Central Insider: Craig Barrett

From a developing university student at Salford and videographer for Central to Manchester City’s Assistant Producer, Craig Barrett has had some journey. We caught up with Craig and asked him to look back on what he’s experienced during his career so far, specifically with Central.

“When I first started, I was looking improve video skills and photo skills, that was the main thing I was brought in to do, and I would take pictures of players during the game or do a little bit of video for it to be put on social media.”

Craig Barrett’s ambitions stemmed from when he took on media at high school, which carried on into college and university; he had always been a fan of football so finding a way where he could have a job involving sport and media made things a lot better for him. Central was the perfect place to start for Craig and this is what he had to say regarding the experience:

“I was with Central for just over a season, being able to understand the experience of being at a football club no matter how big or small the club is, understanding relationships between the players and yourself, everyone wanted to help each other out. We would produce photos and videos not only for good content but also content that would help push the players with their careers too.”

From Central, Craig Barrett went immediately into the sport media industry, working for a company called ADI in Preston. In this role he would create big screen content for clubs in the EFL and the Premier League, more personally he created graphics for Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, and Queen’s Park Rangers. From there he was the Videographer at Wigan for a season before reuniting with QPR to do the same role, then for the last year and a half Craig has been the Assistant Producer for Premier League giants Manchester City.

“When starting out it’s definitely beneficial to do voluntary work as it gives you the exposure and everyone’s pointing in the same direction, we’re all trying to learn from each other and better ourselves and that’s why being at Central is good because you have to put the hard work in in order to get that exposure.”

To see the position that Craig is in now it is clear that by taking his opportunities at Central, understanding what the club really stands for, seeing what the mission is at the club and what direction the club is going in, he was able to build on his experiences and go on to achieve great things. His final piece of advice was that ‘you have to feel comfortable with the work, you have to enjoy it, and you need to be able to share ideas as well as going along with others to create good content overall.’

If you are interested in getting involved with Manchester Central, then please email Josh Hawkes here - manchestercentralfc@hotmail.com