Formal and Informal Briefs

Formal

A formal brief sets down the rules ,regulation and guidance for a production company to
follow these are rules created by the client which will tell you the information that is needed
for the task/project to be complete. A formal brief is similar to a contracted brief however
not all formal briefs have to have a contract, however both the client and the production
company still need to agree on the rules and regulations in order to progress. Formal briefs
sometimes do not cover legal issues so as for insurance and other covers you should be
careful. If ant issues and other information needs to be negotiated during a production
meeting as this will need to be discussed. Having a type of brief gives room for discussion
this lets the production company be more creative and suggest ideas that may improve the
final product, a advantage of a formal brief would be they are quite easy to read and clear
to understand this is good as you can get you job done quickly and effectively. Another
positive is that once a formal brief is documented you cannot make any changed to or
corrections this means you don’t have to worry about new ideas or suggestions being added
constantly however the disadvantages of this however is that as it cannot be changed if
your client wanted to add more or funding to the production then they formally wouldn’t be
able to do so, an example of a good formal brief would be a meeting were a client pitches a
idea and you present the needs and regulations you would need to make this.

Informal

An informal brief is when you and your client decide to create something and work together
to achieve it ,this type of brief is much more casual and is discussed by verbal for example
on a phone or in person not documented. This is when the producer and the client discuss
all the details and requirements needed to effectively complete the task/project and agree
on everything. The advantages of this is that there are usually no format or contractual
restrictions which will allow the production to run more relaxed ,chill and easily. You wont
necessary have any pressure to work on a specific date or have a specific deadline which is
good as this will allow people to find time to do it when they are free. There is a lot of verbal
communication between the client and producer on a informal project. Both of them are
fully understand what needs to be done as it is almost always word or mouth or phone
call/text .the project however has a higher chance of failing as there is no particular
intensive to finish other than there own motivation a really good example would be a short
film for a friend or family member.