Stylistic Choices

Once I decided to produce a sports documentary, my mind immediately went to what kind of concept I was going to develop. The topic sports documentary is so broad, it was time to develop the actually substance behind what I was going to produce. The first thing I take note of when consuming any piece of media is the structure/concept behind it. I will immediately love something if I think the concept behind it is cool, or immediately dislike something if the structure of the piece is too slow or disengaging. 

Like I said before, I watch a good amount of documentaries in my free time, especially sports related ones. The structure is the most important part of documentaries in my opinion, as it can make or break your piece. For example, though the story being told was surface level, the sports doc Swamp Kings on Netflix, did tell a good story. Its downfall though is its structure. It felt too slow, it was hard to watch. 

One sports documentary that I really love and took inspiration from is Hard Knocks. The HBO Original follows around a select NFL Team, typically in the summer during their spring training camp as they prepare for the upcoming season. Recently, they created an in-season version this past season, following the Miami Dolphins behind the scenes during the season and as far as they got during the playoffs. This piece’s structured is so well thought out and the concept behind is so captivating. The switch of handheld filming while following mic-ed up players seamlessly to a static sit down interview with a player or coach is so well-constructed and thought out. This docu-series originally inspired my first idea to follow a Cypress Bay sports team around for their season, or even the soccer teams as they advance closer and closer to the state championship. However, with our project being due the first week of April, I wouldn’t be able to capture the full experience, making my doc feel incomplete to me. So though I like the stylistic choices behind it, I needed to change my idea. 

                   

                                TRAINING CAMP SEASON                                                             IN-SEASON

BUT THEN, I remembered this:

Aftershock Episode 432- Maddie Brouse Feature (1:45-3:20)

This is exactly. what I am going for. The segment follows the only girl on the Cypress Bay Football team back in 2022 in a documentary style way, almost like a nat package. In that I mean the creator lets the audio from the subject and the natural sounds collected in b-roll tell the story. No voiceovers