Research - Sunderland Culture Researching The Client And Existing Products

This is my research on my client (Sunderland Culture) and some existing products that relate to what I want to make. Here I want to outline the basic values and purposes of Sunderland culture which link to the project as well as consider some early risks I may come across. I have overcame risks in my previous projects so they don't completely define they outcome of my project.

I also decided to research into other Sunderland videos from previous years, to give me a better idea of what I'm creating. Sunderland's city culture video from last year to be precise. This will give me a better idea of what type of videos Sunderland Culture like and aim for.

Client Research - Sunderland Culture

Sunderland culture is an organisation founded in 2016 that was created to drive Sunderland to be a creative and diverse city. They have placed multiple bids to become the UK's "city of culture" however they have not been successful so far with Sunderland still not being named winners. But Sunderland have been getting shortlisted lately (2021) so they have made progress over the last 6 years because they are starting to get acknowledged. Sunderland will be entering the 2025 city of culture contest, so they might finally win if they play their cards right.

Where do Sunderland Culture Operate?

The Sunderland Culture website says that Sunderland culture operate in various famous places around Sunderland such as The National Glass Centre, Arts Centre Washington, the Fire Station etc. They put on a lot of events for the public, which shows they are passionate about what they intend to do. The website lists things such as classes, courses, craft fairs, exhibitions and much more, most of which take place in their operating venues listed above. Their website is full of blogs, pictures and information if you wish to visit.

They also have a solid social media presence to, with Sunderland Culture having accounts Instagram, Facebook and even their very own YouTube channel which has 292 subscribers (as of writing) and has accumulated a total of 79,218 views (as of writing). Their Instagram account has 2.7k followers, but their Facebook is their most successful page having 11k followers. So as a whole they have a solid social media presence.

There is a sizeable team that helps fund Sunderland Culture, including a board of founders and directors. They are all listed on their website, but I have them here. Some of these people help plan and create events.

Potential Problems Relating To The Brief

Budget could be an issue since I am not getting paid to do this, so I have to use my own equipment that I already own or can borrow for free.

I have to make sure I don't use any copyrighted music, so I will have to find some good royalty free music due to copyright laws.

Due to the fact I will be filming some shots in public places my shots may include people who don't want to be filmed.

Existing Products - Sunderland Culture

Here is the previous Sunderland Culture video!

This video was produced in 2021 by Sunderland culture themselves, they used this to try and win the 2021 competition. It demonstrates the cities past and present, because at the beginning we see old footage of trains etc, that then transform into this city. The video focuses on Sun FM, performing arts, music, literature and art. Most of this video is set in "Keel square" where there looks to be a stage performance for the 2021 competition. They even got some notable people to take part such as BBC presenter Jeff Brown who is hosting the performances, showing people from Sunderland who have gone on to be successful in their industry to the point where they became recognized on television and social media.

Further research - content creators in Sunderland

Here is a video by popular Sunderland youtuber Themadmistake!

In this video Themadmistake goes over his top 5 reasons for Sunderland being the best place in England, in this video he is very passionate about they area and promotes it to the rest of the world. In this video he talks about iconic places such as Penshaw Monument, The Wear Bridge, Roker Light House and The Stadium of Light home to his beloved Sunderland AFC. He also discusses some cultural food Cheesy Chips, which he describes them as a "Sunderland delicacy". This video is a positive video about Sunderland and he clearly feels proud to come from Sunderland. Themadmistake has accumulated just over 15k subscribers (as of writing) and over 3m views (as of writing), doing videos about Sunderland and Sunderland AFC (Vlogs, Match Predictions/Reactions). This makes him one of the most successful content creators Sunderland have to offer in 2022.

Here is a video by Sunderland's biggest YouTuber Carl Bradbury!

In this video Carl talks about the iconic Mackem accent more specifically Mackem slang. He proceeds to talk about iconic Mackem words such as Gadgie and Ha'Way where he talks about what the meanings of the words, and how to say and use them properly. This video is very educational because it educates outsiders about Sunderland Culture and the Mackem accent. Carl Bradbury is Sunderland's biggest creator with his YouTube channel having 340k subscribers (as of writing) and a total 33,815,389 video views (as of writing). This makes far and away Sunderland's biggest YouTuber with no one else coming close. Carl can be used as an inspiration for young creators from Sunderland to keep pursuing their dream of becoming a successful content creator, so therefore this ties into Sunderland Culture.

Previous winners - city of culture 2021 Coventry

As a previous winner of the competition Coventry's video may provide some context as to what exactly the judges may be looking for. This video of theirs may give you a pointer to what exactly won them the title. Some things they have included are : Car manufacturing (Range Rovers), Art and design of individuals in the city, Building back up from set backs, Multi culture and diversity, performance (performing arts and sport) and everyday people who live in they area.

The video starts as a day in the life video, it fades in from black - metaphorically like your opening your eyes. The setting of the city takes place early in the morning as by things such as cleaners in an empty building, the sun rising and slow and smooth cinematography which has a narrative that takes the same tone. It uses natural lighting which benefits the camera work and is amplified by post production, lens flares which makes it more visually pleasing. It represents Coventry in it's early morning phase. It also displays some aesthetically pleasing lights such as Tudor style houses, it's bridge, the stadium etc. This makes up the video and they use a mixture of fades and straight cuts. The video then slowly starts to involve more and more people, representing the start of a work day (as Coventry is a working class city). These people remain anonymous and they are just every day people from Coventry. They take this opportunity to show of the Range Rover factory which is one of the cities most luxuries attractions. It is clear that the people take pride in their work and the companies they work for. They want to share this with everyone to show just how hard working they really are. This is effective because it impresses they audience and is an effective use of time in the video. It shows just how far Coventry has advanced as a city when it comes to technology, but it is clear they haven't forgotten their past due to them showing old photos of Coventry. They also take statements from ordinary people who live there to, which gives you a better understanding of the people. A woman who moved to Coventry later in her life appears in the video, and gives her reasons for why she likes living there and how it compares to other places. This greatly relates to Coventry's diversity, culture and inclusion. There is plenty of racial diversity in the video, so it doesn't conform to Gilroy's theory of ethnicity. This is a theory about how ethnic minorities being portrayed in a position of weakness in the media, however this video is quite they opposite. We see people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds take positions of power - for example the woman who uses boxing gloves would be portrayed as strong and courageous. Coventry does a good job at making sure different races get represented in their video. They even take statements from people who haven't lived most of their life there who say that they feel welcomed in Coventry, refugees included. The video encourages individuality and self expression and they want to encourage people to be creative and successful. We see evidence of this with musicians, dance groups, performing arts etc. They want people to be unique and step out of societal norms and stereotypes. This video helped me to see what type of video will win you the city of culture contest.

Relative Theory

-Purposefully renounces Gilroy's racial hierarchy and opposes it- they want to present Coventry as being diverse and even start off with a voiceover from a man who is a refugee. This then moves on to a woman who says she is from Shanghai who has moved to Coventry, they express their diversity through her accent too. There are also four other speakers who would not define as white British, furthering their bid for inclusion. Therefore they don't have any stereotypes.

What is the City of Culture 2022?





Kingston upon Hull was the second holder of the title in 2017, and on 7 December 2017 it was declared that Coventry was designated with the title for 2021. The bidding process for the 2025 title was conducted between 2021 and 2022, with Bradford announced as the winner on 31 May 2022.

Bradford, one of the most diverse places in the UK, has been named the 2025 city of culture, a prestigious accolade that attracts thousands of tourists and guarantees millions of pounds of funding and investment.

It is an opportunity to celebrate local culture with a programmer of events that is ambitious, inclusive, and inspiring. But, most importantly, it is an opportunity to enable significant regeneration in a city, town or area.

Existing Print Products - Coventry 2021

So I had a look for some print examples for City of culture and I found some from Coventry, that use the tagline "Coventry Moves" which is different to their video campaign "Our Coventry". The colour scheme is the first thing of note in these pictures. They use the colour blue maybe that's because Coventry City FC wear blue (sky blue). But the colours mixed with the different shapes and patterns make it stand out. Although the shapes are sometimes smaller, it is obvious that they are from the same campaign due to them having the same colour scheme. Following it appears that they got regular people to represent the city. They also promote their diversity as a way to show that Coventry is an open minded, progressive city. They show people from different religions wearing different memorabilia which shows how diverse the city is. They also use some uncommon modern designs which further suggest that Coventry is a progressive city.

In Conclusion
Doing research on past winners has helped me gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to win the competition. It has helped me get to know the style of videos they after, which is narration style videos. I also learned more about Sunderland Culture as an organisation, so I now know what they are all about, as well as their goals and morals. Researching into local content creators have given me a better understanding of the type of content creators in Sunderland. This is all valuable information that will help to produce a better product. I will take what I learned into deep consideration when producing my project.