The requirments of woking to a brief

The Requirements of Working to a Brief

The Brief

A brief is a list of requirements that companies or 'clients' set for you to keep to throughout the production of the media text. Clients set briefs to make sure that whoever they hire give them exactly what they want. It is very important that the filmmaker pays attention to the brief so that they know what they can and can't do.  if they do no pay attention to the brief then the client could turn it down all together. Briefs are used in competitions like this to see if people have what it takes to be able to follow instructions in the industry. 

Commission

'To Commission' literally translates into 'to put in or make ready for service or use' this is what commissioning bodies do  A commission is when the client you are working for, in this example, E4 is the commissioner. the commissioner is the person responsible for putting the media text onto a media platform. The text has to be 'commissioned' before it is put on a television or cinema screen. Commissioning bodies are companies like E4, ITV and Sky. Usually Commissioning bodies will pay the film make for their work, however the E4 competition doesn't because its more based on getting your name out there and not being worried about monetary gain.

Tender

A Tender is an opportunity that is open to everyone. Anyone and everyone can apply for the competition. Other competitions are usually only open to people who specialize in the media however tenders are literally open to anyone to take part. It is a great way for people to get some experience without too much pressure being forced upon them. however they will still need to keep to the brief even if they are completely inexperienced, otherwise it will not be considered by the judges whatsoever unless there are some very special circumstances. I managed to get an example of a tender from the website ideas tap. Here is the one I found;

Responding to the brief
A way of responding to a brief is getting involved in the competition that the brief is included in. Competitions are a great way to get a lot of people involved in the process. If it is a tender then the amount of people who can respond the brief is greatly improved as I mentioned above a tender is something that anyone can apply to so the brief can be responded to by a far greater audience. An example of a competition that people can respond to is the Blue Cat screenplay competition which is described as 'The competition to find the top screenplay in the world' here are the details of the competition.

Reading a Brief
when reading a brief you have to take into consideration the rules that the client sets out for you. if you do not adhere to these rules then you will not be meeting the expectations of the brief. Our E4 brief had several 'targets' if you like that we had to meet to make sure we fully fulfilled the briefs expectations. It is very important that the filmmaker reads the brief carefully to find out what they need to do, if you make something that doesn't keep to the brief then that is a lot of time wasted and the media product will not be accepted by the judges. Here is the list of objectives for the E4 E sting brief:

• We can’t show anything explicit or violent in the daytime, but we might be able to after the watershed as long as it’s broadcastable. So – within reason – your idea can be quite naughty / irreverent / provocative and the like. Use your common sense though; anything too grim or sexually explicit won’t get shown at all.
• It HAS to be EXACTLY 10 seconds long. If it’s not 10 seconds long IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED BY THE JUDGES. Sorry, but we’re strict!
• You HAVE to use one of the 10-second audio beds supplied.
• It HAS to have the E4 logo in it… but you probably could’ve guessed that. (Preferably, integrated into the idea rather than simply slapped on top of your piece at the end.)

When responding to the brief you must keep to these guidelines or your entry will most likely end up being disqualified and your work that you would have spent a lot of time on will not even be considered for the competition, This brief is quite lenient compared to some one can find in the industry. we were given a lot of room to negotiate the brief which i will discuss in the next paragraph.

Negotiating the brief
In our brief we had quite a lot of room to negotiate. We could choose the type of animation we wanted to use, Whether it was Claymation or live action animation- we could choose the material that we animated with. we could also choose the genre that the animation was. I'm not really sure what genre my animation would be. I think it probably would be action maybe as the character is flying through the air. we could slightly negotiate the soundtrack and choose which E4 sound we could have. Overall we had  quite a lot of freedom when it came to our brief. we could come up with our very own unique idea, Which is a really liberating, however for some people it can be quite daunting as they may find comfort in being given the instructions on what they have to do.

Another constraint we faced however was the fact that our E sting had to be more or less exactly ten seconds long. this could hold different problems for people as their E sting may turn out to be too long or could turn out to be too short, it all comes down to how well the person planned their animation. I was quite proud that my E sting came up to exactly 10 seconds.

Negotiating and commission in the real world

The following story is about the BBC television programme Sherlock. The writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatis went to the BBC with the idea and pitched it, the BBC loved it and commissioned them to make six 60 minutes episode, however they wanted three 90 minute episodes. here is the full story here from wikepedia;

Opportunities in the brief
Responding to a brief is a really great way for inexperienced to get that precious experience. It is a really great way for people to get a foot in the door. things like this are a crucial tool in trying to get into the media industry. They give inexperienced people the chance to hone their skills and attributes and get some recognition. For me it was a chance to see that animation was not for me. however I did learn a few things about stop motion animation, how it works and also what it takes to do it well.