Unit 5 P1 Understanding The Requirements Of Working To A Brief

.
Structure of briefs: A brief is something that is used when wanting to explain something in a short summary. Often a brief
requires an individual or group of people (usually companies) and a client (them being an individual or a company). A brief
could be explained in many different forms. The first is:
- Contractual: A brief can very well be summed up in just a contract. The brief in the contract may be known as the
small print. Often the small print is skipped and people do not pay to attention to what their signing up for until
they start to work. The downfall with this form of brief is that it is non-negotiable, theres no altering the benefits
and flaws that dont appeal to you. For example, a personal experience of mine is when I applied for the VANS
shoe store, the contract insinuated that 10 hours and its non-negotiable. By this, they meant I wasnt allowed to
work any extra shifts on the account that the contract strictly forbids that. This form of publication is most
common in employment; its the most efficient and very self-explanatory. Its easier to document something like
this in the case that a client does something in breach of said brief; the contract written in ink can be referred to
when necessary.

How this applied to me Contractual : For my own work in which I had to make my own film, I was given a brief,
which was laid out in the sense of being a contract but not quite. Our client wouldve been our target audience
which was teens 16-18. This means there were a number of codes and conventions we had to follow in the brief.
We were also given contracts to sign when we had to borrow equipment such as cameras and tripod stands.

How I Will Use This: I will use a contract possibly by getting my interviewees to sign an agreement form to allow
me to record them and use what they say in a way I see fitting. This will be useful in the case that they dont like
what they see as the final product. I can then go back however and refer to the contract which will have me in
the legal rights to use their footage in the way I wanted to and I also had their own consent. I may also need to
sign a contract myself when using/borrowing equipment from my supplier.

- Formal: Well, if reading isnt your thing then you can always refer to a meeting. This is known as a formal brief.
This is where a meeting would take place with the client to outline all the requirements needed from them. The
advantage to having a formal brief such as this is maybe if you are a smooth talker you could possibly bend the
rules by negotiating perhaps longer hours, or your skills or pay. These kind of briefs can often take a while to do
as appose to contractual which is basically sign your name on the dotted line.

How this applied to me Formal: When I had uncertainties I decide to sit down with my client and have a formal
meeting discussing some of the things that were in the brief. This was quite constructive, we was able to get any
misunderstandings out of the way and I was also able to inform her of my ideas as well so that we may able to
work around it. As I said it does take a while, much longer than a contractual contract but its worth it when
wanting to get the fine print adjusted.


- Negotiated: A brief that is negotiated is a brief that can be seen as flexible, for example a flexible contract. So
this goes back to the formal brief, if youre in a meeting as I mentioned before you discuss pay and maybe hours
etc. You work collaboratively with them in order to discuss the aims and objectives of the brief and the
requirements of them. Sometimes negotiations dont always go to plan in the eye of the client, for example, they
may want more pay, but unfortunately due to recent inflations, the company in question may not be able to
provide the client with the desired pay he/she seeks, things like these are seen as flaws, but you see this is where
client and the company in question, come to an understanding. Although they may not be allowed to give the
desired pay they may suggest to the client that they can extend the hours which would result in them getting the
pay they desire.

How this applied to me - Negotiated: When I had to borrow the cameras I had to negotiate how long I could
borrow them for and why. I did this whilst making my short film. For example, where I was allowed to borrow it
for a day I had to discuss an alternate way for me to borrow it for more than that and I was given the weekend
seeing as that would be the only time I would be allowed access to the cameras for more than one day.

Unit 5 P1 Understanding The Requirements Of Working To A Brief

- Informal: Everything has an opposite, black > White; Good > Evil; Hot > Cold and then theres formal and
informal. Informal is the evil twin of formal. This technique of a brief is done by the client calling and discussing
their requirements needed over the phone. This is seen as informal as it is an informal way to talk to the
company in question. Its quite a relaxed style of forming a brief, this would require the person whos listening to
the person whos setting the requirements to make a list on paper or perhaps type it up themselves as appose to
it being well documented.

- Tender: A Tender brief is a brief that is sent to several companies by post or email and you are invited to respond
with your ideas, for them to be considered in competition against the ideas from other suppliers.

Reading the brief: When youre reading a brief there are things you have to be aware of and take notice of.
- Recognise the nature of the client and their demands as implied in the brief: This means that when looking at
the brief, it is vital that you are aware of what the client specifically requests of you. For example if the client
requests your skills in a certain field it is important you are aware of which part of your skills they would demand
from you most. You may be an artist and your client may request your skills and you could think it would be
something to do with designing something when realistically they just need a storyboard artist and they
recognize that you are capable of providing such skills towards their company.
- Breaking down the content of the brief and outlining for yourself what exactly the client requires of you:
Whilst reading a brief its a good idea to maybe get a highlighter and highlight the key words within the brief so
you know the key factors of what your client is asking of you. For example when I go through briefs I highlight the
specific parts which I would realise are they keys I either 1.) Need to refer back to or 2.) Are the specific demands
in my task? I find this method to be extremely helpful and time saving when I need to refer back to that brief.
- Keep Referring back to the brief should you need clarification: Should you ever forget the brief or any key points
within it, you should definitely refer back to the brief for reassurance. For example, if my teacher sets me a brief
and Im unaware of what to do after a while, instead of constantly consulting him/her I would often just refer
back to the brief and read it slowly and carefully till I gain an understanding of what I must do.
- Some requirements may not be spell out explicitly: In some cases you will find some briefs will not exactly say
each specific requirement, sometimes the supplier tends to think that you as the client will use your initiative and
know the basic requirements at the very least. Sometimes, things are laid out in a brief in a way that isnt obvious
but its expected of you. They may ask of you to be punctual but that clearly means get there on time every single
day not try the best you can if youre a bit late, thats fine dont worry about it (sarcasm). By them asking of you
to be punctual theyre implying that you should never be late.
Negotiate the brief: There are a series of ways to negotiate a brief. For example, one might find themselves in-need of
discussing small details such as finance. You may need a bigger budget than the one already given so you may discuss what
& why you need it for. Keep in mind that the supplier can dismiss your negotiation if they dont see your reasons as fitting
as you do. Negotiations can be seen as an insult if not approached correctly. If I, a client, simply demanded more of
something because I think that you provided to little of something, the supplier could often feel insulted (especially if thats
all they have to offer) so keep in mind how to approach a supplier when negotiating something within the clause of a brief.
Negotiations can take part at any point, so whats expected of both parties is a willingness to adapt when required. It is
important that his negotiation is discussed before starting any work, so that the client doesnt receive anything in the
product they werent expecting. Relating again to money you may want to discuss your back up in case of any unexpected
eventualities. Sometimes you may also need to discuss the conditions and fees. There may be an outline of when and how
you get paid for your services; this may be something you want to discuss with your client. IT IS HIGHLY ESSENTIAL, that
you make sure you get these conditions and fees (changed or not) in writing before you start working.
How the client and me negotiated the brief: When I was negotiating the brief with my client we went over the key factors
of the brief. The first thing we did was analysing the brief together so that we wouldnt have any misunderstandings with
one another. The first question I had with the brief was about the format. My client assured me that I had the freedom to
pick whichever format I thought would attract my target audience more. So we discussed a couple ideas and came to the
conclusion that I would do the investigative format. I also wanted to know the limitations of the product, for example, in
terms of language, is explicit content not acceptable or are there certain images that cannot be in the production such as
Unit 5 P1 Understanding The Requirements Of Working To A Brief
scenes of nudity. The client explained to me that in terms of language, explicit content would not be acceptable so that
allowed me to inform my interviewee that swearing or cussing of any sort would not be acceptable. Also, when I was
preparing my montage for my interview I had to keep in mind any provocative images or scenes of nudity would be
disallowed in my product. I also had questions about the length of the questions. Due to the attention span of teens
(quite short) I asked my client should there be a substantial time (5-10 minutes)? My client said that there are no
limitations on the length of the product but should I exceed the length of time I thought would be appropriate I had to
make sure the interview would be very interesting and the editing should be structured in a way that theres always
something happening besides the interview such as the V.Ts or images so that the audience doesnt get tired of seeing the
same thing over and over again. I also had to do some research on the teens who tend to excessively drink. I wanted to
know what kind of research would be essential for my interview. I was quite confused on this because research can be so
broad. The client informed me of the research they wanted for my interview, they wanted me to get statistics of gender,
age, area etc. So following this, my client also informed me it must be based on the target audience to which I asked, who
is our target audience. I was then told my target audience would be 16-18 year olds. My research must be based on this
age and my product must also appeal to them.
Before I start my product however, my client wanted to know where my head was, at all times. This required me to create
pre-production documentations such as recces, Health and safety regulations in terms of locations, shoot scripts etc. This
too was included In the brief and my client also informed how she would like the documentation to be presented,
My Role: My job-roles with my client STOP.co.uk vary to a number of different tasks and key roles.
- Storyboard Artists: As a storyboard artist my role here is to make an outline of what each scene should look like
and which camera angles would be preferably used. This is an important job role especially when it comes to
planning, because it gives the camera man and director a sense of what each scene should look and feel like. A
storyboard artist should be able to draw out a scene very quickly at any moment. I have already taken liberty to
design my designated storyboard for my client. I have made it so it gives the authentic feel of hard news in the
sense of camera angles, methods and locations (using actual hard news programmes as a template such as BBC
NEWS).
- Interviewer: Being an interviewer comes with a lot of responsibility. The main thing I would have to focus on, is
getting the right questions for my interviewees. A lot of considerations would have to be considered when doing
this, for example; No leading questions. A leading question is more or less the interviewer putting words in the
interviewees mouth when they havent even said anything about the topic as yet or when they want to add some
flare to the interview in an ignorant way. Body language allows my interviewee to determine whether Im
serious, relaxed or if I just dont give a flying monkey. All these considerations are just some examples of what
has to go into a well thought out interview. I also have to be confident in my field and make sure that the
interviewee is very comfortable also.
- Cameraman: A camera man must follow a series of instructions and orders from both the director and must
follow the ideal camera angles and shots from the storyboard. Its almost scene as a visual brief for the
cameraman. In this role I must be very precise with my shots and must be able to execute them efficiently and
accurately.
- In order of priority for myself I would say that being a storyboard artist is more demanding as I am the only
storyboard artist in my team, my other two roles, are shared between my team members and myself and I can
be more focused on the design and preparation part of my product. Thats not to dismiss the importance of my
other job roles, I feel secondly would come being an interviewer because theres a lot more responsibility and
pressure and then I would say that the cameraman would be thirdly as important to me. They all have their
own different priorities meaning that their importance can be just as important as one another in their own
sector.