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2nd October 2021- I contacted Evie Gane, who is a football player for the National League side Portsmouth Ladies to see if she would be interested in being a part of my documentary. We discussed ethics in great detail as the questions I was going to be asking Evie to get a better understanding of her and her journey being a female footballer can be sensitive. I wanted to find out any challenges she has faced during her career as a footballer. She openly told me stories she has experienced, such as sexism comments made to her online. And an incident which occurred when she was at school where she was refused to play football as girls were only restricted to netball and hockey.  After having this discussion with Evie I knew she would be the perfect subject for my documentary. Which is about the challenges such as discrimination, sexism and inequality which women in football face, but how this drives them to their success. I want to tell Evie's story and journey through her lived experiences to highlight how these challenges she faced didn't let her take no for an answer only push her harder to get to where she is today.

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October 10th- Evie Gane is a student at UCFB, so we was able to arrange to meet fairly quickly after being in contact. I met with her face to face in the UCFB cafe to discuss my documentary idea in greater detail. We also discussed where she would allow me to follow and film with the camera. As I already know Evie from university we had already established a high level of trust with each other so this meant she was happy for me to get closer into her life when filming by giving me permission once I begin into her family home.

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October 18th- Once I had found my story, made contact to the main subject (Evie) and met her face to face I had my access for the protagonist. However, at the moment I only access to Evie outside of football, in her personal and home life. I now had to make contacts to Portsmouth Ladies to gain access into the club. As I want to film Evie in her football environment and also interview professionals in and around the club such as the manager who can talk about this topic. This is what the email quoted
"Good morning,

My name is Ellise and I’m currently a third year student at UCFB studying Sports Business and Broadcasting.

Being in my final year I’m building up to my dissertation which unlike others is a 20 minute documentary, instead of an essay.

My documentary is all about the challenges such as discrimination and inequality which women in football face but how this has driven them to their success. So the positive out of a negative. The main character in my documentary is one of your players for the Women’s team Evie Gane, I’m telling this story through her journey.

Evie and I are friends so I have great access to her outside of the club, however I would love to be able to capture her in her footballing environment, as that’s what the documentary is all about. Her and her passion.

I would be honoured to have the permission to gain access closer into the club to film Evie training, in matches and in the changing room etc.

Along with this access to other professional members of the club such as the manager who I can interview about this topic.

My documentary is due mid December so I’m looking to start filming in the first week of November.

If this is something you would allow me to do please contact me back.

Thank you so much for reading this. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Ellise"

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October 20th- After contacting Portsmouth Ladies through both email and twitter 2 days later I had still not got a response. So I decided to take further action and privately message the media executive of Portsmouth Ladies on Linkedln. The message quoted:

"Hi Max,

I hope you're well.

I was wondering if you could help me. I’m currently a third year student at UCFB Studying Sports Business and Broadcasting. I’m building up to my dissertation which is a 20 minute documentary.

My documentary is all about the challenges such as sexism and discrimination which women in football face but how this drives them to their success.

The main character in my documentary is one of your players, Evie Gane. I’m telling this story through her journey.

Evie and I are friends so I have great access to getting footage of her outside in her home life but I want to capture footage of her in her football environment, at training and in matches.

I was wondering if you would be able to help me with gaining permission to get access closer into the club to film.

I’m looking to start filming around the beginning of November. Ideally I would like to come to a few training sessions to get content and then the MK Dons game on the 12th and Southampton on the 15th.

If this is something you could help me with then please let me know and we can discuss further.

Also if granted access I will send over more details and an email to get informed consent from the other players and any one else who could be seen or filmed in the background of the documentary.

Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Ellise

Elliselowe7@icloud.com
07444268188"

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October 20th- I also contacted Evie, to ask if she had any contact details which she could pass onto me or if she could speak to someone on the behalf of me. Evie sent a message to her manager Jay Sadler, explaining what i'm doing, why i'm doing it, the story of my documentary and the access I want to the club. In which Jay replied saying he would be more than happy to grant me access into the club and be a part of my documentary as it's about a topic he values very highly and wants to be heard. Jay gave Evie permission for her to pass his contact details onto me, where i'm going to send him a message myself to discuss this further and in more detail.

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October 25th - Evie and I have arranged to begin filming the first week of November. We are going to meet up at her house.

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October 25th- After speaking to manager Jay and Media executive Max, I have arranged to come to a training session to begin filming Evie at football on November 10th. I will send out an email prior to this to get the informed consent from anyone else in the team who could be filmed in the background.

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November 1st- I have had a change of thought for my Sports Broadcast Documentary.

My original story was finding to be difficult. As much as it is a story and something female players are living through. I was struggling to create this with my subject and the access I had.

Therefore, I have changed my idea to another powerful topic footballers today are experiencing, racism. Being an intern at Boreham Wood I have great access to the first team players.

I feel a lot better with my new idea and feel I can get the best outcome of my documentary with it.

Today I contacted the media manager for Boreham to see if she knew of any players within the team who have experienced racist abuse and would be happy to help me with my documentary. The message quoted:

“Hey Nicole,

I hope you’re well!

I’m just messaging as I’ve had a change of thought for my Sports Broadcast Documentary. I wasn’t originally going to do it on Boreham because I wanted to save that for my dissertation but as I’m doing that on the Pace academy, I can do this one on the first team.

Basically I want to do it on racism in football. Is there any specific player in the first team who you think would be happy to help me and talk about any experiences they’ve had with this?

See you Thursday!

Thanks so much,
Ellise”

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November 2nd- Today I contacted Boreham Wood’s goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore to see if he would be happy to participate in my documentary. The message quoted “Hey Nathan,

I hope you’re well!

I’m just messaging as I was wondering if you could help me with something. I’m making a 20 minute video documentary for one of my assignments this year and I wanted to do it around the topic of racism in football.

I want to create a documentary to educate people about racism in football. In hope to contribute to the movement of resolving this societal issue and changing people’s attitudes.

I would love for this story to be told through you. If this is something that you have lived experiences with and of course would be happy to talk to me about.

I’d like to film you over a period of around 3 weeks to really tell the story through you as person, in and outside of your football environment. If this is something you could help me with then please let me know and I can talk to you further about it.

Thank you so much,
Ellise”

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-As a result of me recently changing my initial idea for my documentary I have just began the process of gaining access by contacting key people who would be best for my documentary which is around the topic of racism in football.

-Being an intern at Boreham Wood, I have easy access to the club and players. Therefore I have chosen for my main subject to be goalkeeper Nathan Ashmore.

-Once Nathan has agreed that he would be happy to participate I will meet with him in person to discuss further and in more detail.

-I need to decide on my narrative arc. Will it follow the The Three Act Structure or follow Ashmore as a character.

-Begin filming, by starting off with a master interview with Nathan.

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November 3rd- Nathan has agreed to be the main subject for my documentary. We have arranged to meet 04.11.21 in person to discuss this further. I will tell him a bit more about the documentary as a whole. What my aims and visions are of it and what I’m looking for from him. To make sure he is the perfect person for my documentary, as he will ultimately contribute to the success of it. We will also discuss ethics in detail as the topic of this documentary is very sensitive.

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November 4th- After not going ahead with my original documentary idea as i didn't feel happy with it, I changed to another which has now fell through.

Nathan has picked up an injury and is going to have to have an operation which means he won't be at the ground for a while or mobile enough for me to film him.

Therefore, I have had to come up with another idea. At this point I feel really stressed because my deadline is approaching and i'm still thinking of a documentary story and gaining access.

While at my internship today speaking about my dilemma with Nathan not being able to participate in my documentary, a player around the club recommend me contacting Scott Davies who is an ex professional footballer for Reading and current player for Slough.

Scott is a former gambling addict, whose football career got cut short due to his 9 year gambling addition. In 2015 Scott went to rehab for help. Where he is now free from his gambling addiction, playing football for Slough Town and being a Pro Sports Facilitator for EPIC Risk Management.

This evening I messaged Scott to see if he would be in my documentary so I can tell his inspiring story. The message I sent to him quoted:

"Hi Scott,

I hope you’re well.

My name is Ellise. Connor Smith kindly passed over your details for me to get in contact with you about a documentary I’m making.

I’m currently a third year student at the University Campus of Football Business and for one of my assignment this year I’m making a 20 minute video documentary.

After speaking with Connor briefly about your amazing journey of overcoming an addiction, I couldn’t help but want to tell your inspiring story through my documentary.

I’d be looking to film over a period of 2-3 weeks depending on your availability of course.

I would love to have the opportunity to meet with you to discuss this further and some of my potential ideas to best tell your uplifting story through this documentary. So it can inspire others who find themselves struggling in a similar situation and show them that there is hope and a way out.

If this is something you would be interested in and happy to talk to me about then please let me know and we can arrange to meet to progress this further.

Thank you so much,
Ellise"

I really hope Scott replies and is happy to be a part of my documentary so I can finally get started.

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November 5th- Scott Davies got back to my message and said that he would be more than happy to a part of my documentary.

We had a video call, where I got to understand him better as a person and his story of overcoming a gambling addition. After speaking to Scott and hearing about his journey I knew he was the perfect subject for my documentary. He has an emotional story to tell from beginning to end. I explained to him what my visions and plans are for the documentary and his involvement within it.

After having a video call with Scott we had established a level of trust because we was able to understand and get to know one another on a much more personal level.

We also discussed ethics in detail as it is essential that I don’t cause any harm to the subject. The story he tells must not be tampered with, it’s left as he tells it. We also agreed that he will have full access to see the fine cut before the final finish.

Scott and I have arranged to meet 08.11.21 to begin filming. We are meeting in Reading at a school where he will be teaching year 10s & 11s the risks of gambling, speaking from his personal experiences and how he can help anyone who is seeking it.

As I will be going into a school I have got permission from the school itself to be allowed on sight. I also have to consider Section one: Protecting the under-eighteens as the students will be under 18. I have agreed with Scott that I will strictly only be filming him. The students faces won't be on camera only the back of their heads whilst watching him.

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November 5th- I feel much more relaxed today after my documentary idea fell through yesterday. Seeing others on my course already finished filming made me panic and feel very behind. But after having a video call with Scott and having dates in place to meet and begin filming I feel back on track.

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November 8th- Today Scott and I met up at Theale Green School in Reading to film him teaching children about gambling awareness.

It was great to meet Scott in person and listen to his story.

I was a bit nervous at first because this was my first time using a camera outside of uni. However, everything went really well and I now feel a lot more confident with a camera.

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I gave Scott a copy of this so he could see my thought process with the documentary narrative structure.

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November 12th- Today I met Scott at Slough Town FC to film the Act 2 interview which was about his gambling addiction.

After arriving home to watch the interview  back i'm a bit annoyed because you can hear the under 23s training in the background.

As this part of the documentary is about Scott telling his story, something that is sensitive the surroundings needed to be silent to compliment this and add effect. The silence would have connoted how he felt during this period of his life, alone.

I've messaged Scott and explained this to him and asked if he would be able to have another interview about it with me. As I know I won't be happy if I keep this interview knowing it could have been done better.

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November 15th- Tomorrow (16.11.21) I'm meeting back with Scott at Slough Town FC to re do his interview.

Everything that went wrong last time I must re correct and fix to make sure it doesn't happen again. I have learnt that if i'm not happy with something I need to voice it then and there because at the end of the day it's my documentary so only I can call the shots to make it the best it can be.

I feel prepared and ready to interview Scott tomorrow. After already having a previous interview with him I have been able to reflect on things that went well and could have been improved with my interviewing. I need to stay away from wrote down questions and listen to him because his response to the first question could be the question to the next.

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November 16th- Today I did my interview with Scott for Act 2. This is where he told the story of his gambling addiction.

This interview went a lot better than the original one we did. I went in there with one question and my next question came off the back of his answers. This allowed me to listen to Scott more and be able to pick up on key things he said to get a deeper insight.

Overall, I feel happy with the outcome of the interview. I took everything I have learnt over the past 3 years on my broadcasting degree into consideration and feel a lot more confident when it comes to conducting my other 2 interviews with him.

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November 17th- Once having my first interview with Scott complete I began editing it.

Firstly, I logged all the footage I got for that day. Which was the main interview and b-roll to go with it. I then transcribed the interview word for word. I carefully listened to it and picked out the key parts as it had to be shortened from 16 minutes down to 10.  Something I found very useful to help me with this was to write down on paper the question I asked Scott and then bullet points of his response. This allowed me to know how I wanted the interview to be edited.

At this point in the edit I only have the video of Scott when I first met with him at the school and my footage for Act 2 to work with. With what I have so far I have made the pre titles and edited the interview.

I'm waiting to hear back from Scott for when he's available for me to film Act 1 and Act 3 of the documentary.

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UPLOAD PICTURES OF INTERVIEW RELEASE FORM AND CONTENT RELEASE FORM AT THE END

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November 26th- Today I met with Scott to finish off the documentary.

We filmed the beginning, Act 1 at his home. As this scene was all about Scott introducing himself as a person. Speaking about his past by talking about clubs he's previously played for, his experience of being a pro footballer and his highest points throughout this whole journey. This scene captures Scott reminiscing back on what he used to have before his pro footballing career was cut short due to his gambling addiction.

The ending, Act 3 was also filmed today in Scott's back garden. I wanted to film this scene in his garden sat on a bench with plants around us to give a sense of normality. To show the viewer where Scott is now which is a relatable person, like one of us. He's gone from telling the story of his past as pro footballer in Act 1, to a gambling addict in Act 2, now finishing off in Act 3 as a normal person like the rest of us.

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November 27th- Today I began editing for Act 1 of the documentary. I logged all my footage then transcribed it word for word. Similar to what I did for Act 2, I wrote down on paper while listening to the interview every question I asked Scott then in brief bullet points his response. So that I had down on paper the interview so when it come to the edit I knew how I wanted it to look.

I now have my pre titles, Act 1 and Act 2 edit complete. This week I plan to have Act 3 edited so that when I send it off next week for rough cut I can send off the full documentary to get a good amount of feedback to make it better for fine cut and submission.

Looking back on how I was feeling on November 4th stressed and unsure on what my documentary was going to even be about. To now having almost finished my documentary and being very happy with what i've done so far, just goes to show if you work hard and put your mind to it you will achieve.

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December 3rd- Today I submitted my rough cut off for my documentary.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the full documentary done in time to get feedback on. However, I feel happy with what I have completed and the quality of it.

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December 6th- After sending my documentary off for a rough cut. I have now received feedback.

I'm going to take all the feedback on board because I want to improve and make my documentary the best it can be. However, there are a few areas of development which I can't improve. Due to Scotts busy work schedule and traveling around the country for work I can't meet with him again to film any extra b-roll footage of him looking at gambling adverts, or walking past a betting shop. As a result of this i'm going to have to make sure all the improvements I can do I do to a high quality.

My fine cut is due December 10th. By then I should have the ending of my documentary complete and the improvements done.

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December 8th- Today I edited the final scene of my documentary. I really enjoyed editing this part as it was very up lifting. Being about where Scott is now right now in life, which is in a happy and content head space.

In terms of editing because I had already wrote down the interview on paper it really helped me when it come to the edit because I had a rough idea of how I wanted it to look.

However, I struggled to back it up with b-roll as when I watched the b-roll back my hand is a bit shaky so the quality isn't good enough to use.

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December 9th- I have completed my documentary and the improvements I received to resubmit it for fine cut viewing.

I'm very happy with how the documentary has come together. I feel Scott has really opened up and told his story. He has given me great access, into his life, home and football environment for this story to be best told.

Looking back now I wish I had got more b-roll of him now just in general in his house, playing football, with family etc because that would have really added to the meaning of the documentary.

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December 14th- After submitting my documentary for fine cut viewings on December 10th and getting feedback December 11th. I have just finished all of my improvements. My improvements consisted of sharpening up by holding shots for longer to let the documentary breathe. Also painting the interview in the first scene. I acted upon this by contacting Scott to get some photos of him and his family. I was a bit nervous about doing this because one of the photos I wanted from him was of him and his grandad who had sadly passed away so it was a sensitive subject. However, I have been working with Scott now over a period of a couple months so we have established a friendship and when I asked for these pictures that are close to him he was more than happy to provide me with them. This has taught me about how important it is to build trust and a relationship with your subject at the start.

However, not all of my improvements were able to be done. As I cut between my interview with Scott and his gambling awareness talk in the school it would have been good if I got some footage of the school itself, establishing shots of the outside of the building, school sign etc. So, I contacted the school and unfortunately they didn't have enough staff to accompany me on the school grounds so I wasn't allowed access.

Another issue I have come across is my overall filming of the school talk. When I filmed Scott in Theale Green School it was my first time using a camera outside of university so I was playing around with it to get the hang of things. This hasn't had such a great impact on my documentary now I plan to use quite a lot of the footage as there's random zoom in action, then back to establishing shots etc it looks messy.

Despite that the show must go on and I have made sure that other parts are to the best standard it can be so that it makes up for it.

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December 15th- My documentary is finished.

I have just gone over the documentary to make sure everything is ready. I've taken on board all my improvements from my rough cut and fine cut so I feel confident in my final product.

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Music:
-Through The Waves by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

-https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/cinematic

Archive video footage:
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npBjTz9ru2M&t=58s

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPmdjFE2eBM

Photos:
-Scott Davies
-Dean Martin
-Idris Martin

Certain photos in my documentary I only have secondary rights to use for public use.

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This piece of writing is a reflection of my experiences with course work 2. Where I had to produce a 20-minute documentary. I will focus on what I did, but also what I learned during the process. I will reflect on things that went well, as well as things that could be improved. Throughout this piece of writing there will be reference to Gibbs’ reflective cycle to signpost my reflective journey.

Description

I originally planned to do my documentary on women’s football with Portsmouth Ladies player Evie Gane. Showing how discrimination and other challenges women in football face drives them to their success. However, when I started planning with Evie I soon come to realise that she couldn’t relate to this story. As a result of this I had to change my idea. My next documentary was going to be with Boreham Wood’s goalkeeper, Nathan Ashmore. It was going to be about racism in football, speaking from his personal experiences as a victim of it. Unfortunately, after this was agreed Nathan got injured and was out for the rest of the season, needing an operation. This is how I come to doing my documentary on Scott Davies. An ex professional footballer whose career got cut short due to a gambling addiction.

Feeling

When my first 2 documentary ideas fell through I was really stressed and panicking because I didn’t know what to do and time was ticking. However, through connections at my internship I managed to find Scott who had a great and inspiring story to tell. This made me feel motivated and ready to get going with my documentary.

Evaluation

The things that went well were the interviews. I felt that I asked good questions and followed up on everything to get detailed responses from Scott. Moreover, because I do a lot of editing at my internship when it came to editing the documentary I was familiar and confident with using premiere pro. The things that didn’t work so well was my confidence with using the camera. This affected me capturing some b-roll footage and the quality of the interviews.

Analysis

I think the reason the interviews went well was because I took everything I had learned on my broadcasting degree on board. I had one question and the rest came off of the back of Scott’s answers. I also think that the overall interview and documentary went well because Scott and I established a great level of trust. He was able to open up to me and best tell his story. I didn’t feel confident using the camera because I hadn’t used one for over 2 years having to study online due to covid, so to then go straight back out there and film for a documentary was challenging.

Conclusion

I learned that it is always a good idea to have a plan A, B and C for if things fall through. I also learned that it is essential to build a relationship with your subject from the start so that they can trust you. Otherwise, you won’t get the best out of them or your documentary.

Action plan

This documentary has highlighted to me my strengths and weaknesses which I can take on board for my dissertation documentary. I know for next time that I need to overshoot on b-roll, you can never have enough. I need to also practice my camera skills, shooting different angles and know when each angle is appropriate.