Extreme Sports Documentary

[Ben Davies]

I'm in the process of planning a Documentary based around 4 extreme sports: power kiting, landboarding, snowboarding and mountain biking.

I was going to just interview 1 person from each sport but I'm thinking I could interview multiple people for each of the sports which would mean I may have more footage to play with making it easier to fill up the movie? Any opinions on this?

Also, this is my first time making a Documentary film - but I will be putting in a lot of planning. I won't be starting the shoot until late September this year. I was thinking originally thinking 15 minutes, but if it was 23 minutes I could try to get it broadcasted on a channel in the UK called "Extreme".

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Tony Rydzin]

I'd say it all depends on the story and what you're trying to say, show, question, etc...but

If it's only an informative piece, no story at all, then I'd take a "less is more" type of approach to it. To many talking heads gets to be to much no matter what the B-Roll and soundtrack are like. Unless you shoot it on location in Cancun during Spring Break.... Ha!

[Dave Mercer]

I think it depends how interesting your characters are on camera. ONe person could carry a half hour ... but you could also squeeze 8 people in if they each provide something different.

My feeling with extreme sports (and a bunch of people I knew growing up in western Canada) is that you won't need more than one person per sport, if you find the right person.

Good luck!

[Ben Davies]

Thanks for the input guys!

I've decided to specialise it more for kiting, instead of trying to do multiple exrteme sports. I will have 3 differnt people, each representing their own style of kiting (kite landboarding, kite buggying, kite surfing).

Cheers!

[John Wiley]

If you're going to focus on 3 people and the 3 different types of kiting, make sure you ask each of the subjects what they think about the other types of kiting. That way you introduce some opposing opinions and don't get stuck with something that feels like 3 back-to-back monologues.

It's also always great to have a couple of comments from experts or authority figures in the sport - eg magazine editors, boardmakers, former world champions, etc. One small comment from them will carry a lot of weight and legitimise the rest of the content in the film.

[Ben Davies]

Thanks for your really helpful points there! Will make sure to take all of this on board!

[Chris Sgaraglino]

Watch, Fiberglass and Megapixels
Fiberglass and Megapixels the movie

Then reask yourself the question.

FIBERGLASS AND MEGAPIXELS • EXTENDED TRAILER 2011 on Vimeo

[Andrew Kimery]

As a mentor once told me, it's about who they are, not what they do.

Your focus, assuming you want to a shot at make something compelling and engaging, should be on the people that kite, not about kiting itself.