Guide to Working in the Creative Media Sector - 001

Different Briefs You May be Presented With

Contractual Brief - Involves a signed agreement with stated objectives. If you or the other party were to break any agreements you would be in breech of contract and could face legal action.

Negotiated - Two parties have differing ideas and a compromise has to be found that makes both sides happy, sometimes involving a third party (An arbitrator).

Informal - More of a verbal agreement between parties with nothing official or in writing, less formal so to speak.

 

Tender - The production company might find out someone is looking for a video. They put together a brief with a proposal and a budget and send it to the potential client. The client would look at all the different tenders they receive and choose the one they prefer.

Co-operative brief - You work alongside other production companies or organisations who also have a brief therefore your brief has to co-operate with the brief they are working on as well.

Respnding To The Brief

Contractual Brief - When giving a contractual brief, you need to make sure you have read and comlpetely understand the content of the brief before signing. If there are some constraints that aren't realistic, check for negotiable elements that could be changed in order to suit you. If you don't read and fully understand the brief and then proceed to sign it, you are then expected to fulfill the terms of the brief. If any terms of the brief are breeched then legal action could be taken by the client against you and you could end up in court. It is important to liase with you client to provide them the confidence that you will deliver and perform to the standards they have requested. Liasing with the client will allow you to express any concerns, aswell as informing them of what has happened. You will probably be asked to liase with the client on more than on occasion. It is important to plan the work before getting started with the creation, this allows you to fully understand what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. This also gives you time to negotiate any changes or ideas you have had whilst the planning has began. It is vital that the actual production of the work is completed by the set deadline. If it isn't, you have broken the terms of the contract and your client will not be impressed. If, prior to the signing of the contract, you don't believe possible to have created or finished you set task by the deadline, it should have been bought up with your client then.