Task 1 - Different Types Of Brief

Contractual Brief:

A contractual brief is a legal document that is both written by the employer and the client so that they can come to an agreement on things such as price, work hours, payment schedules, etc. The layout of the contract is very simple making it clear to understand for both parties so they know what is expected of them throughout the entirety of the project. Once this contract has been agreed on and signed it can not be changed by either the employer or the client and if the terms of the contract are broken then the deal is no longer there and the party that broke the contract may be sued by the other. There are advantages to this type of brief such as because it is agreed on by both parties, everything is out in the open and they are both content on the outcome of the contract weather it be in their favour or not. When working with this contract you would gain communication skills as you have to constantly talk to the client about the stages of development that you are at and if their are any issues. You will also improve your time management as there will be set deadlines given to you and you will have to work to them so that the project will be finished in time and you must also plan what you will do when. When it comes to technical skills if you are working on your own then you will gain more know-how about how to programme, problem solve, asset art, etc. However if you are part of a team you will only advance in the skill that you are doing until the project is finished. As far as career progression goes as long as you or your company meet deadlines, create what the client wanted by sticking to the brief and don't break the contract then your career could progress.      

Negotiated Brief:

A negotiated brief can be given to a company by the client but if there is an aspect of the brief that they disagree with or want to change then they can talk to the client about what they aren't comfortable with. This process can continue for a long duration of time with the brief being changed by both parties continuously until they have come to a conclusion on a fair agreement and terms. These terms can vary from funding to work hours and deadlines. A negotiated brief will develop your communication skills more than the contractual brief as this type of brief is always going back and forth negotiation as the name suggests meaning that you will have to constantly talk to your team (if you do) about what you want to change about the brief and then you would have to relay this information to the client. As for time management, technical skills and career progression they are the same as the contractual brief in a sense that you will develop your all round skills if you are working on your own or develop specific skills when working as part of a team. Time management is exactly the same as this is an aspect that is universal to all briefs and career progression is also the same depending on how well the project goes overall.

Formal Brief:

A formal brief is given to the company by the client and is very specific about what they want from the company regarding funding, work hours and what they want the overall project to be when it is complete. The client is always open to ideas that the company may have about the project and what could possibly make it better overall. However these briefs are always legal documentations which leads to legal issues if the client thinks that the company has broke an agreement they had but can't do anything but close the project down. Communication on this type of brief is near enough the same as a negotiated brief as you are seeing is there is anything you want to change/new ideas and then relaying this information to the client to see if they want to go ahead with your idea or stick with their original one. Time management and technical skills are the same as the previous two briefs, the only thing that could change is your career progression as this type of brief is risky unless you clearly state between you and the client that it is a legal document or not.

Informal Brief:

An informal brief usually has no written documentation as is verbal between the company and the client. The brief is decided when the company and the client meet and just create a brief up on the spot for the project discussing every aspect before finally agreeing on a brief for the company to work form. This type of brief isn't always the best as there is no written documentation meaning that when the project is complete the client may not even pay the company and they would have no evidence of the terms that they agreed on leaving them with no legal options. When it comes to communication skills this type of brief will most definitely improve this skill the most as it is all verbal communication between you and the client. Your technical skills and time management are the same as the previous briefs. Finally the career progression on this type of brief could impact your career in both positive or negative ways depending on the final outcome of the project that you are working on.

Commission:

A commission brief is when a company works with the client to create the brief for the product that they want to create, once this has been decided on the company will then hire a smaller company to actually create the product itself. The larger company will get commission from sales of the game when it is released and depending on the agreement when a certain target is hit they may get a bonus. This means that the client will be paying the smaller company who is developing the product itself and they may even get part of the commission if that was agreed in the brief. The communication in the type of brief is mainly between the bigger company and the client so your communication skills would improve if you were part of the bigger company but wouldn't improve as much is you were part of the smaller company. However when working for the smaller company your technical skills will improve quite a lot and gives you more experience with working for a client which would also help to improve your career opportunities for the future as you have a piece of work to showcase to future employers. The time management skill is the same as the past briefs that I talked about as this is one of he most important skills to have in general.

Tender:

This is a brief that the client will advertise for everyone to see and then companies that want to take on this project will look over the brief and create a pitch with their ideas and proposals of how to change the brief to make the end project better. After the client has listened to pitches from multiple companies they will then decide who they want to take on this project for them and who they feel that they will do the best job. On this type of brief your communication skills will greatly improve if you are the person giving the pitch because you will have to be clear and professional when talking to the client about the idea that you have for their brief. You're technical skill could improve but this highly depends on if you actually get chosen by the client to take on this project and the same goes for both career progression and time management.

Co-operative:

This type of brief is one that is created by the client and then is given to one or more companies to work on because it many be a large project or it may have a very short deadline. If the two companies disagree at one point then they will have to negotiate with the other company and the client until the problem is resolved and satisfies everyone involved. On this specific brief time management is incredibly important because if you miss a deadline then that pushes the whole project back because without your section being complete another person working in the same or the other company won't be able to carry on with their development. This also means that communication is key among your own company and when talking to the other company about progress. Your technical skills will most definitely improve in the dedicated area that you have been assigned to and your career progress could also be raised with the completion of the project as it would show that you have a lot of good quality skills.

Competition:

This type of brief is created by the client and is similar to a tender brief where it is advertised to companies. However they don't need to pitch to the client they can just start the project and do whatever they want with it and at the deadline the client will look at all the companies final projects and decided which one that they want to be published. Time management is crucial for this type of brief because if you miss the deadline then you would have just wasted a lot of time and resources on a project that you don't even have a chance of getting published, your technical skills will always be improved as you will get to work on a project whether it gets published or not. If the game gets published then your career progress could advance greatly but if the project isn't published then it would be harder to get noticed. Lastly, your communication skills wouldn't be improved ver much as you will be only communicating with the company that you are working in.  

This is an example of a competition brief.

• The clients of this specific brief is Sundance Institute and AEG Europe.

• The product that the clients want is a short film between 3-5 minutes with the theme of "Story Of Our Time".

• The deadline for submitting the entries was 5pm Thursday, 28 February 2012.

•  From looking at this brief I would say that the intended audience would be film enthusiasts and festival goers.

• The brief doesn't go into detail about legal and ethical issues, the only thing that it says that it should not contain any "Illegal content". 

• The constraints are that it has to be in the format of a short film with a length of 3-5 minutes. However there are no constraints regarding budget.