Sports Videography

ClubWest

When I was asked to create an advertisement for my local gym, I had little idea that, by the time it was due to be released, the world would descend into a Coronavirus-imposed quarantine. Thoughts of training side-by-side with strangers and sharing water bottles and wrestling and sweating and breathing - all of that seemed alien. Therefore, we decided to hold onto the footage and wait for lockdown to lift - when we did, a re-edit allowed for a new focus: COMEBACK, the new video demands, let’s get inspired once more, let’s beat the virus and let’s banish the loneliness its lockdown created.

I produced two versions of this video. The first, my personal favourite, utilised a black and white filter. I wanted to utilise what I’d learnt in my Master’s - from music video aesthetic and Eisenstein’s montage principles, to affect theory and film psychology. I wanted to strip away individual sports and faces, devolve to pure movement, with lightning-fast cuts, changing frame rates and movements cut precisely to the beat building to a climax.

Unfortunately, all that doesn’t make for a very helpful advert: where I wanted to anonymise the trainers and homogenise the sports, ClubWest wanted to showcase those trainers and differentiate those sports. In the end, the colour version (replete with frustratingly harsh, ugly gym lighting) was used - and I learnt a valuable lesson in the clash of commercial application and artistic design. I still prefer the black and white version though.

University Sports Teams

While at University, I produced a number of ‘promos’ for clubs and societies. Each fit slightly different needs. The Powerlifting Society wanted a brooding, powerful video, while the Women’s Football Club wanted more of an upbeat, high-intensity approach. The University Tennis Club asked me to highlight the team dynamics of a typically individualist sport, while the Women’s Cricket Club wanted an eye-catching video (to overshadow the men’s team and their promo!), so I purchased some blue powder (the palette of Cambridge sport) and employed a single-colour grade to highlight the explosion of colour it brought. I tried to cater to all of these desires in the videos below.