Task 1

Briefs:

Contractual – “A contract brief is between the client and employees. The contractual brief explains

the duties required and how the company's schemes its work. The contractual brief explains how the

much employee will receive. The contractual brief includes areas such as what the employee is

agreeing before signing it. A contractual brief must also include the general liability insurance. It is a

legal contract between advertising companies and its client which describes the duties required as

well as the price and payments terms.” http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_contractual_brief

A contractual brief defines the work and liabilities of an employee and the amount of moderation

there would be between employees.

Communication would be almost constant, as it is important in this sort of brief , which would allow

me to improve on my communication skills.

Time management would be the most important factor of this brief as the deadline would be set on

the first day, so I would likely improve on such skills.

To be able to work under this brief well; you would need sufficient technical skills and experience in

the first place.

Your career progression would depend upon the quality of your work and how well you performed

under this brief.

Who is the client? A large game development company (Nintendo, Ubisoft, Atlus etc.)

What media product(s) does the client require? A finished video game.

What is the timescale to deliver the product(s) to the client? The timescale is usually a year at least;

some games are in development for over three years.

Who is the intended target audience the client wishes the product(s) to appeal to? The age limit is

usually sixteen or eighteen years old.

What are the legal and ethical issues relating to the production? Employee rights and payment and

copyright issues tend to be the main legal and ethical issues when making games.

What constraints do you have to work within (budget, length of product, format)? The budget for a

game depends on the company and the kind of game you want to make, if a company isn’t certain

that your idea will make money then they won’t give you as high a budget. There could be any

format for this product.

Negotiated – “This type of brief will be brought up if the co-operative brief given to the two or more

media companies that are competing the project have any issues between themselves about the

brief or anything they would like to clear up with the client. Through the negotiations the brief can

then be changed in order to suite every party taking part in the production. This could be anything

from changing the appearance of the product to changing the products content as well as keeping it

to the guidelines set in the brief.” http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/negotiated-

brief.html

A negotiated brief is a brief that has been changed to suit the needs and preferences of every party

involved.

Communication in this brief would be the only way the brief would actually suit everyone’s needs,

making one of the most important factors of the brief.

Time management can be less of a problem as the amount of time you would have to work on a

project can be negotiated and changed.

Your technical skills would improve as you continue working through the brief.

Your career progression would be the same with this brief as it would for any other, it depends on

the quality of your work and how you manage yourself under the brie f.

Formal – “This is where a media company is given a brief by the client which outlines the product

which they want to be made. This brief is very open and only gives enough information to be able to

produce the product, any issues or information that the media company would like to go over can be

discussed during the negotiations with the client. Both the client and the company employed by

them will formally agree on the project and the brief but it cannot always be legally binding.”

http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/formal-brief.html

This kind of brief is more open than others and also employs elements of the negotiated brief; in fact

it’s very similar. This brief, however, isn’t always legally binding.

In terms of communication, time management, technical skills, and career progression are all the

same as it would be for the negotiated brief.

Informal – “An informal brief is not documented and is usually of the verbal kind. It is where the

client and the company which they have employed simply discuss the requirements for the product

they will be making and ultimately agree upon the project.”

http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/informal-brief.html

This kind of brief is usually just made through discussing the product’s requirements and is usually

just verbal and not documented.

This wouldn’t really help you improve any communication skills as you would simply discuss the brief

and then start production of the product, but that doesn’t mean that communication isn’t

important.

How you manage your time would depend on what you discussed with the client when making the

brief.

Your technical skills would improve but probably not that much.

You career progression probably wouldn’t change as this brief will likely not be documented.

Commission – “This brief is where a large media company will employ an other independent media

company to create and produce the product for them, and after the product has been made the

larger company may go on to use the product for an external client who will pay the independent

media company for making the product and they could even get a cut of the royalties too. The brief

is not negotiated between the company and the client, however is negotiated between the two

media companies.” http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/commission-brief.html

When a larger company hires a smaller, independent company, to create a product for them this is

called a commission. Commissions are usually just discussed between the two companies and not

the client.

In a commission; communication is extremely important because the hiring company needs to be

specific about what they and their client wants.

Time management is also very important as the independent company being hired will be given a

deadline.

In order to complete this commission by the deadline given; you will need a high level of knowledge

and experience in the field in which you are working.

In terms of career progression; the company would become more renowned for their work if their

work was very good, leading to more companies hiring them.

Who is the client? A game company

What media product(s) does the client require? Could be anything but is usually something like

concept art

What is the timescale to deliver the product(s) to the client? The timescale that a concept artist on

commission can be give as little as a month.

Who is the intended target audience the client wishes the product(s) to appeal to? Depends on the

game designer’s choices for the game.

What are the legal and ethical issues relating to the production? Usually just copyright issues as a

concept artist cannot use someone else’s work.

What constraints do you have to work within (budget, length of product, format)? The budget

would consist of what the hired worker has at his/her disposal. The length of the product would be

dependent on what was offered to the commissioned artist as they can set a price depending on the

quality of the work that they are asked for.

Tender – “This is where a client will advertise their brief and a production company will bring together a

proposal that they will pitch to the client, there could be multiple pitches to the client from many different

companies, so the client will then get the chance to choose the proposal that they think best suits their bri ef

and offer the job to that production company.” http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tender-

brief.html

In this brief, companies will go to the client with a proposition and the client will be able to choose between

each of the company’s proposals and pick the one they think is best for them.

Communication wouldn’t be as important in this brief as the client would have already created the brief that

the company will follow.

Time management would be very similar to the commission brief; the deadline will have likely already been

put in the brief.

The technical skills of the company would have already been discussed and the client would most l ikely pick

the company with the most experience with the work that the client requires.

For the company that the client decided to hire, the most career progression they would get is l ikely just

payment.

Co-operative – “Within this type of brief there are usually two or more companies that are hired by

the client to work to the brief they have written for the specific project they want to be completed.

After both companies have received the brief they can then proceed to work together to produce

the product. If there is a disagreement or conflict in ideas there can be a negotiated brief in order to

resolve these issues.” http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/co-operative-brief.html

In this brief; two or more companies will work together to complete the project they agreed to make

when they wrote the brief. In the case of a disagreement about ideas, the issues can be resolved

through negotiation.

Communication, time management, technical skills and career progression would all be the same for

this brief as they would for the negotiated brief.

Who is the client? Steam green light.

What media product(s) does the client require? The client wants video games.

What is the timescale to deliver the product(s) to the client? There is no set deadline, when the

game is done. It can be sent in.

Who is the intended target audience the client wishes the product(s) to appeal to? Gamers,

generally male, from the age bracket of 3-40 years of age.

What are the legal and ethical issues relating to the production? You would have to make sure you

don’t have any offensive or copyrighted material.

What constraints do you have to work within (budget, length of product, format)? Due to the

companies submitting to this, budget would more than likely be small. Length would be dependent

on the budget and game idea. Format would be a PC game, made in a game engine.

Competition – “This is where a client can put their brief out so it can be accessed by all of the

different production companies that are participating. It can sometimes been seen as a free

competition as each production company will complete the brief and the client can then judge which

company has the best project and as an award they have it published.”

http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/competition-brief.html

Companies will compete to finish the brief and do the best job; the client who made the brief will

choose from all of the work of the different companies and publish the best one.

Developers who submit to Steam

Greenlight can have their games

published here. This is a good way

to get yourself noticed in the indie

community if you’re just starting

out.

This is similar to the tender brief and will provide similar advances in communication, time

management, technical skills and career progression.

Who is the client? Indie Game Jams

What media product(s) does the client require? The client wants video games.

What is the timescale to deliver the product(s) to the client? The deadline for each “jam” is

displayed on the calendar

Who is the intended target audience the client wishes the product(s) to appeal to? Gamers,

generally male, from the age bracket of 3-40 years of age.

What are the legal and ethical issues relating to the production? You would have to make sure you

don’t have any offensive or copyrighted material.

What constraints do you have to work within (budget, length of product, format)? The budget

would likely be small. Length would be dependent on the budget and game idea, as well as how long

you have to complete your project. Format would be a PC game, made in a game engine.

This calendar shows competitors

how long their “jam” will go on for

so they know exactly how long they

have to complete and submit their

project.

Atlantic Film Fest

Who is the client? Jason Beaudry (the organizer)

What media product(s) does the client require? Your submission can be fiction, documentary,

animation or experimental of any length.

What is the timescale to deliver the product(s) to the client? The latest entry deadline is June 26th

Who is the intended target audience the client wishes the product(s) to appeal to? Films with

commentary or dialogue in languages other than English must be subtitled or dubbed in English for

consideration.

What are the legal and ethical issues relating to the production? There are issues concerning

sexism, racism, inappropriate language and copyrighted material (the product must have been

created by the entrant)

What constraints do you have to work within (budget, length of product, format)? The budget

would depend on how much you have at your disposal. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to how long

it has to be, however, there may be a limit of about an hour. There can be any format as long as you

made it.

This page details the festival’s entry

fees, entry deadlines, entry format,

selection and more to make sure

you know everything about the

festival if you plan to enter.