On the 9th of October the Latimer team stayed after hours for a special co-creation workshop, joined by some of the best young creatives across the city. The workshop was part of Latimer’s pioneering project to increase youth involvement within the film community in London. We asked questions to gain insight on how the young creatives perceive the industry and local cultural organisations as well as to learn more about their opinions on diversity in the creative sector.
Established film institutions in London are dealing with aging audiences and have made it clear that they are looking to expand to a younger and more diverse demographic.
“When you walk in, you have no idea these places have anything to do with films. It feels like you walked into an exhibition space but don’t know which exhibition it is, ” said participant Kevin Mayolo in regards to how unrelatable some of these theatres appear from the outside looking in.
The participants told us how film institutions and similar cultural organizations could make their space more inviting by creating an accessible area where young people can meet and spend time. Affordable food and drink options, free Wi-Fi, and public seating are a few amenities that were suggested to draw more young people to such spaces. We are working with this new generation of creatives to bring a fresh approach in the hopes of maintaining and improving the reputations of leading film organizations in our area. Knowing what would draw the young people’s interests towards the institutions is one of the first steps.
Through various discussions at last week’s workshop, we learned how the participants currently regard the industry and how they stay up to date with the culture in London. Although some of our guests had direct involvement in acting and film, they only visit institutions on occasion and made clear that there has to be a really specific reason or event for them to visit. In understanding how and where the participants get information, we’ll be able to work towards our project goals more successfully.
“[Pintrest] is the last place I would have thought culture would be found,” JC Adams added when talking about the visual discovery board Pinterest, where he gets some of his cultural information and trends.
From Twitter to Vice magazine online, the range of online platforms that are used by the participants is varied. Popularity of these different platforms is constantly fluctuating so it is important that we keep up with what’s current among online users and utilise the information to promote our new campaign. Keeping true to the Latimer ethos, we are working directly with the audiences to create the most successful campaigns for our clients.
