Requirements of Working to a Client Brief

Different Types of Briefs

There are all different types of briefs these include a contract brief, negation brief, formal/informal brief, cooperative brief and competition brief.

About each brief

Contact Brief

A contact brief is where a media company is employed by the client in order to complete a project within the brief which is set to a specific guidelines that the company needs to follow. To negotiate the brief with the client and the company they must meet and talk about how the client wants the brief to be accomplished and how the company wants to give their ideas about how this can be accomplished. The planning to this brief is that you need to make sure that you are working to what the client wants. The importance of the budgeting for this type of brief is that you have to think about how you will pay the company and also to pay for anywhere that you would like to film and get the permission that you need to shoot somewhere.

Advantages/ Disadvantages

Advantages

• There is a guarantee of the agreed restrictions for both employer and employee.
• They can also benefit the production company as it means that they fully understand what the client requires.

Disadvantages

• If a company has problems within the brief and they produce the product to their own standards this would not be producing the project.
• The client could decide to take legal action and this could result in the company having a bad reputation for not completing the projects to a set brief.

Negotiation Brief

A negotiation brief is a brief that a media company may have a disagreement or a possible issue within a brief that they have been given and then they need to negotiate it with the client on how they can work their way around it while staying to the guidelines of the brief. You can spot that it's a negotiation brief by the way that the units and the assignment are written and the schedule, aims and objectives, target audience and the brief outline and resources. To plan this type of brief you need to think about the introduction of the project.  To negotiate a negotiation brief you need to talk to the company and the client to resolve any of the problems about the brief and how to overcome them. The importance of working with the client and delivering the product on time and within budget is important because you want to complete something to when the client wants it so that you can show the client that you can do it in a specific time scale so that the client will trust you and have you again if they need someone to film something else.

Advantages/Disadvantages

Advantages

• Once a brief is agreed a negotiated brief can give a very detailed plan of what is required as well as helping the producer.
• There is less conflict between parties as all agreements are discovered before hand.

Disadvantages

• Negotiating the brief can sometimes waste too much time.
• People may agree on one aspect of the brief but not the other and this means that even takes longer to discover the schedules.

Formal/Informal Brief

Formal Brief

An informal brief is not documented and is usually of the verbal kind. It is where the client and the company (which they have employed) simply discuss the requirements for the product they will be making and agree upon the project. To negotiate the brief the client and the company will meet and in the discussion then you can discuss the brief with them and how you will complete the project but if you haven't added things into the negotiation but place them in the final edit of the product then you might not get paid by the client. The client will already have the criteria that they want sent to the production team of what they want. They will also discuss in greater detail that is documented of how each goal will be set out and met.

Advantages/Disadvantages of a formal brief

Advantages

• The client is open to any ideas or issues
• Work can become more creative

Disadvantages

• Media company may feel that the client has not offered enough information for them to complete a project.
• The brief is not always legally binding could bring up project with things such as financial issues or a breech of contract.

Informal Brief

Advantages/Disadvantages of a informal brief

Advantages

• Verbal communication between the client and the company which the company can complete the project to the client's standards easily.
• The meetings are short resulting in more production time and less time agreeing to a brief, ideas can be changed whilst mid-production which gives the production company more creative freedom to experiment new techniques and make the production more interesting for the company.

Disadvantages

• The fact of no written documentation or contract to prove the employment of the company could mean that at the end of the project the client could easily fail to pay their employees.
• Could mean things like deadlines are not completely clear and this can cause confusion for both parties.

Cooperative Brief

A cooperative brief is a brief where a two or more companies are hired by a client to work to a brief they have written for a specific project their wanting to complete the brief. If they find a flaw in the brief then they will negotiate it with the client and the other company on how to resolve the issue. The planning to make sure that the requirements for the brief are specified are to the  companies and the client to negotiate about how they are going to work together and how they are going to complete the brief and they could this either by giving out jobs to a specific person so that they can focus just only on what they are great at doing. The importance of working with the client and delivering the product on time and within the budget is important but not as important as if only one company was working on a production because they have more people onto the production so they have a wider crew so they could finish the production quicker then if it was a singular company.
Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Can get more ideas and professional opinions.
• Discussing gives the company and the client a better understanding of the product that is going to be created.

Disadvantages

• Greater chance of disagreements
• The money is split between two companies which means each production company receives less pay that if they work alone.

Competition Brief

A competition brief is when a client pitches the same brief to different production companies and each company will complete the brief of how they want the project to look like and then the client can see all the end results and then judge which they think is the best and then can have that specific project that they like published. The planning to make sure that all the requirements are in the same and the way that the client wants to show the final cut and also another planning that the client knows who is being involved and also how they are going to see what stage each production company are up to. The importance of working with the client and delivering the product on time within the budget is important because the way that a company has to stick to a specific budget and make sure that the company are using the same budget as the other companies so that one company doesn't go higher then the other to make theirs better so that way they would have had a higher chance then what another company have.

Advantages/ Disadvantages

Advantages

• The client only has to pay the one winning production company
• There is a larger choice of products and can choose the one they believe will be more successful 

Disadvantages

• The companies that are turned down by the client may become disheartened as they have missed out on potential money and work.
• Only one producer is paid out of all the people who submit their proposals.

Sources

Creative Media Briefs- Blogger
Media Briefs- Word Press