2. The brief The brief that we have been given is to bring cultural
awareness to the Northeast/ Sunderland/ Newcastle.
We have also been given a target audience of 16-25
for this specific project. For this project, my main goal
is to show people who are both from and not local to
the northeast the different cultures that can be found
within the region. My main focus for this project will
be to show the music side of the Northeast and how
it has had an impact on the region. I have bee asked
to create a product for the company ‘Sunderland
Culture’ for their campaign ‘Bright Lights’ who are
currently aiming to show people the talent and the
culture within the region and bring some light to the
area, as many people have a negative view on the
Northeast and Sunderland. I plan in showing this by
showing people the music scene within the Northeast
and show how music brings people together.
Presentation title 2
3. 3
Target Audience As of the given target audience, my project will be
targeted towards 16-25 year-olds. To find out more
about my target audience I created a google forms
survey to gather more information to allow my
project to be relevant to the client and the target
audience. From this survey I gathered 10
responses from people within my college class and
my friends outside of college.
From my survey I found that the majority of my
audience are within the age of 16-18 however
there was a small minority that were in the age of
19-21. I also asked questions like what was their
gender which I found that it was split 50% male
and female.
I then asked questions that were relevant to the
client and their company as it allows me to see if
my audience are aware of the company and what
they do. This also means that I can create the best
possible product for my client and my audience. By
asking these questions it allows me to inform my
audience of who the client is if they weren’t
already aware of them.
4. Subject
Research
Presentation title 4
Sunderland is well known as being a port city in the Northeast, the city is 10 miles away
from Newcastle- Upon-Tyne. In the 19th century Sunderlands shipbuilding industry
continued to grow and became Sunderlands main industry and defined Sunderlands
identity as being a ‘port city’. From 1846- 1854 almost a third of the UKs ships were built in
Sunderland, during this time Sunderland was proclaimed to be the greatest shipbuilding
port in the world by ‘Sunderland Herald’. The wear also launched the first ever iron ship in
1852, however as the century progressed the number of shipyards across the wear
decreased but others increased in size to allow them to accommodate for the demand of
ships that were needing to be built. The shipbuilding industry was nationalised in 1977,
and substantial job losses followed. 7,535 people worked in the shipyards 1978 this
decreased to 4,337 by 1984. In 1980 the last two of Sunderland shipyards merged into
one but were eventually closed by 1989. This brought a end to over six centuries of
shipbuilding in Sunderland to a close, and also a large part of Sunderlands identity to a
close.
Emeli Sande is also from Sunderland and has many success stories to her name. Emeli
has won four Brit awards, performed at both opening and closing ceremonies at the
London 2012 Olympics, she was also appointed an MBE in 2017 for her services to music.
She also had a best selling album in 2012 ‘Our Version of Events’. Also the notorious band
‘The Beatles performed in Sunderland in 1963 at the Sunderland Empire on their ‘Bottom
of the Bill Helen Shapiro’ tour. They also appeared at the Rink Ballroom in Sunderland in
May of 1963. Another famous band that have played in Sunderland is ‘The Who’, from the
years of 1966-1971 they played in Sunderland four times. The first three times they played
in Sunderland they performed in the Sunderland Empire and the other time they performed
at the Bay hotel in 1969. Author Richard Houghton said “The music business was much
less corporate that it is now and there were more small and medium sized venues with
very few really large places that bands could play. Sunderland was somewhere that
benefitted from that, because bands like The Who were gigging constantly”. This allowed
Sunderland music scene to start growing rapidly and gain more attention from people who
weren’t from the area.
5. Subject Research-
Newcastle
Presentation title 5
With my project being based in the north east I also decided to look into some local talent that
have showed what talent we have in the area. Sam Fender was born in April of 1994 in North
Shields which is just outside of Newcastle, Sam was brought up in a lower middle class family. His
mother was a nurse and his father was a singer- songwriter, guitarist and pianist, which allowed
him to grow up around music and find his passion for it. He grew up in a area in north shields
where drug rates were very high and his friends started getting involved in selling and taking
them. At age 17 Sams mother had to leave her nursing job due to her fibromyalgia which sent the
family into a money crisis where they ended up below the poverty line, as the area that Sam grew
up in had high drug rates which led him to want to start selling drugs to help provide for his
family which he was prevented from doing by his mother. Sam then worked in a pub to help
provide for his family and dropped out of his A levels to go full time in the bar, which is where his
music manager discovered him. In 2017 Sam independently released his own single called Play
God’ which was then played on BBC Radio 1. Aswell as ‘Play God’ he also had two other singles
that were released which were seen as his breakthrough singles, they were ‘Friday Fighting’ and
‘start again’. In 2018 he was put onto the BBCs sound of 2018 shortlist which also included artists
such as Billie Eillish, Khalid and Lewis Capaldi. In 2018 he also released his first EP which was
called ‘Dead Boys which also gained him a lot of attention as people were drawn to the indie/
rock music that he was releasing. On March 6th 2019 ‘Hypersonic Mistles’ was released and
everything changed as the song sky rocketed through the charts, this would also be the name of
his first studio album in the future. Once the song had become majorly popular he made his first
US debut after appearing on the Jimmy Kimmel show which after he then went on his first
Northern American tour. On this tour he sold out both New York City and Los Angeles. In 2020
Sam Fender played at the AIDS foundation academy awards party where he performed one of his
singles ‘Will We Talk?’ with Elton John. In 2022 ‘Seventeen Going Under’ was released which was
his second studio album and within its first week of release sold over 44,000 copies in which 79%
of those were physical copies of the album. This also beat the UK top 10 sales combined.
In my documentary I really want to include his music and his journey throughout it as he grew up
around the north east and shows how talent can grow within the north east.
6. Existing product
Research
Presentation title 6
When completing research into different existing products, I decided to look into 3
different shows, these were: Outer banks, Sunderland Til I die and Freddie Mercury
Inside his mind. I chose these programs as they have some relevance to my product
that I am wanting to create.
Outerbanks is a show about 4 teenagers that live on an island and are looked down
on as they are the working class who go on an adventure. I chose to analyse this
show/ print advertisement as many people of Sunderland/ in the North East are
working class and can be looked down upon by other people across the country or
close to the area. The producer of the show, Jonas Pate, has used a Dutch tilt to
foreshadow the events that are to come within the show, by doing this, this allows
the audience to become curious of the events that are going to occur in the future.
Sunderland Til I Die is a show based around Sunderlands football team ‘Sunderland
AFC’. Sunderland Til I Die was produced by ‘Fulwell 73’ which is a film, music and
television company based in London. The name of the company is homeage to
Sunderland AFC, Fulwell end is the name of the stand at Roker Park and the ‘73’
comes from the last time that Sunderland won a major trophy. This series can
relate to this brief as it is based around Sunderland and their football team. As the
brief is around ‘ Sunderland Culture’ I thought that it would be appropriate to
research into this product as it can relate to the brief the most.
Freddie Mercury Inside His Mind is a show based around Freddie Mercury
and how his career started from a young age. The program mainly focuses
on Freddie's mind and everything psychological that Freddie was dealing
with throughout his whole life and how that shaped the ‘on stage
persona’ that he created when performing and in public. I decided to
research into this as it is based around a music performer and my product
is going to be based around music around the North East and how it
brings people together.
7. My final Ideas
Presentation title 7
For my final product in this project I have decided to make a documentary
about music in the north east and how it has shaped the north east and
brought people together. I will also be focusing this into Newcastle as well
as Sunderland so I can gather more history around our local area.
When researching into my subject area I was focused on including a
singer from the North east who is very well known, which is Sam Fender.
As he is from the north east I plan on adding a section in my documentary
that is dedicated to his upbringing and how he got Into the music scene
and became the singer he is today. By doing this I also plan on filming
areas where he is from which is North Shields which Is just outside of
Newcastle. The locations that I plan on including is Whitley Bay beach and
The Low Lights Tavern, where his Brit award is kept.
I also plan on including another singer Gordon Sumner or Sting as many
people know him by. Gordon also grew up in the north east in an area
called Wallsend by his working class family.
I wanted to include local talent into my documentary a it will allow people
who may not be from the north east to see that people from this area
have potential and are talented, so by showing them people like Sam
Fender and Sting it may give them a different perspective.
I'm also going to dive into the history of Sunderlands usic scene by looking
into different performance venues and how they have developed over the
past and how it has shaped the streets and people of Sunderland into the
music loving city it is today, I will also be doing the same with Newcastle
but mainly focusing on Sunderland.
8. Visual Ideas
Presentation title 8
To find inspiration for my documentary I decided to
create a image/ Pinterest board to get a better visual
representation of what I am wanting to create. In these
images they mainly contain pictures of Sunderland and
Newcastle in both the modern day and there is a few
images of the cities in the past. I also included a few
music venues from both cities.
By having a visual representation of the product that I
am wanting to create, it helps me see what I am
wanting to include within the final product. For my final
outcome I am planning on filming around the cities and
specific locations with a voiceover over the top of the
clips. However, I am wanting to include a few interviews.
I also plan on creating a few print media edits for my
documentary as more of an advertisement for my
product.
9. Why my
campaign?
Presentation title 9
When creating my campaign, I have thoroughly thought out my idea on
how I can make the subject relevant to the client ‘Sunderland Culture’ and
how I can make it appropriate for the given brief. Due to conducting
research into the client, Sunderland Culture, I have been able to complete
target audience research surveys which are both appropriate to the client
and the given target audience which is people within the ages of 16-25. By
creating a documentary about how music has shaped the North east I
believe that I am creating a relevant product to people in that specific age
bracket.
The purpose of creating this documentary is to inform my audience of the
history of music within the north east and how it has brought the
community together. As said in previous slides I also want to inform my
audience about the history of Sunderland and Newcastle not only as cities
but how music has grown throughout the years within the cities.
