Types of Briefs

What is a brief?

- A creative brief is a document that explains the ins and outs of a project
for the creative team, agency, or designer who'll be working on it. Think of
it as a blueprint for your project that not only helps the creative team but
also will help you as you shape the overall strategy and goals for the
project.

Formal and Informal:

Formal

- These briefs usually take form in a meeting between a client and the
producer to discuss the requirements for a project, a meeting can also help both
the client and company discuss details such as budgets and deadlines. These
meetings are often documented or even recorded. If the initial brief is in
document form, then it will be easy to understand and follow it to the letter. This
also allows the client to clearly understand what the company is looking to
create.

Informal

- These briefs are commonly organised in a written or verbal exchange

either through email or social media. These briefs are typically made through
family or friends, this means the brief can be unpredictable as the client may
change their mind about specific details of the product being produced.
 4 Different Types:

Tender

- These briefs are made to suit specific requests, a tender is a formal

invitation which would most commonly be found in newspapers similar to
advertisements directed at someone to work on behalf of a client. A tender
will normally be related to government or a company’s need.

Example

- Youth Voices of Brexit was a project we worked on last year from a tender
released by the nerve centre.
- https://bennanderson.weebly.com/brexit-project.html
- (professional example) - https://culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2018/03/ITT-CLA-media-support-1-1.pdf

Contract

- This will be a legal document that is created between both client and
producer to help outline the company’s requirements for the product. A
contract brief is very thorough and will explain how much the producer will
be paid when the product is finished and may include information about
what the producer is agreeing to before signing. This form of brief must
include the general liability insurance meaning that if a producer makes
short film about a company, which made a contract with the producer, that
producer is liability for any inaccuracies in the film.

Examples (Professional)

- An example of a contractual brief would be between an actor and a film

making company. The actor is legally obliged to do what is described
within the brief. This could be a certain amount of films to appear in, what
sort of acting is required, and more often than not some form of non-
disclosure about the film.
- https://www.wko.at/branchen/gewerbe-handwerk/film-
musikwirtschaft/Mustervertrag-Wirtschaftsfilm_Englisch.pdf

Commission

- This is a request made by an individual or a company for someone to

produce a product on their behalf. While the basics of the project are
outlined by the client, however, the details such as the aesthetic
appearance of the product are decided by the people making the product.
 Example (Personal)

- An example of this would be a project I was employed to edit over the first
lockdown, it was an informal brief as I knew the producer well and we
discussed the terms over social media. This lead to me being employed to
edit a video for her company.

Competition

- These briefs will be used by companies and organisers of a competition to

inform anyone competing of the rules and outlines what is required by
there product. These briefs aren’t made to give to a single producer but
instead to anyone who wishes to enter the competition. These briefs often
end up giving the producer a lot o creative freedom with the product with
the only hard outlines being things such as genre or running time.

Example

- RTS (Personal)
- https://bennanderson.weebly.com/creative-media-production-
management.html