The Requirements of Working to a Brief

What is a brief?

A project brief is a summary of everything that needs to be kept in mind for a particular project, including the requirements. A brief might include an introduction to the project, and also what work is needed to be completed. This also means that it provides information on how it should be presented or in other words, it provides some instructions. These should be followed exactly as many commissioners are very strict about what is made in response to a brief. 

So, what is a commission and what does it mean to be commissioned?

A commission is when the buyer pays somebody to carry out something for them, for example to write a script. When you are commissioned it means that a client will come to you only and pay you to do something in a certain way for them. When you have been commissioned, you are then working under the commissioners company and you must follow the brief provided, which for example, could be formal and could offer a sum of money after completion. 

What does the term 'tender' mean?

The term 'tender' is when a client asks for an actual brief to be made, and then, for example, a company will respond to this by creating the brief- which will also include a proposal and budget. After this it will then be pitched back to the client. 

How else could you respond to a brief?

Another way that you can respond to a brief is through, for example, competitions. I have personally done this in a previous brief, where I worked to a competition brief online which was named 'Depict'. The way that you respond to this kind of brief is by following the guidelines and rules they set out, and creating a product that they wish for. This is practically the same as a project brief, as it includes information about the project and what particular work is needed to be done in order to present it correctly. The brief I followed was a competition on estings.e4.com and we basically had to create an ESting with the maximum length of 10 seconds.

Here is my final product when responding to this brief:

Reading a Brief

There were plenty of other factors that me and my partner had to follow during responding to this particular brief. When reading a brief they may vary in how professional they are and how formal and strict they are too. For example, this E4 brief that we worked by, there were many strict guidelines to follow and if we didn't follow them then our entry would not of been appropriate or approved. Points specified in this particular brief included:

• It had to be exactly 10 seconds long. 
• Using music provided from them only.
• Not being allowed to edit or remix the soundtrack in any way. 
• Must include the E4 logo.
• Only allowed to submit one entry per person.

Looking at our entry (above), I believe that we successfully followed and read the brief well. It was overall quite simple to follow, however, this could contrast with briefs in the real film industry, which are most likely much more strict and more difficult to follow and read. This is why film briefs should be read carefully as they can be quite demanding. 

Negotiating a Brief

When working to our brief in class, there were many opportunities to ask questions about the brief, overall making sure that we were reading it and responding to it correctly. For an example, we negotiated with our teacher on how to make our ESting much more creative so that we could respond to the brief more professionally and to the best of our ability. One negotiation happened when we put all our images together from our first lot of shooting and we found that the ESting wasn't as good or creative as we know we could have made it, therefore we discussed with our teacher whether we should re-shoot to try and also aim for a higher mark, and in the end we did. 
After joining forces with my partner Shauna, we carried out many negotiations ourselves. The very first one was whether the idea of having both live-action and clay-mation together would be successful. We had to negotiate the time scale many times, because we had to keep in mind how long it would  take to design and make the character 'E4' and then also take all the images and put them together. We also had to negotiate how exactly each instruction and rule of the brief should be met, such as how represent the E4 logo clearly. 

If we encountered any other problems, we were able to negotiate it with somebody without any trouble. When interpreting a brief in the professional industry, the brief would most likely be stricter, and there would be more problems that could arise with legal and ethical issues also (mentioned below). When responding to a brief in the professional industry, it would be best to contact the company itself when negotiating the brief, as you would want to have a clear understanding under the stricter and more formal rules. There are also other issues such as budget, time management and restrictions, such as locations. 

There are also many constraints that could slow down the work when responding to the brief. This can include legal, ethical and regulatory issues. Linking mainly to legal issues, you must make sure that you must not be an offender of plagiarism or copyright (stealing other peoples work) and this includes using soundtracks, logos etc. without permission. This could overall result in somebody or even a company attempting to sue you and this would definitely end with loosing the job. Then, linking to ethical issues mainly, you have to make sure that you are not offending or producing a product that would harm somebody, as this is wrong ethically and this could result in some bad consequences. For an example, if you have been commissioned to create a short film for somebody, you, for example, follow the BBFC's rules to make sure that your short film is appropriate for the target audience. 

As quoted from their website, they "look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence..." which means that, for example, you can check this website and make sure that your product wont be ethically wrong.

Personally, we didn't have to amend our final product in any way because we managed to stick to the brief correctly and we felt that it was appropriate and didn't go against any legal or ethical issues. If we were working to another brief, perhaps we would've had to, for example, make amendments to fees, or a budget or other conditions outlined in a contract. For an example, signing up to this website named "Ideas Tap", and then going to the "Film" tab means that you can find and sign up to follow briefs for makings short films etc. Some of these briefs may be quite professional and formal meaning that you may have to be more careful about your budget, therefore having to amend the fees for equipment, travelling, locations and props etc. and also amending any conditions which may be restricting. 

This is one of the briefs I found under the film tab. It says that there are 3 sections that you can enter, as long as you are 16+ and what you create is along the theme of 'Apocalypse'. The three sections that you can apply to are 'audio and video', 'writing' and 'visual art/photographs'. Each section has their own limitations, for example, you must not write more than 1,000 words if you were to enter a written piece. The deadline for this brief is stated clearly which is 'Friday 13th of June at 5pm' with the first prize being £250, second being £100 and third being £50.  It says that they are generally looking for something creative and original and that you can take the theme any way you want. 

Opportunities

The reason why someone may respond is because the brief, such as competitions, may overall be offering a reward for completion. 

During the E4 brief, there were many opportunities personally for me to improve myself and carry out self development. This included factors such as becoming more organised, evaluating my own work and working well individually as well as in a team/with a partner. I therefore learned many new skills, and this included mainly about how animation works in the professional industry and also how to improve mise-en-scene and use lighting equipment effectively. I personally didn't have to multitask at all but my partner, who was interacting with our clay model, had to control the character and well as herself and as I couldn't be in shot. I learned how difficult it must have been to control herself and another character at the same time, especially with stop motion.
Overall, I made many contributions to the brief, making sure that we stayed organised and stayed to the requirements properly. Especially during editing, where I made sure that we stuck the the maximum time of 10 seconds, by deleting frames that I thought weren't needed which helped cut down the final time Part of a creative contribution I made was when both me and Shauna worked on creating the character 'E4' out of the materials. We decided this was appropriate because in the brief it mentioned that we had to have the E4 symbol included somewhere, and making this character would therefore follow that part of the brief successfully. My main role and contribution in making this ESting was directing and shooting it, as I was behind the camera. I feel that overall the ESting went successfully.