Understanding and Interpreting A Brief
There are a multiple number of briefs which require a certain amount of skills and dedication to complete to a good standard.Working to a brief can be for a companies website or for a companies textbook or magazine.There are different types of briefs and all of them have their own advantages along with disadvantages.
Contractual Brief: A contractual brief is when a client hires a media company to do specific work within the brief to specific guidelines and to be done at a certain deadline.The media company must follow the guidelines of the brief.If the company fails to follow the brief they could face legal action,therefore it is important for the company to follow the brief and to work according to the clients requests.A contractual brief has its advantages and disadvantages.A contractual brief will allow the company to work according the the clients requests making the project very specific and detailed going into specifics that will not be negotiated.An example of this would a film project with a company being given a brief to follow by a client.The company will have to make their work private and to work specifically according to the clients brief and this will have to be done to set deadline without fail.An example of a film where this could happen is the film "Everest" where the mountain will have to be made by a company but will have to be made specifically and according to the brief given by the client without any added things unapproved by the client and with it to be made at a high standard in a certain amount of time.This will also have to be done with information such as programs used to create the sculpture or information about the sculpture being protected and being private and out of the reach of people not involved in the companies project.
However a disadvantage of this type of brief is that the company working on the project may have different views on the brief given by the client and may end up working according to the standard they feel necessary which may result in the company not finishing the project given to them by the client on time,resulting in the company possibly being faced with legal action and with the company being given a bad reputation for failing to meet deadlines.An example of this could be if working on a film such as "Harry Potter" there are many things that need extra attention and detailed work on,however the company may not agree with the clients brief and may do things according to what they believe is a reasonable standard and therefore their project may not meet the deadline that is given to them by the client or the project will not be at the standard that the brief requires and therefore will cause a negative response from the client.This means that in order for contractual briefs to be successful for companies,they must know whether they are capable of completing the clients brief to a good standard and sufficiently to a certain deadline without fail.
Cooperative Brief: A cooperative brief is given when two companies who are competing on a project disagree between themselves and would like the client to clear it up.Therefore during negotiations the companies can discuss the issues that they are concerned with and can get those issues changed so that the project suits each party.This could be from the appearance of the project or to changed the content of the project,and this can be done along with keeping to the guidelines of the brief given to each company by the client.An example of where a cooperative brief may possibly be needed is where in a superhero film such as "Avengers",companies disagree on the way certain hero's appearances are and would like to discuss things they do not like and if the client approves of this they can get this changed so its suits each company that is involved whilst still keeping to the guidelines of the brief,making the work on the project better for each company whilst making the clients brief still achieved.Possibly things such as the characters costumes or lives may not be appealing to each company and they may request to the client to negotiate a way around that along with making any other companies involved happy with the negotiations.If the client grants the request of each company,a change of the project can be done whilst still following the guidelines of the brief,making the end goal reasonably the same as when the brief was initially given to them,making the project still successful.
This is good because that means that each company can open up about new ideas which may improve the initial idea given by the client without stepping out of the guidelines.This means that ideas can be given from multiple perspectives and that many suggestions can be made which will benefit the project and each company all together,making for a more successful project as a whole.However a problem with this could be that some company may bring up unnecessary issues which will disrupt the making of the project and may address things that will be outside of the guidelines given by the client and therefore may end up causing the company to fail in meeting their deadline as work will be stalled whilst trying to negotiate with the client and other companies resulting in possible legal action from the client and a bad reputation for the company.
Negotiation Brief: A negotiated brief is where the media company gets given a brief by the client which outlines the product and and how they would like it to be made.This brief however is fairly open to negotiations from the media company towards the client.The brief gives enough information for the product to be made according to how the client has asked it to be made.This can be discussed by the company and client and they can formally reach an agreement on the product which will suit both parties.However this is not always legally binding.There are positives to this type of brief however their are also some negatives to this type of brief.Having a negotiated brief means that the client and company can open up about new ideas making for a better product and for the option to negotiate new ideas.
However a problem with this type of negotiation brief is that the media company may not be happy with the amount of information they have been given by the client and may not be able to make the product to the clients demands.Also because it is not always legally binding it could leading to problems such as breach of contract.Also with a negotiation brief the media company may ask to discuss too many things to do with the product and may end up trying to make a product completely different to the clients request.
Formal Brief: A formal brief is when a media company is given a brief by a client and it is outlined specifically in which the client wants the product to be made.This brief is very open and gives enough information to the media company on how the client would like the product to be made with any issues or information that the media company would like to discuss with the client can be formally agreed on.However this is not always legally binding and their could be possible financial issues or breach of contract.An advantage of this type of brief is that the client is open to any ideas from the company and because of this,if the ideas are good this could help improve the product to a better standard which would be good for both the company and for the client.This also makes work for the media company creative as they can change ideas and improve the product.
However the media company may feel that they have not got a lot of information from the client and therefore will not be able to make the product to the standard that the client requires of them.Also a formal brief is not always legally binding and could cause legal problems such as finance or breach of contract.
Informal Brief: This type of brief is not always documented and it is where a client and company simply discuss requirements for a product.With these discussions the client and company will agree on how the product will be made.An advantage of this type of brief is that their will be more verbal discussions between the client and media company and there will be a greater understanding from the media company when talking about projects and this will mean that the company will know exactly what to do and how to help the client make the product they exactly want.This will make discussions more relaxed and will make the client and company be more friendly to one another with using slang or informal written language.However a negative of informal briefs are that their are no written documents to prove employment and that means the client could easily fail to pay the media company for their work.Also this could mean that certain dead lines are not met as their could be confusion for both parties.
Tender Brief: This is where the client will advertise their brief to a media company and the company will then pitch their own proposal back to the client and there could be multiple proposals to the client from many media companies.Because of all the options the client will be able to select a media company that will be best suited to make the product of their brief.An advantage of this type of brief is that the client will have a wide range of ideas to choose from making for a higher stand of product and for a better decision to be made.A disadvantage of this type of brief is that if companies are rejected by the client they will be set back in business and it is not easy to gain work in this day and age.The company may possibly decline other offers from clients and may still be rejected by the client which means that the company will lose business all together.
Competition Brief: This is where the client can put up a brief that can be accessed by all production companies and all of them can participate.It can sometimes been seen as a free competition,as a client will give each company a brief and which company produces the brief would win an award of prize.An advantage of this type of brief is that the client will only have to pay the award winning company and in some cases will not have to pay them at all.Also because their is a wide range of companies involved it will mean more options and a wider choice too choose from.A disadvantage is that companies that are turned down by the client may become disheartened as they will be missing out on potential work and money.
