2. Contractual Brief
Definition: a media company will sign a contract agreement, agreeing to complete a
task within a specific set of time. If the media company or client however do not
stick to the contract then they will have breached it and so would face legal
action, it is important also to read a contract carefully before signing it so you are
ensuring yourself that you are agreeing to all the terms and nothing you don’t
want to.
Advantages: the advantages to a contractual brief would be that you and the client
are both agreeing to term that you cant go back on.
Disadvantages: there wouldn’t be a lot of disadvantages – you just need to make sure
that you read all the terms and conditions thoroughly before you sign.
3. Formal Brief
Definition: A brief would be provided by the client of the media company and that
brief would say how they want the product to be made. The brief would only
contain necessary information that would be needed to complete the project, and
extra information will be added through on-going negotiations with the client. It is
similar to the contractual brief however this brief is not always legally binding.
Advantages: You can add extra information to the brief through out the project and no
legal action would be taken compared to the contractual brief.
Disadvantages: It is not an official legal contract, so you can change or add points.
4. Informal Brief
Definition: This type of brief is a verbal agreement or a ‘handshake’ in some
cases, and no contract or written agreement will be done so the client and
company will discuss matters before the work starts and as it is informal then they
may not be a set completion date.
Advantages: You can work by your own rules without a contract hanging over you, as
well as there being no deadlines.
Disadvantages: there is no contract so it is quite risky, as you may have problems
being paid, the client may ask you to work extra hours or the client may change
their mind on the product for example.
5. Co-Operative Brief
Definition: This is where two or more production companies are hired and will work
on a certain brief and so the companies then will work together to complete the
project. If they disagree over something then a brief which will have been
negotiated will be submitted and that will please both companies.
Advantages: the advantages would be that they can share out the work.
Disadvantages: that they would have to negotiate terms.
6. Negotiated Brief
Defininition: If two or perhaps more companies are working on the brief together
and their ideas conflict then they would have to negotiate the brief, and so the
brief would have to be changed. – it could involve changing; content, visual
style or just ensuring that the product stays between the boundaries of legal
and ethical obligation.
Advantages: There are two parties involved so they can share out the work
Disadvantages: Conflicted ideas and you would have to negotiate a lot.
7. Commission Brief
Definition: This is where a large media company will hire an independent media
company to produce/create a product for them, the brief would be negotiated
between the two and not the external client. The independent production
company will be paid for producing the product and then also part of the
profit when the product is sold.
Advantages: You wouldn't have to negotiate briefs as it would be done between the
clients.
Disadvantages: The large media company will loose out on most of the profit as most
of it would be going to the independent production company.
8. Tender Brief
– Definition: A client will publish a media product that they want to have made
– they will then create a brief, proposal and a budget then they will pitch it to
the client. Several production companies could enter a brief to the client to try
secure the project. Then the client will decide upon the best proposal and
offer the project to the company that had the best proposal.
Advantages: If there are a lot of media companies you can look through all of the
proposals and choose what you think would be the best one.
Disadvantages:
9. Competition Brief
Definition
This type of brief is made available to all production companies, who then complete the brief and send in their
work. All the completed projects are assessed and judged, and the project that wins gets published.
Advantages
An advantage of this could be that all the projects would be completed to the best standard because that
company would want to be the ones that win. This means that the finished project might be completed
better this way.
Another advantage could be that the company that sent out this brief wont have to pay the losing
companies, and sometimes it might not even have to pay the one that won.
Disadvantages
A disadvantage of this type of brief would be that there isn’t definite money for the production companies.
They would have to put in extra work to compete with other companies and if the lose then they would
lose a lot of money.
10. My Brief
Which structure/structures will the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief use?
Reference your reasons for choice/choices
With this brief we have to put the logo of the company on the cards, set the recipes out a certain way and
produce them on specific cards and use specific laminate. With our brief we will stick to these points and
try to get our cards to look professional as well as creative.
11. Reading the Brief
Why is important to thoroughly read your brief?
It is important to read through the brief thoroughly because then there wont be any issues later on. When
reading the brief the two co-operating companies could disagree one something, so then a compromise
might have to take place. It is also important because the company making the product would have to
understand completely what they are doing, and if they do something wrong then they would have to
either start the whole project again or get fired from the project completely.
12. Reading the Brief
What is the nature and demand of the Vegetarian Recipe Cards brief?
Nature of the brief
This is quite simple, we have to produce recipe cards for vegetarians. These recipes could also be made for
vegans and this has to be clearly stated. The recipe and the layout have to be set out a certain way and we
have to follow these rules.
Demand of the Brief
There isn’t a specific timescale that we have to stick to, but we have to finish our cards within ten weeks. There
are specific rules that we have to follow and not many people are needed to complete this task. The
production team will be around two to four people, and there will be specific equipment needed.
13. Negotiating a Brief
Why is it important to discuss the brief with your client prior to production?
It is important to discuss a brief with the client because then there won’t be any issues that come up after the
project has started. If either the company issuing the brief or the people making the product have any
concerns that they would need to discuss, then they would bring them up in the hope of changing them.
This could be anything from the paper used, the timescale of the project or any ethical issues that need to
be discussed.
14. Negotiating a Brief
What are the advantages and disadvantages of employing discretion with a brief?
An advantage of employing discretion with a brief could be that there is a way for the production staff to put in
their own creative ideas to the product. The company issuing the brief could have made this easy to
do, especially if they have produced a very vague brief that can be interpreted. This would be useful for
the production team that are making the product because then they could show people what they can
do, so they might be able to get more work afterwards with more creative projects. This is useful to the
company who made the brief too because then they could make their finished product and even their
company to look creative.
A disadvantage could be that sometimes the company making the product could be too creative and produce a
product that the company issuing the brief disagree with. If the production staff make the finished product
too creative then that could affect the whole company. Some companies need their products to look
professional, and if they allow discretion with a brief then it could lose its professionalism and they could
lose business.
15. Negotiating a Brief
Are there any potential legal/ethical/regulatory issues with the brief’s proposed product?
A legal issue could be that the recipes are taken from someone else. This would mean that there is a breach of
copy right and this could lead to a legal issues from the people that produced the recipes first. When I
produce these recipe cards I will make sure that there isn’t any recipes that have been made by people
specifically. I will only use basic recipes and I will add in new steps and ingredients to make it more
personalised.
An ethical issue could be that we can’t find many vegetarian recipes and even vegan recipes because we aren’t
vegetarian ourselves. With this there could also be a problem if someone on the team or someone that
has been asked to be on the team doesn’t agree with not eating meat. This could mean that there is a loss
of production team members, and it could be difficult to find others.
16. Negotiating a Brief
Amendments you have considered to;
The Product
Since looking at the brief I have found that there isn’t anything that I would need to change. There is a chance
to be creative while still keeping to their layout.
The Budget
It might be difficult to find the correct laminate and card that they want to use, and it might be quite
expensive.
The Condition
There isn’t any amendments that we would need to consider for the conditions of the brief either.
17. Opportunities
What opportunities could this brief allow you to explore?
Self Development
There is a chance to be creative and try out different ideas with brief, and if we could keep copies of the finished product then we
could use them later on.
Learning new skills
With this brief we get to learn how to lay out a recipe and how to produce our own recipe cards. We could also learn how to
produce good looking photographs.
Multi-skilling
This brief will help us learn how to make our own cards, how to write up recipes and how to stick to a brief.
Contributing to a brief
We will learn how to negotiate a brief and the best way to stick to a brief.
