Interpreting the brief

 The following post is my own interpretation of the brief given to us regarding Sunderland Culture. I go through some of my initial thoughts and ideas based on the information given in the brief. This has helped me decide on potential target audiences and how best to reach them as well as meeting the clients needs. I will then go on to expand these thoughts and go into further detail in posts in the future. 

Audience

My audience for this project is 16-25 year olds meaning that I'm going to have to find ways to reach mainly Gen Z and some Millennials. I also need to make an effort to make my audience active as it is my goal is to encourage them to think about their regional identity, meaning that they will have to engage in some way with what I produce, even if this is just thinking about their own identity. 

The brief asks that my audience may also "express their own regional identity". I don't think there are too many ways you can outwardly express your regional identity apart from using local dialects and accents which would be natural anyway for people and wouldn't change with my product. However, I do think that people could 'embrace' their regional identity more and it would make more sense. I feel as though people could certainly embrace the city's shipbuilding and coal-mining past as we kind of overlook how big of a port we once held etc.

The requirements in detail also provide some inspiration

How you look​

How you feel​

What you like​

What you don’t like​

What you believe in ​

What you don’t believe in​

How you think other people see you​

How you feel about your region​

What it is to come from this region

The three main things I think I want to explore in my promotional video would be How you Feel (about the city of Sunderland/the north east), What you like (what makes the city special/likeable/different) and what you believe in (Traditions? Heritage? Values?).

I feel as though it would be valuable to have some inclusion of interviews in my project, whereby people can answer these questions or similar. When I was researching some similar city of culture bid videos, there were a few that were unscripted and simply used peoples interviews as their narration. I was originally quite drawn to the no narration/voice over of the Stoke on Trent bid, but realise that these interviews could give more depth to my project. I still want to heavily rely on visuals as I think these can sometimes speak more volume. Perhaps it is something to record and try and edit the video two separate ways-one with an interview, one without. 
 

Client

My client is Sunderland Culture. They define themselves as "Sunderland Culture is a new organisation created to bring together Sunderland’s most important cultural assets and activities and realise the ambition of a city brimming with creative potential". Therefore, I believe it is a good idea to try and exhibit as much as Sunderland Creative side as possible alongside the cultural values which will be explored through heritage. I also already know that the company operates several buildings in and around Sunderland such as the Fire Station and the National Glass Centre, so it could be an idea to feature these in my project. Perhaps interviewing people with these places behind them?

I since have completed thorough research on my client in a post titled 'Research on Client and existing products'.

Potential Issues

- Filming permissions for places I am planning to film (e.g. Winter Gardens, Empire etc) 

- Finding a diverse range of people to potentially interview (e.g. want to represent different, ages, genders, race)

-Due to the length of this assignment, I would not be conforming to the typical city bid video which is normally up to 5 minutes. I will need to think of ways to expand my work so that it is over 10 minutes in length. Therefore, I need more things to fill the time etc such as interviews.