documentary process

How Friday Night Lightning Came To Be

Background

Originally, the plan was to do a documentary on HOSA since Brooke (one of my partners) is in the club, but as we were brainstorming Claudio (my other partner) went up to us and asked to do something football related since we all have connections to the school football team: Claudio used to be on the team and knows the majority of the players, Brooke is a cheerleader, and my first period teacher is the coach for the team. 

Research

There wasn't much research to do since we already knew about the team and had connections. However, I had to search for the players positions on the team's hudl (a website used to post highlights and general information about the players).

Planning & Production (pt. 1)

There were MANY hiccups along the way. We began working on the project on a Wednesday and there was a game occuring the Friday of that same week, which would've been the last game of the season if Cypress lost. The game was around 45 minutes away from Cypress so neither Claudio or I could make it and although Brooke went, she was cheering and could not get footage.

footage used from game

The original plan was to rely on b-roll taken of the players during or after the interviews, but Cypress thankfully won and made it to the playoffs. At the next game, I was thankfully able to attend and got a little b-roll; however, the majority of it wasn't usable due to the quality and I only used two clips from the game. We decided to additionally get cheerleader input, but we were only able to interview Brooke and only had two questions for her.

Production (pt 2)

We began production that Friday since the players were already in uniform and ready for the interviews. Around a week or so after we got the aforementioned game footage and a couple of days after that interviewed Brooke and got b-roll for her part. Production itself went smoothly and I was able to use many of the clips we took.