-operative brief occurs when two or more companies are hired to work on abrief for a specific project. However if there is an issue between both parties thena negotiated brief would have to be submitted to appease both parties, so thatproject could be completed on time and to the required standard.An advantage of this is that both parties work towards a brief together and as longas both parties discuss the project in detail and share the work load, the projectwould be good to work on.A disadvantage of this is that a disagreement could mean in the project beingdelayed, or that one party could have to work harder and longer than the otherparty.In our project, for the Vegetarian Society, we will be working co-operatively andsharing the work load, creating our own recipe cards to find the request that theVegetarian Society has created.

Negotiated BriefA negotiated brief occurs when two or more media companies are working togethertowards completing a brief. However, they have conflicting issues and ideasregarding a project, and these issues and ideas need to be negotiated. As a result thebrief is often changed to please all the parties involved in order to allow the projectcan continue; this could be achieved in changing the visual style, the content, ormaking sure that the product is legally and ethically sound.The advantages of a negotiated brief is that all parties have an input into the finalproduct and this prevents conflicts between the parties involved because everyonehas had an input and knows what everyone else wants from the project.A disadvantage of a negotiated brief is that a more powerful parties such as a clientmight make demands that the others in the group cannot achieve.Our project will be negotiated as both of us will have to discuss ideas, style andcontent in order to complete the Vegetarian Society’s brief, and we could both beseen as individual media producers.

Commission BriefA commission brief occurs when a media company hires an independent and usuallysmaller media company to create a product for them. The brief is negotiatedbetween the two media companies and the final product might be used by the largermedia company for an external client, with the independent media company beingpaid either in a lump sum with the possibility of earning part of the products profiteach time that is sold, broadcasted or published.The advantage of a commission brief is that the client can hire a company that theyfeel can meet the brief in a suitable way; either through costs, style, or ideas.The disadvantage of a commission brief is that the smaller company might not keepthe copyrights to their own work, or have a say in how the larger company, theclient, uses their work.

Tender BriefA tender brief occurs when a client publishes that they need a project to be made fora production company to create a brief, proposal and budget to pitch to the client forthe chance to work with the client on the project. As a result to the vacancy for theproject to happen, several production companies may submit their work to theclient. However the client then has to decide which proposal is the best to use andwhich production company to hire for the job vacancy.The advantage of a tender brief is that a company can receive ideas from a range ofdifferent production companies, and that production companies can pitch forprojects that they would like to work on.The disadvantage of a tender brief is that a production company will need toproduce work that might incur costs, especially travelling to client site, to pitch anidea that might not be successful. A production company will also need to researchthe company, their style, their ideas and read and understand their brief.The brief that we will be working to will be of a tender brief nature and this is becausethe Vegetarian Society has advertised for a new set of recipe cards to be produced fortheir use.

Competition BriefA competition brief is a brief that is made available to all participating productioncompanies, with each company completing the brief. The client then judges all thecompleted projects with the best project being published. Competition briefs areoften used as ‘free to enter’ competitions with the client only having to pay thewinning company for the rights of their project.A competition brief will state an introduction to the project and the company, as wellas rules, conditions, key people such as assessors and eligibility of who can enter thecompetition, the date the competition ends and maybe even the prize such as thefee or contract length and budget might be stated.The advantage of a competition brief is the company can assess a range of work bydifferent production companies, and that only the best will cost the company.The disadvantage of a competition brief is that the production companies have tocomplete a piece of work that the client brief states, and this is time consuming,without a guarantee of being successful.

Our BriefOur project is a tender brief, which could be seen as a negotiated brief as well as a cooperative brief. In our project, for the Vegetarian Society, we will be working cooperatively and sharing the work load, creating our own recipe cards to find the requestthat the Vegetarian Society has created. We will also have to negotiate about the work,our style, our ideas, content, and any concerns, as both of us will be sharing the workloads towards the tender brief. It is a tender brief because the Vegetarian Society has senttheir brief to a large number of media producers. We could be seen to be individualmedia producers working towards the Vegetarian Society’s brief to produce a new set ofrecipe cards for Vegetarians and Vegans. Our brief could also be considered informalbecause we can complete it within our own time, within ten weeks, and we can spreadthe work between both of us and our time within this timeframe, and around ourcommitments. Informal contracts have no contract, and we in a way do not have tocomplete the work for the Vegetarian Society because it is an open proposal. However itcould be considered a formal brief because the brief from the Vegetarian Society onlycontains the necessary information, and we not need to negotiate with the VegetarianSociety to complete this project. However we can negotiate with the client, which is ourTutor on this project, about ideas and anything that we will need to include. The brief isalso not legally binding.

Reading the BriefThe Vegetarian Society’s brief states that they would like a new set of recipe cards,eight in total, that are interesting and creative in design with a clear house style. Thecards should have a theme such an ingredient, country or theme. The VegetarianSociety’s house style is an image on the front, accompanied with the title of therecipe and their branding strip along the bottom of the card which contains theirlogo. On the back of the card is the ingredients, method and any actions such asvisiting websites for more information, recipes or videos. The Vegetarian Society hasa preference towards recycled paper (350gsm paper, FSC approved), vegetable inksand biodegradable laminate.

Reading the brief is important because it could contain legal and ethical issueswhich would need to be assessed before the project could continue. Reading thebrief would also mean that the producers will understand the nature and demand of theproject. The nature of a project is what the client has asked of the producer and what thefinal product is expected to be and contain. The demands of a project are how the projectshould be completed and cover things such as time constraints, personnel and manpower, and budgeting.

Negotiating a BriefNegotiating a brief with a client is important because it is the media producers chance todiscuss any concerns and ideas that they have with a project, with the client. It is also achance for a producer to add any new ideas, and their own personal style onto theproject, and this known as ‘green lighting’.Negotiating a brief will also give the chance for a producer to raise any legal, ethicalor regulatory issues that might arise as a result of completing the clients brief, whichthe client may not be aware of.It will also mean that the producer can clarify anything that is unclear in the brief.If a media producer does not raise any concerns with understanding the client’s brief thenthe work may not match the brief, and as a result the producer may not be paid, as thework will be unsuitable.We cannot discuss the brief with the Vegetarian Society themselves, but if we had anyconcerns with the project or with understanding the project, we could submit unsuitablework. In order to make sure we produce suitable work, we will be able to talk to our tutorwho will inform us whether our ideas and work is suitable for submission.

Negotiating a Brief

Discretion is an aspect of reading a brief that means that a producer can allow for theirown interpretation of the brief. The information supplied by the client in the brief canoften be vague so using discretion allows the producer to try and make the briefinteresting. It allows for the producer to try new things, and add their own personality tothe brief. However a producer will need to make sure that their discretion does notcompromise or conflict with what the client has brief for.In our project, we will be creating recipe cards for the Vegetarian Society. We can use ourdiscretion in style, ideas, and recipes. However we need to make sure that we do not usemeat products on the cards, and if we are creating Vegan recipes, we will need to makesure that they comply to Vegan standards and do not contain any animal products.

Negotiating a BriefHowever after the nature and demand, as well as the constraints, of the brief have beenidentified, then the brief will need to be amended by both parties. The product, thebudget and the conditions could all be affected by amendments.The product may need to be amended because the final proposed product may needchanging. This could happen because the project was too ambitions, in time scale or size,or that the product may break a law or regulation such as the copyright infringement act.The budget may be amended and this is because the project has been underestimated,and as a result the budget will either have to be increased, or the project may have to bedownsized in order to meet a clients budget requirements.The conditions of a project may be amended because a client may decide that the mediaproducer is being paid too much or too little for the briefed work. However if the changeis not made before the contract is signed, then it may be difficult for the media producerto try and be paid extra money. This would be difficult if the project over runs because itwas underestimated, or if the project was under resourced – both of these would cost themedia producer money, which they might not be able to claim back.

Negotiating a BriefWhen negotiating a brief, a producer and the client, will need to make sure that there areno legal and ethic issues within the brief, as well as any regulatory issues.When we are creating our product, we need to make sure that the brief contains no legaland Ethical issues. Legal and Ethical issues can include copy right, privacy laws and racediscrimination acts for example.We will also have to consider any regulatory issues that the brief may cause. Regulatorybodies, such as contacting unions, ASA and Governmental issues, state what can andcannot be included within a product.In our project we will check the ASA’s Code of Advertising Practice for any regulationswhich we will need to clear before we can submit our work. The Codes of Practice thatwe will need to follow are Codes 01 (Compliance), 05 (Children), 11 (EnvironmentalClaims) and 15 (Food, Food Supplements, Associated Health and Nutritional Claims).

OpportunitiesWhat opportunities could this brief allow you to explore? Self Development

Learning new skills

Multi-skilling

Contributing to a brief