As part of our assignment we had to meet with a client that set us the brief for Christ the King to design and make an ident for their channel. Before having a class meeting where other groups was involved we were giving the brief for the project and we annotated the nature and demands of the brief for example, the budget, the time length and the suits of ident. In the real world if a company or a person is working on a project they will have to work with a client that who set the brief to get a better understanding about the project making which very important as we are given the opportunity to have an experience of working with professional client as people in the media industry do on a daily bases.
On Tuesday 30th March 2017 we had our first meeting with our client and we sat down in our groups waiting to our client to arrive. As our client arrives one person from each introduces our self and people in our group, due to this the client can get a feel of the groups and being polite. In the real world creative design agency or individuals will introduces themselves before starting the meeting to be professional and it let the client known who they are. For example, If a client gives out a commission brief or competition brief to more than one agency then it is important to introduces your business to the client as you will know your business.
After we all introduce our self we all took turns to answer any questions we was not quite sure about this is called consultation with client. Before going in depth with the meeting the first thing we did same as companies will with a meeting with the client will asked question base on the brief that was set. For example, in order for companies or individuals to have discussion with client they need to ask questions that the not sure about or to get a better understanding on what the client wants. This is very important during an meeting due to if anything you not sure about you can ask the questions making sure that both of the participate understand where they at in the process of the project. The benefits of this are that the requirements needed is understood, therefore they can go forward with the process of making of the product.
In our case we sat down with the clients and the second we done was consulate with the client which involved asking questions about the brief such as, one of group consulate with the client what the brand identity of the college is and what you want it to portray. The client replay back with the ‘Christ the King motto ‘Ut Vitam Habeant’ which means ‘may they have life that they may have life in all fullness.’ This question was one of the most important questions as we want to tie this phrase into our idents.
Another question that we asked the client is if he wants to include the ethically status in it the ident? The client replayed s it would be handy as we want to let the upcoming students to know that the college is catholic schools as one of reason that some previous students apply at this college because the school catholic. This was a usually question that we ask as it help to creates brands identity. By this information this will allows us to attracted our audience (15-19)
The last question we asked if we could rebrand the logo e.g. the colour of the logo if we could change as it not bold enough and very formal.
The reason we asked this questions is our aimed is to attracted to our audience (15-19) as they are more into vibrate object, and the logo id dull and formally and appeals to parents. The client replies that ‘he would like us to keep the logo and colour the same as it is the college brand identity but we can spice up the colour bit. This was a very useful question to ask because in the real world some client will like to re-brand their logo and some clients will be stricter on the logo as companies will have limited creatives on the logo.
Overall the first stage of the meeting (consultation with client) was really usefully as I got more understand of brief and what we have to produces for end product. The client was very helpful and he known what he wants in the ident. By this I took in consideration what client want and I could do to meet his needs and mine.
ii. Degree of discretion in interpreting brief Shanee and Maya
When it came to undergoing our ident, there were a degree of discretion that needed to be taken under consideration. We had an informal brief which was a basic meeting with the client and our production group and we went over the nature and demand of the desired product. This enabled us to get an insight into what the client would like.
After we consulted with client and look over the demands and nature of the brief we felts like that we had to negotiate same parts of the brief for example, ’the scenario’ as we felt that some bit need improving on in order to produces a successful outcome of the project that client and our group is happy with. This is one most important stage when meeting with the client as it shows that you trying to meet your need as well as the client. For example, if you company feels like that some things that we can to benefit the product for best value might have to negotiate with client in order to produces the best product for your audience.
One question that we negotiated with the client was the duration of the ident as it has to be 30 seconds. We negotiate with the time length down to 20 seconds as we felt that if we did stock motion or animation it would be that interesting to watch and animation and stock motion will be more efficient if it was shorter. This was our main priorities when negotiating with our client as we strong believes that it would be more successful if time length is shorter. One we answered the question and explain why it would work the client agreed with us.
Other questions we negotiated with the client was the 4 seasonal ident as the client believe that we should include seasonal ident such as, one base on summer, winter, spring and autumn. However we though that that would not achievable but instead we through if we came with 4 different ident that gives the audience that context of the CTK ident channel, which is easier. At first the client was not too sure about the enquire but once we explain it to him why this could not work he came around and said he is happy for us to produce 4 ident.
Other questions we negotiated with the client were the logo as it was dull and seemed to be aimed at older sophisticated audience, not for younger audience (15 - 19 years) which we making it for. Our plan was to change the logo to fit our target audience by making it lively and vibrant. However our client did not want us to change the logo as he want to keep the brand identity of the college, but he did agree that we could use the colour of logo and make it more colourful and vibrant. In real world companies will negotiate with the client to suit them and also meeting the clients’ needs in order to produces a product that both believe that their audience would enjoy.
Nature of this particular project was limited freedom of the whole project. He told us his thoughts and how he would like to represent the college. In the meeting I think it was professional as he stick to thoughts and ideas of what he expect of the ident and some were not change. Apart from this, he let us make the rest of the decisions; especially with the technical aspects. He did, however, make contributions along the way with the ident. Therefore, there was a lot of area for creativity but we still had boundaries we had to follow. There wasn't much demand when it came to this product except the deadline, time length and other similar aspects. On a whole, I feel like we had some freedom when it came to the making of this product but still had certain things to follow. We had to also take into consideration anything the client said along the way to stop any misunderstandings.
We had an informal brief which was a basic meeting where our production group and the client talked over both the nature and demand of the desired product. This enabled us to get a insight into what the client would like and stop us from having to repeat previous acts. This is especially since the client had already had an image and following before we went on to make this video. That meant that we had to look into his previous image and not stray to far from it unless for artistic purposes. The entire process had been very laid back throughout. The negotiation went smoothly, consisting of people throwing about ideas with no major boundaries. The shooting went quite the same. People just threw in ideas a changes which would make the overall project and the client reviewed what we had done regularly so we didn't waste time on a project that he didn't like.
iii. Constraints (legal, ethical, regulatory) Calvin (My contribution)
While producing the product (suite of idents), we need to be careful with Copyright. Copyright is an automatic right that protects a piece of written and recorded work from being copied, stolen or used by anyone else without the copyright owner's permission. We cannot use any material found on the internet unless the owner gives permission for us to use. If we didn't get the permission to use materials which was found on the internet, our content can get taken down and we could get sued especially if we made money out of it. Not only us could get sued, also our client's organisation could get sued too and then we both would have to pay a huge amount of money. This could lead our company into having a bad reputation, this could mean nobody may want to work with us again which could results our company getting shutdown.(Bad Reputation > Company could get shutdown > No job > No money > No money to pay for your house bills > Homeless).
For example, if we're going include a soundtrack for the suite of idents from YouTube, I will have be aware of copyright, the owners can choose to grant permission for others to use their work. Usually we will have to make a payment for the right to use the material after we write to the copyright holder and ask for permission.
We also need permission to shoot on location, we will need to get shooting licences in order to shoot on location. Since the main location is our school, the producer will need to go to the headteacher/principle to get permission to shoot on location but that won't be a problem as we're already given permission.To be able to shoot in different locations, we will need to ask for a permit from the Council as it's their property. It's very important that we will need a location release form to be signed otherwise the owners of the location we chose to film in could decide that they don't want us to use footage of their location.
We will need to get permission from all of the actors with the use of a talent release. The talent release will be given to each of the people who will be filmed so they can sign it in agreement to be filmed. This will help us not get in trouble later on for filming someone without their permission. This is particular when it comes to people passing by. Due to The Human Rights Act 1998, everybody has a right to respect for his or her private life. This means that it is against the law to record people passing by, without there permission unless the image is unclear or the face has been blurred out. This law is very important when it comes to children as it is unacceptable to publish anything including a child without the content of the child or their guardian. This is crucial to us as we are filming in a school which consists a lot of minors that we may need to get consent from. They can wander around in the background. If we were to film in a place with a lot of people passing by, then we will need to shut off the area by discussing with the city's government or film office to secure permits and secure street closings and traffic management, to ensure that nobody walks past in the background.
There are always health and safety issue when it comes to the production of a product like this. It's important to discuss it before filming begins so we can avoid or reduce the risks, for example, someone getting hurt during the shoot. This can happen in many ways, for example, if someone is to trip and fall on a hazard of the location. There will be a variety of different procedures and acts put in place to ensure that this does not happen. One procedure called Risk Assessment, it is to evaluate the potential risks that may be involved. This will include someone going to the location and looking at the possibly risks. They will thoroughly identify all of the possible risks of that location no matter how small the risk is. They will then evaluate the risks on their level of risk (High, medium, low) and identify any measures that will need to be taken in order to prevent the risks from becoming a hazard. If we were to be filming on a road, for example, we would need to get a permit in order to close the area, which will hep take away the risk of member of the public getting hurt otherwise they could possibly sue you.
The health of both the production group and any talents included in the production will need to be taken into consideration as they will need to have regular breaks in between scenes and be given essentials such as drink and food in order to ensure the best health for them.
iv. Amendments to proposed final product Roopa
During the Production Process there can be many different stages at which ideas can be changed or developed.
During our first meeting with our client,David Pearson.We had spoken about amendments to proposed final product for our suite of idents which the client wanted us to produce to promote CTK on digital platform to prospective students.
When we was discussing ideas for the 4 idents,we had spoken about how to promote the target audience who are 15-19 students of both gender, however the client wanted to make sure that it still appeals to parents and not to offend the wider catholic public.
We had to discuss and have a mutual agreement regarding the proposed final product such as the theme or what he feels the brand identify for CTK is.
When we spoken to the client, we had to negotiate with him because we felt creating an seasonal suite of ident would not be effective in promoting ctk to prospective student. Moreover, we discussed the plans to create 4 individual idents as a part of suite which have the same theme but use it differently.
Also, we had discussed making an change to the duration because we felt that 30 seconds would be long to create an interesting ident.The client was ok with this once we had explained the reason why.
When we spoken about a colour scheme, the client wanted us to show use the colours are included in the logo, we have decided to use purple and white as our main colour scheme as it will stand out.
Moreover, we had to develop our ideas because our teacher recommended that they sound like we are creating an advertisement for CTK. After our meeting with the client,we got to understand what he wanted because there were a few things which we were not certain on, for example the brand identify.
When we were planning our idents before the first meeting, we had to discover what the colour scheme will be. We had decided to use the purple as it is recognised as the brand identify for ctk.
Amendments to proposed final product which we discussed about:
- Theme
- Duration
- Colour scheme
- Seasonal
- Live action with animation or stop motion
- Location
Reading a brief is all about creating or signing any type of brief ,you need to read throughout to make sure that everything is understood, if you are not sure you can ask the client for more detail.
When completing the brief, it is important that we consultation with the client as we are producing a product for them, we had to have communication and follow what the client wants ;this type of brief was very easy and clear to understand because it allowed us to follow and complete it to near professional standards.
As a group, we had felt that the amendments to proposed final product were very important when we had our first meeting with our client who is David Pearson because we got to discuss the whole brief and we could negotiate and discuss any changes that we wanted do. This has allowed for us to be able to complete this project to near professional standards.
v. Amendments to budget Shanee
Throughout the production process there are often a lot of amendments made the the budget. This is because as the process goes, budget may look as if it is going to work out differently. For example, if you had to film for another couple of days it may cost a bit more money than before. Budget is very important because without it you wouldn't be able to pull of the rest of your shoot and it may even result in the video being lesser quality. However, a production budget is usually put in place to ensure this doesn't happen.
There wasn't much amendments to the budget. We planned out the basic budget and the production process went pretty smoothly. However, we did have to go on and film an extra day due to the artist and client showing up late. This wasn't much of a change but we did need to by the artist food on the extra day which was a small change to the budget. However, since we worked in budget problems into our planning, this wouldn't have been a problem if there was a larger budget change.
If we were to extend our budget then it would have been worked into the production budget. We gave ourselves more money, just encase we went over which meant we would always stay in budget. This is needed so that you don't spend over your budget. This would mean that you wouldn't finish the project and therefore, you wouldn't get paid.
vi. Amendments to conditions Roopa
We had to read the brief and make sure that we understood it, when we spoken to the client who had discussed any amendment to condition. For example, if you feel that the deadline is not longer enough to create the product, you will have to negotiate a longer deadline, if it is sometimes hard to change after you have signed.
One amendment to condition is that we had spoken about the target audience who are 15-19 students of both gender, however the client wanted to make sure that it still appeals to parents and not to offend the wider catholic public. In order to do this we need to make sure that our suite of ident is creative but still communicating Visual information to a non-visual audience.
So timing has became a crucial part of idents to convey the message to the audience without making them bored, this is why ident tends to be up to 15-30 seconds maximum because they want to create a mini movie for the channel or programme which shows the audience in a reality scene.
This new suite of ident doesn't have to played at certain time of year as they are not seasonal, so they will be played all year.They can be played anytime of day.
