There are various different situations in which you could be faced with a brief. Examples of a few a types of briefs would be contractual, negotiated, formal, informal, commission, tender, cooperative brief and competition. Contractual briefs come about when you go to a company with an idea and they like the idea however have some points that they believe would improve the programme so they put all them points in a contract and if you agree to the terms then you’ll sign the contract. An example of this would be Sherlock; the writers of the new Sherlock went to BBC with their idea and the BBC liked it however had some aspects they thought could be improved so they set up a compromise within the contract.
Negotiated however is when the company and the potential employee work together in order to come up with an idea. When the two parties have come to an agreement they have to mutually sign a contract.
Formal is when you meet the employer face to face and the employers set you objectives and targets they feel you should work towards. An example of this would be the Apprentice as Alan Sugar sets the contestant’s different targets and objectives each week in order to separate the weak from the chaff. Informal is the total opposite as the meeting could take place through emails or over the phone instead of a face to face meeting.
A tender is when a company sends a post or email to several different participants with the chance for them to send their idea in and see how it stands against various other entries. The company would then pick the best quality entry which is also the most suitable for what they are looking for. An example of a competition of this sort would be when Paranormal Activity asked viewers to send in their best horror shot film and the reward was that the best few would be shown in the special features on the DVD. (PA Competition) A commission is when a media organisation reaches out to someone to create a piece of work for them. This would then be put down in to a contract.
In the brief provided by E4 there were a few things which were required to ensure your video was suitable. The main requirements were, had to be submitted before the 9th November 2012, 10 second length, had to be E4 suitable. What I mean by E4 suitable is that it had to be clean and family friendly (no swearing or sexual content etc) in order for them to be able to show the esting throughout the day. Also it had to stick to the guidelines set by OFCOM and BCAP whilst also making sure they stick within Channel 4's remit. It was also aforementioned that you could have up to 3 entries however they’d prefer it if you submitted one high quality esting.
Throughout this project I have had good communication with my tutor which has meant that consultation has never been a problem. All the way through my tutor has been present to consult with me if I encountered any problems or setbacks. The E4 brief we were given was both vague and strict as the time limit and deadlines were very strict however they gave us plenty of time and plenty of room for creativity as all they wrote was make sure its suitable for the channel so within that is a lot of room for you to put your own spin on things. The main constraints we came across when producing the esting was the obvious ones, for example, we couldn't be racist nor could we show displays of graphic violence, drug taking or overly sexual content. If you was to do so and your esting was to be shown on TV then regulators such as, OFCOM would have a duty to take the esting off. So it's best to make sure E4 won't come across any problems with regulators because of your esting.
After we had completed our project we then had to publish our finished estings on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and also we sent emails with it attached. We then sent questionnaires to go alongside it so we could get honest feedback from all corners. Once we had received all of the feedback we then read through it all and focused on the problems which had propped up regularly on the feedback. From my feedback I found that people liked the ending so I decided to re shoot it whilst also prolonging it.
During my esting project I didn't ever need to amend my budget or fees however in the real industry you may have to change the budget once you realise the full extent of the costs. Most of the time companies have a 10% buffer to help cover any costs not budgeted for or any extensions to deadlines. This is because when a project overruns it costs the production more money as you'll have to keep the sets up longer which will cost and also the cast and crew will need extra payment for working more than they first agreed in their contract.
Changes to a project (that are suggested by the client) could result in contract changes or even new contracts. This could mean more money for the producer of the content. I did however have to amend my time at one point whilst editing as I had a computer failure so I had to start the editing all over again on a different PC which meant I had to overrun the deadline slightly. If I was in the industry and missed the deadline it would have consequences and my contractor could cut the pay I was expecting to receive because of it.
This project taught me a lot about my own animation skills, for example, I have found out that clay animation isn't really for me as I don't seem to have the patience or the skill with the clay which is required to be a successful clay animator like Nick Park. This has helped me realise that this is one media area that isn't for me and that'll be helpful in the long run when I am making my final decision on what I want to do in the media industry.
During this period I have learnt different animation skills which will help me in the long run because I will have this skill 'in my locker' if called upon. These skills include understanding frame rates, animating in pairs, building clay models, keeping the clay models warm and also improved my editing learning how to colour correct work successfully I have had to multi skill whilst making my esting as I had to take pictures of my sting whilst also moving my background about a little bit to keep the video consistent and smooth. So I had one hand on the camera and the other switching different parts around.
E4 gave us room for creativity and I used this by making mine individual by having a super hero type character in a funky 70s disco having a dance. My character also represented the black race with his brown complexion. To summarise, I feel I have completed all the important points in this project brief as I kept it 10 seconds whilst also making it very suitable for the channel. Although I had a few blips I feel that overall my esting was a success.
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