Generation 2012: Film Capture Creative Brief

NE Generation, in partnership with NFM, seeks Film collaborators to deliver a major participatory capture project up to and beyond the 2012 Olympic Games.

NE Generation is the North East’s Legacy Trust UK programme, and will be delivered by the Regional Youth Work Unit (NE), with Arts Council England as the accountable body. Generation 2012, through Legacy Trust UK, forms part of the region’s plans for the Cultural Olympiad- the culture programme inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

NE Generation aims to bring about a shift in the way in which children and young people and the North East’s arts and cultural sector collaborate and work together; developing a more tuned in and children and young people focused cultural sector where young people in the North East experience, participate in and generate arts and cultural activity on their own terms. The sector will become more responsive to and reflective of young people and their cultural needs and interests, ultimately playing a greater part in their lives and increasing children and young people’s self-awareness, creative opportunities for self-expression and enabling them to develop their own ideas of personal and regional identity through engagement with the arts and culture.

Film Capture
The film capture project will track and document the changes in behaviour and development of skills of participants and programmers in working through the development of the projects and towards a celebratory event of the region’s creative response to London 2012, enabling young people to record and share their own journeys towards 2012, their responses to the programme and their views on arts and cultural institutions and activity.

The capture will be led by a film-maker/s, artist or cultural partner, together with a changing group of young people who will be tasked with developing the project to track the commissioned projects over the course of 2010 – 2012.

It is intended that a key output of the capture project will be to develop media literacy skills.

Running alongside the film capture will be the development of unique and innovative Digital Portal, created by Mere Mortals, through which the film capture can express itself in near real-time as well as retrospectively.

The project will enable young people to participate, contribute content and communicate through their own homes and computers; this will help reach rurally excluded communities and young people not currently being engaged by the public agencies.

The project will also engage in targeted outreach activity using a sense of fun and media engagement which is potentially more accessible to marginalised groups than some other cultural forms.

Background
NE Generation will deliver its vision through the commissioning and delivery of the following core strands of activity:

1. Young people & adults as collaborators
At the heart of our programme is the principle that young people and adults will collaborate throughout the programme, working in partnership with equal say from the devising of the programme, through decision making of commissioned projects to the commissioned projects themselves being a reflection of this collaborative working to produce high quality, sustainable projects which are exemplars of cultural product and new ways of working. NE Generation offers the opportunity for long term engagement in significant cultural projects across the North East for young people.

2. 10 innovation projects
At the core of the NE Generation programme is the development and delivery of 10 projects that pilot innovative and transformative new models of engaging children and young people with the cultural sector. The projects have been selected via a Panel made up of young people and steering group members. The criteria for projects took the widest possible definition of culture and children and young people involved on the programme will be drawn from young people with fewer opportunities. The first projects will begin in early 2010 and run through to September 2012.

3. Two showcase events – 2010 and 2012
There will two celebratory events in the North East showcasing the NE Generation innovation projects as a coherent creative programme of activity aligned with the region’s Cultural Olympiad and its existing programmes of cultural activity. The first showcase event will be in 2010, with the second showcase in 2012 which will take place during the Olympic Games in July/August 2012. The events will showcase the creative output of the NE Generation projects.

4. Academic Action Research & Evaluation
An evaluation project will be commissioned to track and document the changes in behaviour and development of skills and of participants and programmers in working towards a celebratory event of the region’s creative response to London 2012.

An important ambition of this evaluation is to offer an innovative approach to measuring the impacts of culture-led programmes. This goes beyond (although it includes) the usual quantitative indicators, focused on measuring participants and to take into account the lived experiences of the people involved. The programme also takes a longitudinal approach exploring change in outcomes, experiences, perceptions and understanding over time – from the decision making through the development, preparations towards the event years and beyond. The evaluation will measure impacts against the values, outcomes, outputs and performance indicators of NE Generation.

Application Process

NE Generation invites applications from a film-maker/s, cultural organisations and artists, individually or in partnerships, to submit a proposal of no more than 2 sides of A4, addressing the following:

1.    The creative content of your proposal;
2.    Your ideas around how you would plan, deliver and disseminate the project, including close partnership with the Digital Portal & Academic Evaluation Partners;
3.    How you would plan to include young people as central and equal partners to the project, including any legacies that might develop from the work.

On a third sheet, please include a proposed outline budget.

Please also submit Company Work Histories/CVs/Professional Credits.

We would encourage proposals to be as bold, imaginative and innovative as possible: NE Generation is a unique and exciting new programme which expects to break new ground in the way young people access and work with cultural organisations, and as such, we expect the Film Capture to reflect this energy.

Fee:  up £27,000 (inc. VAT), with additional support available for generic NE Generation Showcase Events. Timeframe is early 2010 to December 2012.

If you would like to talk through any aspect of NE Generation, please call Ben Ayrton, Programme Manager on 0191 440 4410 or email him at ben@rywu.org.uk.

Proposals should be sent by email or post, to:

caroline@rywu.org.uk

Caroline Garrity
Regional Youth Work Unit
Design Works
William Street
Felling
Gateshead
Tyne and Wear
NE10 0JP
Tel: 0191 440 4410
Fax: 0191 423 6201
www.rywu.org.uk

Closing Date: Friday 15th January 2010 at midday.

Shortlisted proposals will be invited to interview in late January.

Good luck.