The Requirements of Working to a Brief

Briefs

What is a brief/project brief?
A project brief is in a simply sense, a list of requirements to be attained to reach a certain outcome. For example, I have to work to a project brief for my assignments and there are specific things that I have to do in order to achieve a grade I must meet these requirements; the more I meet and the higher the standard I meet them, the higher the grade I will get. There are many similarities to this in the world of work, for instance, in the world of media, specifically the world of television news, a reporter will be sent to a story with a brief of all the things they need to cover in order for the story to be aired.

This is a copy of one of my assignment briefs.

This is a copy of a college brief for an extended btec and this is an example of how briefs can look very different but they all have the same kind of purpose of getting you to do your work to a specific piece.

What is a commission/what does it mean to be commissioned?
When you are commissioned, this means that you have been employed to carry out a job; in the media industry, when somebody says commissioned, this usually gets associated with a writer being employed to write a screenplay. For example, Simon Beaufoy was commissioned to write a version of the screenplay to "The Hunger Games: Catching fire".

 This is a copy of a non-union contact for a writer.

What is meant by the term ‘tender’ (in regards to Media!)
This is basically the term for a kind of application for work but instead of it being the the regular sense of the word, it is more like a way to show yourself off. For example, my college decided to change it's logo and put out an advert so to speak for people to send in their ideas and the best one is chosen; just like for the E4 piece, people send in their animations and the best one is chosen for the channel.

How else could you respond to a brief? (Think about the one you created an animation for…)
When working to a brief, you are sometimes open to interpretation; for the animation we created, we had to make it follow the briefs instructions that it had to be ten seconds long and have a relevance to E4 and obviously have the E4 logo on it.



E4 Ninja stop-motion animation clip.

Reading a Brief
Like mentioned earlier, you have to stick to the requirements of a brief, some of these requirements are open to interpretation while others have to be stuck to by the letter. For the brief on animation with had to follow these sections here to create the video.
"Create a stop-motion animation with some assistance".
This would achieve you a "pass".
"Produce a stop-motion animation with a soundtrack to a good technical standard with only occasional assistance".
This would achieve you a "merit" grade however, to achieve the highest grade, you have to work to the highest standard.
"Produce a stop-motion animation with a soundtrack to a technical quality that reflects near professional standard, working independently to professional expectations".
Working to this type of standard will achieve you a "distinction" grade.
To even achieve a pass grade you had to make your video stop-motion, it had to feature the E4 logo, it had to be ten seconds long and we had to look at the E4 for website to conform that out ideas and final product came under the E4 regulations. For this we looked at the E4 esting channel ident competition.

This is our project brief.

Negotiating a Brief

Discuss how much room you had to negotiate the brief.
In terms of making the video, there was room for negotiating the actual product in how it came out, in terms of length of the video, most of the writing and anything like that, there wasn't much room at all. If you were doing research, then you could research whatever you thought was appropriate but you had to make sure that it was relevant to the work you were researching for; like when we were researching channel idents, you could look at any ident you wanted to but it had to be relevant to E4 and help you understand what they were looking for.

In the media industry, what degree of discretion do/would you have in interpreting a brief?
Depending on your job in the media industry would depend on how much leeway you can have. If you were a director on a film set, you have a lot of leeway especially if your the likes of Ridley Scott or Takeshi Kitano; but it you were an animator to a kids show, then you have the freedom of doing your animations how you want but it has to follow the writing and the restriction of day time television.

What constraints (legal, ethical, regulatory) might you face when responding to a brief? What constraints did you face?
When interpreting brief then you have to think all the time about if what you're doing is going to offend someone. Personally when I created my animation, because there wasn't any dialogue, I didn't have to worry about words offending somebody. The animation however has part in it where the "Ninja" cuts across the "Monsters" head; this could be seen as violent but it is made slightly stylish and comical when the piece becomes the E4 logo. In the original idea, the number was going to be from the head and the purple blood would come out and surround the E4 word, creating the purple part of it, but I deemed this too violent.

Did you have to make any amendments to proposed final product? Why?
I only had to make one adjustment to my video; my original clip was only six seconds long, so I added an additional scene at the start to bring the time up to ten seconds. This unfortunately was noticeable but in addition it gave me the advantage of knowing that next time if and when I create a animation, to over shoot it. That way I only have to take things out instead of adding them in.

For what reasons might there be amendments to; a budget? Your fees? Conditions outlined in the contract?
Budget wise, if a project is taking longer to shoot than originally intended then the budget will go up to pay everyone a sort of over time, this happened in the case of "Michael Cimino's" "Heaven's Gate" (1980). The original budget for the film was only twenty million which in those days was still a lot of money, but because of the long shoot, the budget ended up being forty four million. Being kept on for a project for longer than intended might also cause you to re-negotiate your fee for the project, it may also cause a change in the conditions of your contract. Similarly if you are an actor and you don't abide by your contract (Mickey Rourke was well known for this in the eighties) the company backing the project may change your fees and conditions in order to either get rid of you or to try and get you too behave yourself.

Opportunities

Why might someone respond to a brief?
In order to meet the necessary requirements so they can take a step into whatever industry they wish to, and in order to get into that industry you will need to show that you can work to a standard.
Identify opportunities that you had for self-development.
I had the opportunity to learn how to be more independent; a lot of our work has been team based or you have had to get the teacher to take you through step by step, but in this section, it has been all about managing your own work load and coming up with a final product by yourself.
What new skills did you learn?
I learnt to animate with not only clay models but with real people as well; although I don't think that I can animate anywhere near a professional standard, it has been also been helping me develop my editing skills, which are a lot better.
Did you have to multi-skill at all during the project?
Animating requires a lot of multitasking, for instance, not only do you have to make model if your doing claymation like I did, but you have to take photos, you have edit and you have to keep track on everything you have done in order to make sure that your continuity is good, otherwise you end up with a bad looking video if you have to shoot over a number of days or have to re-shoot anything.
What contributions did you make to the project brief?
I completed the animation video for the E4 project, I made a blog that went through a history of animation and I also went through some well known animators from the first use of animation to the more well known ones of today. Using all this information was needed for creating my own and that in turn was needed for any more animation that I may do in the future.
Overview
I think that the project was more or less a success though there are always things that I look to improve upon. I don't wish to take animation any further but it has given me a useful set of skills and a good experience.