Introduction: The following report will explain what a brief is and the requirements of working to a brief in the video production industry.
There are a number of different types of briefs in the industry. These can vary greatly from competition briefs open to the public to commissioning briefs for large TV channels.
Contractual: Contract briefs are between a client and the employees, it states the assignments and responsibilities that are required and how the company works. If any of the employees break an agreement they would have to face legal actions. For example when a client is ready to sell a product on the television as an advert, the employee would produce and create the advertisement along with the production crew.
There are a variety of advantages for a contractual brief in order to help both client and production company for example, there are agreed parameters in a contractual brief which guarantees that both parties can get through the agreed contract with no disagreements or consequences. It is also beneficial as the company can be fully aware of what needs to be done which is because the contract will be in detail and understandable. However, there are also some disadvantages to contractual brief which are mainly based on the production company. For example, it can be too commanding for the company because it does not accept a room just for freedom as it can cause the company to be an unresponsive aspect for the clients.
Negotiated: Negotiated briefs include two parties that have different ideas and arrangements should be found in order to make both sides happy which can sometimes engage and involve a third party. An example of a negotiated brief is a marketing company that has a variety of different ideas that include both pros and cons. They can put their ideas together which leads to a result where both parties agree on.
An advantage of a negotiated brief is once everyone has come to an agreement, it can produce an extremely detailed plan of what is recommended and also by helping both the producer and client both understand the production costs. There will be less clash between the two parties as everyone has discussed and settled on the agreements before-hand. On the other hand, there are also some disadvantages for a negotiated brief. Sometimes, it can take a lot of time discussing which can reduce the amount of time taken to produce the finished product. Also, it can cause issues as the parties may only agree on certain ideas however do not reach an actual agreement altogether which will be a waste of time schedules and there will be no contracts found.
Formal: A formal brief is when there is a brief given to a production company by a client, the two parties would have already agreed on the content of the brief beforehand and only includes what is only needed within the production.
There are multiple advantages for formal briefs for example, this brief is one of the easier contracts to understand and read than other briefs, this is because of the fact that it is all written in a formal style in order for both production companies and clients to be fully aware of what is required. Moreover, it can be easily discussed and to engage about with a large group which foreshadows that the contract is suitable for a large group of clients or production teams. However, there are also some disadvantages to this brief. This type of brief does not always cover legal issues which can have a risk for the two parties. Another drawback is that you cannot be able to change the contract once it has been agreed on, therefore the company cannot make any improvements or changes once it has been signed.
Informal: An informal brief is the opposite of a formal brief. It is one that is agreed on throughout the conversations between clients and companies, so there would be no proof of the agreement. Between the two parties to have their agreements, an informal brief is based on trust.
This type of brief has a variety of advantages, one of them is that due to it not having any written contracts, if any of the parties cannot meet the end of the brief there will be no consequences or issues which helps the production company as the client has no evidence of the agreement. Also, meetings are short which means that there is more time for production and less time to be agreeing to a brief. However there are also some drawbacks to this type of brief, one is that there is no contract used in an informal brief therefore no written evidence of what is needed or what is given by a client for payment and budgets which means the company can be cheated of payment.
Commission: This brief is where a company can employ any independent media company to be able to produce the product for them, once that is done the larger company uses the product for a client who will pay the independent media company for producing the product. This brief is only discussed between the two media companies.
There are some advantages for example, the larger company do not need to do all of the hard work, they can authorise the work that is required in the brief to any other company and they will each earn money for the work they have done contributing to the product. A disadvantage is that this type of brief may have two different companies that are working on the same product so there could be clashes, however the brief is not discussed with the client which may not be to their values.
Co-operative: This is when you share your brief with someone else, this is useful as it helps give more ideas to produce a higher quality end product. It requires two companies coming together to meet the client and discussing what they think should be done.
On one hand, there are some advantages for example, both client and companies can have a better knowledge of the product that will be created as it allows ideas and opinions to be mentioned. It is also not as expensive to produce the product for the individual companies as the companies can share the production. On the other hand, the fact that it is two different production companies working may lead to disagreements which takes up time spent attempting to discuss the production process.
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