The Requirements of Working to a Brief

Briefs

• What is a brief/project brief? A brief is a document describing what the final outcome of the job will be, in this instance, it was to create a ten second E-Sting for E4 that includes the music given on the website, along with with our own made character that isn't copied from any other media piece (unless it is your own) and finally it must also contain the E4 logo or a drawing/model that resembles the E4 logo. [1]

• What is a commission/what does it mean to be commissioned? Being commissioned means that you are employed to a company and you are given a brief to follow, but you can also be commissioned through a competition, like for example the people are commissioned to make an E4 logo where they have to follow the guidelines instructed in the brief.[2]
• What is meant by the term ‘tender’ (in regards to Media!) Tender refers to companies giving bids to for a project that have to be submitted in a depending deadline.[3]
• How else could you respond to a brief? (Think about the one you created an animation for…) You could also respond to a brief by going through each requirement one at a time, checking them off as you do so that you know you aren't missing any.

Reading a brief

• Discuss recognising the nature of and demand implicit in a brief, e.g., what was specified in the E4 ESting guidance that you had to include/meet? A brief is used by the commissioner to describe the details of the job to you in an informative way, it says in the brief that to meet the guidelines I have to:
• They cannot show anything explicit during the daytime, but they can be more flexible after the water shed. Since there is nothing explicit in my E-sting this guideline has been met.
• It HAS to be exactly ten seconds long, nothing more, nothing less. I made sure that it was that long in premiere pro so this guideline has been met.
• We have to use one of the audio files included in the brief (http://www.channel4.com/microsites/E/e-stings/estings-sound-beds.zip) I used the audio file 'Africa' so this guideline has been met.
• And finally it HAS to have the E4 logo on it somewhere on it, I made an E4 logo out of plasticine that is sucked into the blackhole at the end of the E-sting so this has been met. [4]

Negotiating a brief

• Discuss how much room you had to negotiate the brief. When negotiating the brief, before I did anything I made sure I discussed with my tutor anything that I found confusing, that way I can respond to the brief without making any mistakes.
• In the media industry, what degree of discretion do/would you have in interpreting a brief? The degree of discretion would be quite high as if you interperate the brief incorrectly, your final product might not be commissioned. 
• What constraints (legal, ethical, regulatory) might you face when responding to a brief? What constraints did you face? You could face many constraints when responding to the brief, like legal as you might have used copyrighted imagery, ethical as you may use something that could be construed as offensive to others and regulatory as you might be responding to the brief with misinformation.
• Did you have to make any amendments to proposed final product? Why? Yes, me and Ellie both believed that the final E-Sting had to have some kind of moving background when the black hole appears and sucks everything into it, so I chroma keyed the white wall out and replaced it with a space background which also gave it a much more 'Cheesy' (I'm really sorry for the pun) look which was what I was aiming at.
• For what reasons might there be amendments to; a budget? Your fees? Conditions outlined in the contract? There may be amendments in the budget because the director might suddenly need more money for props or costumes, so there may be amendment due to lack of funds needed to finish the product.

Opportunities

• Why might someone respond to a brief? If you accept the brief, that could be the thing that kickstarts your career, the one thing that gets you noticed, it's like the actors equivalent of a 'Big Break'
• Identify opportunities that you had for self-development. When we each had to come up with an idea for an E-Sting, that was self development, in fact, this whole part of the course for me was self development as I worked on my own creating my own characters, sets, storyboards and editing the final footage in post production, so you could say that this entire thing has been self development for me.
• What new skills did you learn? I learnt how to animate with plasticine, and just how hard it is as well, I learn't about the two's method used in all animation, also how to edit stop motion animation in post production on the computers, as well as creating my own effects to go with it.
• Did you have to multi-skill at all during the project? When filming I had to take the photo's and make sure they weren't blurry, as well as calculate how many more shots I need to take, and where the character is going to move next.
• What contributions did you make to the project brief? My final product was what I contributed as I worked on my own, my characters, my sets, my final E-Sting so all of it is my contribution.

References

1. http://btecmediaen2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/assignment-5-brief-working-to-brief-and.html

2. http://www3.hants.gov.uk/arts-commissioning/what-is-commission.htm

3. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tender.asp

4. http://estings.e4.com/competition