Client
Sports Doc Class
Date
Services
Task
Create a short-form sports documentary for my SportsDocumentary class with Professor Kligerman. We had full freedom on the subject, but whatever we chose had to be realistic to produce with limited time, access, and budget. Our group focused on Syracuse walk-on linebacker Garvin St. John and set out to build a character piece that could be shot with a small crew and turned around quickly.
Means
I built the project in Premiere Pro, handling the main cut, sound, and color. On set, I worked with Sony FX3 and A7SIII bodies, using24–70mm and 85mm lenses for interviews and b-roll. For audio, I ran a boom and lav mics to keep Garvin clean in different locations. For the sit-down interview, I lit St. John using a three-light kit.
Strategy
The hook was simple. Start with the most familiar thing about Garvin: he is a walk-on on the Syracuse Football team. Once the viewer is in, start peeling back the layers. Fishing, Chinese, where his curiosity comes from, the passing of his father, and how those all connect to his play on the field. I wanted to move between stories from his past and moments in his present, so it never felt like a flat, chronological bio. The goal was to keep the viewer anchored in where he is now while showing what it took to get there.
Execution
In preproduction, I worked with my team, Henry Zhang, Victoria Daly, and Jack Barber, to shape the story. We talked through themes, built an outline for the film, and helped refine interview questions so the conversation would feel natural but still hit the beats we needed.
I led the technical side while on location. For the interview, I strategically set up the cameras, lights, and audio as seen in the picture. I positioned the A-CAM just left of the interviewer, so the eye line was not too far off camera. Then we wanted a B-CAM for a secondary angle as well as backup. A few things I focused on while framing these shots was ensuring there was depth in the image, St. John would fall on the rule of thirds, and the background was pleasing to the eye yet not distracting from the subject. In addition to camera placement, I used a boom pole with the Sennheiser mke 600 attached at the end. This ensured crisp audio while not having the mic visible on the frame. We also recorded backup tracks onto each FX3 using on camera shotgun mics. Finally for lighting, I wanted to make it look dramatic while still retaining a balanced look as this is a feel-good sports documentary. Throughout the interview, I ensured all cameras were running smoothly and the shots were in focus while monitoring the audio of the mics.
The fishing shoot necessitated a more run and gun setup. Iran an A7SIII paired with an 85mm prime and an onboard shotgun mic for A-CAM. Considering that we wanted wide scene setters and it was also 10 degrees out with a foot of snow on the ground, we opted to put a lav mic on him instead of using a boom pole.
In post, I handled ingesting and syncing media from all shoot days and from the Syracuse Athletics archive. From there, I built the main cut around the structure we mapped out. Ingest, sync, and color were taken care of as the footage came in, and the final edit was turned around in 24hours to meet a tight deadline.
I worked on pacing between high-energy football footage and quieter moments with Garvin on the water, in the car, or building up to the moment of his dad passing. I put extra care into balancing the audio between all the different locations to ensure proper and consistent levels.
