Working to a brief

Structure of a brief
There are multiple different structures to a brief that make them vary from one another. One of the structures is contractual. A contractual brief is a legal brief. This means that all the guidelines given in the brief must be followed by law. The client will write up this brief and make the employee sign it which then means they have to legally create what the employer has asked for. This is an effective structure of a brief as you will definitely get something out of it. The employee must give you what you want otherwise you can fine them. The employee also has some benefits as the client must give to the employee what they have stated they would, for example a designated time frame, otherwise the employee can sue the client. 

Another structure of brief is a negotiated brief. In a negotiated brief, the employee will try and work with the client to alter the brief. This may be because the employee feels the brief could be improved or would like to add something to it. Whilst the brief is negotiated, the guidelines generally stay the same. It is often just the actual task that is negotiated.

Formal and informal are other structures of briefs. A formal brief is a more professional brief. This is usually a document which clearly outlines the guidelines of the task making it easy for the employee to figure out what they have to do. Formal briefs are usually given to companies that are doing business with the client. An informal brief has less effort put in to it. A lot of the time this won't even be a document and can instead just be spoken instructions. An informal document will often be used for individuals. By using an informal brief there is a more personal connection between client and employee and can be good for keeping a healthy relationship and keep pressure off the employee however this can lead to a final result that is not a professional standard.

A commission brief is different to other types of briefs. A commission brief is where a media company that is given a brief from a client will then hire a smaller media company or an individual to complete the brief for them.The bigger company are just passing on the brief. This can be useful for a big media company as they don't have to focus on the hard work that comes with the brief. There is a risk for them because they are trusting the smaller company to create something good enough for there client. The bigger company would still get the blame if the client wasn't satisfied. The independent company can make a lot of money from a commission brief as they can possibly get money every time the larger company uses or sells the product.

One more structure of a brief is a tender brief. A tender brief is when the client publishes their brief to the public. Production companies or individuals will then either create the product from the brief or pitch an idea to the client of what they want to create, depending on the clients needs. This can be good for the client as they can have plenty of product options to choose from and they can pick the one best suited to their brief. It is not as beneficial for the employee as they might spend a lot of time and possibly money creating their production for it not to be picked by the client. It can be a risk for an employee to take a tender brief.

Reading a brief
Briefs must be read thoroughly. It is important that a brief is fully understood otherwise you are likely to miss some important information that is vital to creating your product. On many briefs there are the same features. Every brief should give you the task at hand and will often have a time frame in which it should be done. This is one feature of a brief that is important to take note of. If you are not aware of how long you have to complete the task then you might miss your deadline. If the brief is contractual then you can get in to legal trouble for not handing in the work when it is needed.

A brief I have previously been given was titled 'Me, Myself and I'. This brief asked me to create a short film about myself. I had to read this brief thoroughly to understand what was asked of me. One of the statements given was 'Celebrate you'. After reading over all of the statements including this one, I realised that I could create a short film on something that represents me rather than a film documenting me. This meant I was able to create a much more effective and interesting film.

Negotiating the brief 
On many occasions, the employee will want to negotiate the brief with the client. There are many reasons why someone might want to do this. The employee may want more control over the product. Often the client will tell the employee exactly what they want in the brief and give the employee little opportunity to be creative with it. An employee might want to negotiate with the client so they can change the brief slightly and do more what they feel will create a more effective outcome.

There are legal and ethical constraints that must be considered before accepting a brief. If the employee feels that the brief is breaching some laws then it should be discussed with the client. If the employee took on and completed the brief then they could face legal action. An example is if the brief required you to steal someone else's footage then you would more than likely be sued by the original owner. Ethical constraints are different to legal as you cannot have legal action taken against you for bad ethics. If the brief stated that you couldn't use women in your final piece then you could go along with it without worrying about being fined however you are likely to upset a lot of women who would find it sexist. It is up to the employee to negotiate with the client about changing this or risk going along with it.

The employee or client may want to negotiate about amendments that can be made to the product. The employee might show the end product to the client and if there is still time then the client might want the employee to tweak the product. This can happen if the client is unhappy with it or feels there is something that wasn't as they expected. The employee could also negotiate about making amendments to the final product if they have strictly followed the brief and feel they could change the idea slightly. An employee might often request to amend the budget also. This is often the case if they feel the client has not offered them enough to make the product from. It is important to take in to consideration everything that has to be paid for to make this product at work out an average cost. Asking for more money is not the easiest thing to persuade the client to do so there has to be a reasonable explanation behind it with evidence. You need to be able to show the actual cost and compare it with the original budget. On the topic of money, a fee can be negotiated with the client. An employee might choose to negotiate their final payment if they feel it is insufficient. Based on the time frame and size of the task could all effect how much money you should get paid. If the brief states that you have a year to create an excellent product then you will want quite a lot of money as you need to put a lot of money in to creating the product and also you will have to turn down other work in the time that you are creating this product so you don't want to be losing out on money.

Opportunities
Working to a brief can give the employee a lot of new skills. It enhances their time management skills. After completing brief work you can find how long it takes to manage each section of production and you can apply your management technique to future work. You also gain experience by working with a client. You can develop skills by negotiating with your client and learning how to deal with different personalities in different areas of media. With this skill you can have more successful client meetings in other projects as you know how to handle different situations with different people.

Completing someone else's brief is a good opportunity to develop your work experience. Someone else's project looks good on a show reel or CV of some sort. This is because it shows that you can successfully complete tasks given to you. It also shows that you can move out of your comfort zone and create work that isn't yours but someone else's. This shows that you can complete almost any task given to you which is appealing for someone looking for someone else to take on their brief.