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On 4th October, I had a call with my supervisor to discuss options for the project. I wanted to examine players and the dilemma of playing regular football or going into a full time job. It was clear that an underlying theme was debating whether the current cost of living crisis was causing this. Therefore, I will look to investigate how the cost of living crisis is affecting non-league footballers.

I will look to interview players and staff at four different National League clubs: Barnet, Boreham Wood, Wealdstone and Woking. The aim is to discover whether these clubs have adapted to cope with the crisis and discuss what the players are doing to combat the financial issues in daily life right now.

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On 10th October, I conducted a phone call with Max Fleet, who is a commercial assistant at Woking Football Club.

I explained my idea which he was initially impressed with. He has given me a few options on how I can conduct filming and interviews within Woking FC. He has asked me to produce an email to be able to forward onto senior club officials to see if I  am able to proceed.

I also asked whether I can interview and go behind the scenes with Max Kretzschmar, a close friend with Max Fleet, who currently plays for Wealdstone FC, a part time club, to see whether he or his family have had to make any sacrifices or changes to his footballing life to combat the cost of living crisis.

By doing a closer look into his and his family’s life, it should add a emotional and personal touch to the documentary.

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On 12th October - I sent the email across to Max Fleet to forward to Woking's club officials. Awaiting a reply.

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I sent emails to Barnet, Boreham Wood, Wealdstone and Woking within the last week. I have received replies from Boreham Wood and Wealdstone, who are open to the idea of filming. Unfortunately, Woking are not interested in myself coming to film, however I may be able to secure an interview with one of their accounts managers.

One of my subjects, Max Kretzschmar, is to be spoken to regarding a more extended interview, where he will discuss his move from a full time to a part time club and how the finances has impacted him in these financial times.

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Update: November/December progress on filming

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Update: November/December progress on filming

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Boreham Wood filming went well, I was able to get an interview with secretary Billy Hunter. I was also able to film parts of training and around the ground for B-roll footage.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to secure filming with Max Kretzschmar due to the fact that Wealdstone had now blocked me from filming due to new regulations. I wasn't able to film his coaching session either as it was not able to arrange it properly. Therefore I have dropped Max as my main subject.

Due to the deadline approaching (writing this in early December), I've had to use my contacts around Weymouth FC to get some filming done. I am in contact with Harrison Bruton, a goalkeeper at Weymouth, on the possibility of doing some filming with him at his coaching facility in Dorchester. I had called a few members of the Weymouth squad who had recommended Harrison to me. I would also look to see if Weymouth CEO Paul Maitland would be available to speak with too.

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Interview Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC

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Interview Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC

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Content Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC - Page 1

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Content Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC - Page 1

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Content Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC - Page 2

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Content Release Form - Billy Hunter - Boreham Wood FC - Page 2

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Have completed filming on Tuesday 6th December. A relief considering the issues I had encountered. I have filmed a good interview with both Paul and Harrison, with B-roll filmed around the grounds at Dorchester and Weymouth. Will now move onto editing before submission.

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Harrison Bruton - Interview Release Form (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Harrison Bruton - Interview Release Form (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Harrison Bruton - Content Release Form (Page 1) (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Harrison Bruton - Content Release Form (Page 1) (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Harrison Bruton - Content Release Form (Page 2) (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Harrison Bruton - Content Release Form (Page 2) (completed electronically as no printer available at time of recording)

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Interview Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC

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Interview Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC

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Content Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC - Page 1

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Content Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC - Page 1

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Content Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC - Page 2

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Content Release Form - Paul Maitland - Weymouth FC - Page 2

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The process of creating this video documentary on the cost-of-living crisis in non-league football was an enjoyable, but stressful experience which I learnt a lot from. Using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (University of Edinburgh, 2020), I will evaluate the process in which allowed me to create this documentary.

I started off this process by having a call with my supervisor who helped me find a good topic for this documentary. I had the idea to try and speak with those playing in non-league and ask whether they have had to move onto focussing on their main jobs. However, this wasn’t particularly topical, until I discussed the idea of linking it to the current cost of living crisis. I emailed different National League clubs to ask whether players and club officials would agree to be interviewed, whilst also film B-roll to accompany the interviews. I received replies from those clubs, but only Boreham Wood and Wealdstone agreed for filming.

In order to make this an immersive and emotional documentary, I wanted to make Wealdstone player Max Kretzschmar the subject of my documentary by having an extended interview and follow him around his work and football life. I was able to gain contact with him through a commercial contact, Max Fleet, that I knew at his former club Woking. However, the main problem I encountered was that Kretzschmar was very slow to reply to messages. This meant that weeks were going by with no progress on a timescale to film. Wealdstone had also backed down on an agreement to film at their training session, so I was at risk of not having enough B-roll to work with. This was extremely frustrating for me as I had gone through the process of trying to arrange suitable schedules, just to be let down.

With just a couple of weeks before the deadline, I made the decision to drop Kretzschmar and Wealdstone from my documentary. I only had Boreham Wood’s secretary interview and some B-roll to work with at the time, meaning I couldn’t compare clubs’ approach to the crisis. Using my contacts at my university placement at Weymouth FC, I secured an interview with CEO Paul Maitland and filmed B-roll around their stadium. As for finding my main subject, Weymouth goalkeeper Harrison Bruton agreed to feature and I was able to film him at his work as a youth coach for B-roll and conduct a master interview. The filming went well and I was happy with the quality of the shots and interviews that were produced.

Overall, I felt that this process was tough, since communication was a big problem throughout. By having to switch subjects and clubs, I had to put together this documentary with less time than I would have liked. For future projects, I need to be more decisive with my actions to ensure that I don’t put too much pressure on myself. Whilst the final product was of a high quality, a lot of time was wasted with my former subject and I could have explored other areas sooner had I had more time. Therefore, my action plan going forward for the future would be to use my time more wisely by making those certain inclusion/exclusion judgements quicker, in order to increase the time I had to produce the final cut.

Reference list:

The University of Edinburgh (11 November 2020) Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle  (Accessed: 13 December 2022)