Types of Media Brief

Negotiating a Brief

For our corporate video unit, we had to work alongside the "James Paget University Hospital" to produce a promotional video which would encourage junior staff to consider working for this local hospital. During the early stages we met up with a few people from the Paget to discuss ideas for the video, my group pitched our idea infront of them to see what they think about it and if it would actually be successful. After the pitching of ideas we then had a chance to negotiate different things which would make the video better, a good thing about working with them was that we had a lot of input into the project, they didn't cut off any of our ideas and we didn't have to stick to theirs. There was a lot of freedom in terms of what we planned, filmed and edited, nothing was restricted.

In regards to the brief I worked to, the information given was quite vague of things they wanted us to include and shots they wanted us to feature. We saw this as a problem early on, as at its worst we could produce something they didn't really have in mind and as a result turn our work down. This was resolved however with a chance to meet with them and discuss the brief in person. I would say there was a fairly high degree of discretion with my brief, but unfortunately this isn't the case with every corporate project. Discretion can be very limited given you no control over what happens with the video. 

In terms of legal, ethical, regulatory constraints we, as a group, faced quite a lot, taking into account that we had to film in a public hospital. Down to legal issues we weren't allowed to wonder into certain wards of the building to capture footage, we had to be escorted around the hospital by one of the supervisor staff members to ensure we were only filming things that were allowed to be filmed. We would have been able to film specific patients if we had them sign a talent release to prove permission to be on camera, however as this would have taken to much time which we didn't have, we decided not to bother and only record clips of people that were in groups or film areas which had no people. Fortunately no other issues arised, but they do happen, such as ethical issues. Race, culture religion and colour of your skin all has to be taken into account when producing a corporate video, you need to respect everyone and not discriminate against or be racist towards any cultural or ethnic groups. 

After creating and sending the "James Paget" our first rendered drafts, we were sent back a considerable amount of feedback which included essential things to change and areas of improvement. Normally this would be okay, we would correct the things we needed to and send them back a second draft. However, they sent us amendments that were to be made on things that were set-up and asked by them. My group was arranged an interview with a lead doctor of the children's department "Children's Cove, we asked questions and recorded the whole thing to fit into our video about AHP's. Part of the feedback mentioned that we used the wrong doctor in our video as he doesn't come under AHP's, even though he was the doctor we were set up with by the staff. Working an negotiating with clients can be very tough, as proven, but mostly all have a good outcome. After mentioning that these faults were down to the poor management of the staff at the Paget we were able to keep parts that were said to be corrected and just tweak certain things like audio and lighting, other than that we were able to keep a good final render. 

Other than amendments to the actual video, is it possible that there may have to be amendments to the budget, fees and many other things to do with the film. It may be noticeable that during your time on the production you see that you are needing more money that you actually planned for, it would then be time to contact the client to discuss the issues and to come to a conclusion. It might even be possible that you don't need to even make any amendments to the first render, in which case it is good to go, and send forward to the company to publish. Although it's very rare, it can happen.

Opportunities

People/companies can have many reasons to respond to media briefs depending on the situation. You may want to build up a portfolio which shows your work with different clients, or maybe you are entering a competition which involves you meeting a brief set by a specific or general client. Obviously money is a big part of competitions which a massive reason why people and companies enter, money can help with personal issues or expanding there business which can result in working for more professional companies and clients. This is also an amazing way to gain experience in the industry as you will have the opportunity to meet new people, gain contacts and gather a stronger understanding of how the trade works.

When working on the corporate video for JPH, there were many times we, as a group were able to self-develop skills and techniques to help remain patient yet professional at the same time. Working with the staff wasn't exactly easy, meaning we had to cope with cancellations they made at last minute but remain calm and show our understanding why they couldn't have us film. There were times where all of us got very annoyed due to JPH staff meeting us at a designated meeting point 1 hour later than they should have, on several occasions. But as said before, it is all about remaining patient as this opportunity is not just for them, but it is for us aswell; Course unit, and experience.

During my time working on the brief for JPH I learnt multiple skills that would indeed benefit me if I choose to have a career in the film industry in the future. Working with audio equipment for interviews is something I have improved on a lot. With past projects I haven't been too great at recording and editing sound, however when shooting interviews with members of the JPH I was able manipulate settings on the audio device to achieve the best sound possible with that piece of equipment. Teamwork is a huge skill that I have developed throughout my time doing this course but most doing this specific unit, everything from start to finish involved working with your team. We had to brainstorm ideas together, pitch together, record together and edit together. We also had to resolve problems together, such as corrupt files that didn't record properly so we had to re-shoot, 1 member being off sick so we had to split ourselves to take up multiple roles. 

This takes me into the next subject of having to multi-skill to allow your group to achieve the best. Although everyone may only have one important skill that they can contribute to the team, you may have multiple which will help benefit team in certain areas. For example; You could have team members that are great at storyboarding and pitching to a client but they are weak and recording and editing footage. You on the other hand can do both them things to a really high expectation. It is always useful to have multiple skills to offer to your team just incase you may ever be in need of them. When working on my corporate video I was selected as the editor who would combine all footage, edit audio and apply text and credits. It so happened that on one shooting day our main camera man was off sick and I had to replace him using my maximum knowledge to shoot the best scenes possible to my ability. 

It is fair to say that all 4 of us in my group made a considerable amount of contributions to the project which is what made it so successful in the end. The main contributions I made was the overall narrative plan, all scenes from start to finish and how they would work; 

Title>Interview-Cutaways>transition> and repeat*

I also came up with the idea to add motion tracked text for each title to make the video seems more professional when shown for a recruitment video for the NHS. I originally planned to use 3D text but with the time cap we had after all cancellations and delays, I only had to time to track and add 2D text to the footage. Another small thing I came up with was to create a google drive folder in which we could all access to find every piece of pre-production paperwork. This made it extremely easy for us when it came to posting it, because as soon as someone would finished some paperwork they would upload it and everyone can download it and post it themselves to their own blog. Just a small idea that worked very well for us all, saved everyone emailing each other or printing things out and all the team scanning sheets onto the computer.