2. Client Research
Our client, Sunderland Culture, operates some of Sunderland's most
important cultural assets. Operating some of Sunderland's most important
cultural assets such as the National Glass Centre, Sunderland Museum and
Winter Gardens, The Fire Station, Washington's Art Centre and many more,
their purpose is to improve life for all the citizens and visitors of
Sunderland through its culture.
3. Bright Lights: Northern Talent
At Washington's Art Centre, The Bright Lights is a
youth arts exhibition that is open to anyone who lives
within or around the Sunderland area and is of the
age 11-19.
The exhibition's purpose is to showcase the talents of
some of the selected young people from our region.
The exhibition will showcase the creations of these
young people.
4. Target Audience Research
For this project, the primary target audience (as stated in the brief) is young people
from the North East of England, specifically ranging from around 16-25 years
old. The reason that the target audience will most likely be from the North East is
due to the fact that they can relate more to what local events and places that will
feature in my production. However this does not mean that all the audience may
be local, some may just be interested in learning about northern
The targeted demographic will most likely belong to the social grades C2, D and E.
This is due to the age range as most of the target audience will be those who are
students or have recently left education to start a job as well as the fact that these
are the most common social grades in Sunderland.
5. Target Audience Research
I created a survey which I sent out and received a total of 23
responses, from these responses I found out more important
information about my target audience. Although I knew a rough
gage of how old my target audience was, the most common ages
were 18 (with 11 votes) and 17 (with 10 votes). Out of these
people, I also discovered that the majority (specifically 13 of them)
were male. To find out more about their social
grade I asked about their education and job status finding out
that all but one person who responded to the survey are in
education and that 12 out of the 23 are in employment. This
showed me that everyone who responded to the survey was either
social grade D or E.
6. Target Audience Research
Out of the 23, the majority (18) said that they were from
Sunderland, with the remaining 5 being from surrounding areas.
When questioned the majority (12 out of 23) said they know
some but not a lot when referring to their knowledge of
Sunderland's culture.
To find out about what they want to gain more knowledge of the
most common answers were shipyards, football, Penshaw
Monument, Vaux, glass making and the coal mining industry.
I also asked about their favourite places in the city which
included beach, Stadium of Light, Winter
Gardens and Penshaw Monument, more ideas of what I could
mention in my project.
7. Documentary Research
I researched three different documentaries that focused on a specific region;
Sunderland 'Til I Die, Vernon, Florida and Bill Cunningham New York. Each
of these documentaries differed from each other, all about different places
and people and none really conformed to one specific mode of
documentary.
Out
of the three I found aspects of participatory, expository,
poetic and observational documentary modes.
The common codes and conventions that appeared in all
three of these documentaries were interviews, real people
and events, genuine photographs and videos (not recorded
for the purpose of the documentary) and a narrative.
8. Project Idea
My idea for that fits the brief is a short documentary that focuses on the history of
Sunderland as a city, its people, buildings and its important historical events, all of these
features will be local aspects that might not relate to the rest of the UK and how these
things affected Sunderland specifically.
Combining a mixture of aspects of Sunderland's culture that I have already researched and
found interesting with aspects that were mentioned in my target audience survey I have
produced a list of ideas to explore in my documentary, these include:
• Shipyards
• Football
• Sunderland Empire
• Penshaw Monument
• Politics
• "Mackems"
• Sunderland University
• Museum and Winter
Gardens
• Seaburn Beach/Roker Pier
• National Glass Centre
• WW1, WW2 and effects
• Sunderland's geographical
location
10. Why My Campaign?
Using my research online, in person and through my target audience survey I learnt a lot
about interesting features that are part of Sunderland's culture, many of these features
were also aspects that my target audience said were their favourite parts of Sunderland or
aspects that they would be interested in learning more about.
The purpose of this documentary is to inform and entertain my target audience, teaching
them more about Sunderland's history and cultural, showing them how it became the city
that it is today. Because I know what parts of Sunderland interest my target audience, I can
include these in my documentary, educating them and entertaining them simultaneously.
