This brief provides opportunities for self-development and learning new skills. As we will be working cooperatively and negotiating aspects of the brief, it allows us to develop collaboration skills. Producing recipe cards provides an opportunity to learn and practice visual design skills. The brief also offers a chance to multi-skill, drawing on both visual design and written communication abilities. Completing the brief will be contributing work to a real client, the Vegetarian Society, giving experience fulfilling an external commission. Overall, this brief presents opportunities to grow skills that are valuable for media production careers.

1. Working to a Brief
LO1
Baya Lee Safhill
Stephanie Yarrow

2. Contractual Brief
A contractual brief is where the media company signs an agreement to
complete a certain task within a certain amount of time for a certain amount of
money. This type of brief is between the clients and employees. Contractual
brief explains how much the employee will receive from doing this certain task,
it also includes areas which the employee has to agree with before signing it.
An advantage of this type of contract is that a piece of work is guaranteed
between a client and a media producer, meaning that a producer knows what to
produce, when to produce it and how much they will be paid for a piece of
work.
A disadvantage of a contract brief is if the media company or the client do not
stick to what they arranged. This could result in a breach of contract and could
mean either side faces legal action. It is very important that both parties read
any contacts very carefully before signing, to ensure that a party does not agree
to anything that they don’t want to or are unable to do.

3. Formal Brief
A formal brief occurs when the client provides a media company with a brief that
simply establishes the product they want to be made. A formal written document
containing detailed and exact details about the task that needs to be completed. This
type of brief is pointed at a group of people or a business rather than individuals.
The brief only contains the necessary information needed to complete the
project. Any additional information will need to be gained during negotiations with
the client.
Like the Contractual brief the parties involved will formally agree on the project
however a Formal brief is not always legally binding. A formal brief is not always a
legal document.

4. Informal Brief
An informal brief is a verbal agreement between two or more parties. It has no
contract or written documentation involved in process.
An advantage of this is that a media producercancomplete the workintheir own
time and as a result not rushthe work. It also means that a media producer can
think aboutthe briefandadjust any ideas that they need to. There is no real
completion dateas a result the media producer and the clientcan agree and
disagree about the project openly, until both parties are happy.
However informal briefs have their disadvantages as there is no contract between
the two parties. This could mean that the media producer could produce work that
is unpaid for by the client. It also means that their could be arguments about what
the project should contain as there is no structured and agreed brief to be referred
to.

5. Co-Operative Brief
A co-operative brief occurs when two or more companies are hired to work on a
brief for a specific project. However if there is an issue between both parties then
a negotiated brief would have to be submitted to appease both parties, so that
project could be completed on time and to the required standard.
An advantage of this is that both parties work towards a brief together and as long
as both parties discuss the project in detail and share the work load, the project
would be good to work on.
A disadvantage of this is that a disagreement could mean in the project being
delayed, or that one party could have to work harder and longer than the other
party.
In our project, for the Vegetarian Society, we will be working co-operatively and
sharing the work load, creating our own recipe cards to find the request that the
Vegetarian Society has created.

6. Negotiated Brief
A negotiated brief occurs when two or more media companies are working together
towards completing a brief. However, they have conflicting issues and ideas
regarding a project, and these issues and ideas need to be negotiated. As a result the
brief is often changed to please all the parties involved in order to allow the project
can continue; this could be achieved in changing the visual style, the content, or
making sure that the product is legally and ethically sound.
The advantages of a negotiated brief is that all parties have an input into the final
product and this prevents conflicts between the parties involved because everyone
has had an input and knows what everyone else wants from the project.
A disadvantage of a negotiated brief is that a more powerful parties such as a client
might make demands that the others in the group cannot achieve.
Our project will be negotiated as both of us will have to discuss ideas, style and
content in order to complete the Vegetarian Society’s brief, and we could both be
seen as individual media producers.

7. Commission Brief
A commission brief occurs when a media company hires an independent and usually
smaller media company to create a product for them. The brief is negotiated
between the two media companies and the final product might be used by the larger
media company for an external client, with the independent media company being
paid either in a lump sum with the possibility of earning part of the products profit
each time that is sold, broadcasted or published.
The advantage of a commission brief is that the client can hire a company that they
feel can meet the brief in a suitable way; either through costs, style, or ideas.
The disadvantage of a commission brief is that the smaller company might not keep
the copyrights to their own work, or have a say in how the larger company, the
client, uses their work.

8. Tender Brief
A tender brief occurs when a client publishes that they need a project to be made for
a production company to create a brief, proposal and budget to pitch to the client for
the chance to work with the client on the project. As a result to the vacancy for the
project to happen, several production companies may submit their work to the
client. However the client then has to decide which proposal is the best to use and
which production company to hire for the job vacancy.
The advantage of a tender brief is that a company can receive ideas from a range of
different production companies, and that production companies can pitch for
projects that they would like to work on.
The disadvantage of a tender brief is that a production company will need to
produce work that might incur costs, especially travelling to client site, to pitch an
idea that might not be successful. A production company will also need to research
the company, their style, their ideas and read and understand their brief.
The brief that we will be working to will be of a tender brief nature and this is because
theVegetarian Society has advertised for a new set of recipe cards to be produced for
theiruse.

9. Competition Brief
A competition brief is a brief that is made available to all participating production
companies, with each company completing the brief. The client then judges all the
completed projects with the best project being published. Competition briefs are
often used as ‘free to enter’ competitions with the client only having to pay the
winning company for the rights of their project.
A competition brief will state an introduction to the project and the company, as well
as rules, conditions, key people such as assessors and eligibility of who can enter the
competition, the date the competition ends and maybe even the prize such as the
fee or contract length and budget might be stated.
The advantage of a competition brief is the company can assess a range of work by
different production companies, and that only the best will cost the company.
The disadvantage of a competition brief is that the production companies have to
complete a piece of work that the client brief states, and this is time consuming,
without a guarantee of being successful.

10. Our Brief
Our project is a tender brief, which could be seen as a negotiated brief as well as a co
operative brief. In our project, for the Vegetarian Society, we will be working co
operatively and sharing the work load, creating our own recipe cards to find the request
that the Vegetarian Society has created. We will also have to negotiate about the work,
our style, our ideas, content, and any concerns, as both of us will be sharing the work
loads towards the tender brief. It is a tender brief because the Vegetarian Society has sent
their brief to a large number of media producers. We could be seen to be individual
mediaproducers working towards the Vegetarian Society’s brief to produce a new set of
recipe cards for Vegetarians and Vegans. Our brief could also be considered informal
because we can complete it within our own time, within ten weeks, and we can spread
the work between both of us and our time within this timeframe, and around our
commitments. Informal contracts have no contract, and we in a way do not have to
complete the work for the Vegetarian Society because it is an open proposal.However it
could be considered a formal brief because the brief from the Vegetarian Society only
contains the necessary information, and we not need to negotiate with the Vegetarian
Society to complete this project. However we can negotiate with the client, which is our
Tutor on this project, about ideas and anything that we will need to include. The brief is
also not legally binding.

11. Reading the Brief
The Vegetarian Society’s brief states that they would like a new set of recipe cards,
eight in total, that are interesting and creative in design with a clear house style. The
cards should have a theme such an ingredient, country or theme. The Vegetarian
Society’s house style is an image on the front, accompanied with the title of the
recipe and their branding strip along the bottom of the card which contains their
logo. On the back of the card is the ingredients, method and any actions such as
visiting websites for more information, recipes or videos. The Vegetarian Society has
a preference towards recycled paper (350gsm paper, FSC approved), vegetable inks
andbiodegradable laminate.
Reading the brief is important because it could contain legal and ethical issues
which would need to be assessed before the project could continue. Reading the
brief would also mean that the producers will understand the nature and demand of the
project. The nature of a project is what the client has asked of the producer and what the
final product is expected to be and contain. The demands of a project are how the project
should be completed and cover things such as time constraints, personnel and man
power, and budgeting.

12. Negotiating a Brief
Negotiating a brief with a client is important because it is the media producers chance to
discuss any concerns and ideas that they have with a project, with the client. It is also a
chance for a producer to add any new ideas, and their own personal style onto the
project, and this known as ‘green lighting’.
Negotiating a brief will also give the chance for a producer to raise any legal, ethical
or regulatory issues that might arise as a result of completing the clients brief, which
the client may not be aware of.
It will also mean that the producer can clarify anything that is unclear in the brief.
If a media producer does not raise any concerns with understanding the client’s brief then
the work may not match the brief, and as a result the producer may not be paid, as the
work will be unsuitable.
We cannot discuss the brief with the Vegetarian Society themselves, but if we had any
concerns with the project or with understanding the project, we could submit unsuitable
work. In order to make sure we produce suitable work, we will be able to talk to our tutor
who will inform us whether our ideas and work is suitable for submission.

13. Negotiating a Brief
Discretion is an aspect of reading a brief that means that a producer can allow for their
own interpretation of the brief. The information supplied by the client in the brief can
often be vague so using discretion allows the producer to try and make the brief
interesting. It allows for the producer to try new things, and add their own personality to
the brief. However a producer will need to make sure that their discretion does not
compromise or conflict with what the client has brief for.
In our project, we will be creating recipe cards for the Vegetarian Society. We can use our
discretion in style, ideas, and recipes. However we need to make sure that we do not use
meat products on the cards, and if we are creating Vegan recipes, we will need to make
sure that they comply to Vegan standards and do not contain any animal products.

14. Negotiating a Brief
However after the nature and demand, as well as the constraints, of the brief have been
identified, then the brief will need to be amended by both parties. The product, the
budget and the conditions could all be affected by amendments.
The product may need to be amended because the final proposed product may need
changing. This could happen because the project was too ambitions, in time scale or size,
or that the product may break a law or regulation such as the copyright infringement act.
The budget may be amended and this is because the project has been underestimated,
and as a result the budget will either have to be increased, or the project may have to be
downsized in order to meet a clients budget requirements.
The conditions of a project may be amended because a client may decide that the media
producer is being paid too much or too little for the briefed work. However if the change
is not made before the contract is signed, then it may be difficult for the media producer
to try and be paid extra money. This would be difficult if the project over runs because it
was underestimated, or if the project was under resourced – both of these would cost the
media producer money, which they might not be able to claim back.

15. Negotiating a Brief
When negotiating a brief, a producer and the client, will need to make sure that there are
no legal and ethic issues within the brief, as well as any regulatory issues.
When we are creating our product, we need to make sure that the brief contains no legal
and Ethical issues. Legal and Ethical issues can include copy right, privacy laws and race
discrimination acts for example.
We will also have to consider any regulatory issues that the brief may cause. Regulatory
bodies, such as contacting unions, ASA and Governmental issues, state what can and
cannot be included within a product.
In our project we will check the ASA’s Code of Advertising Practice for any regulations
which we will need to clear before we can submit our work. The Codes of Practice that
we will need to follow are Codes 01 (Compliance), 05 (Children), 11 (Environmental
Claims) and 15 (Food, Food Supplements, Associated Health and Nutritional Claims).

16. Opportunities
What opportunities could this brief allow you to explore?
Self Development
Learning new skills
Multi-skilling
Contributing to a brief