Roller derby is so much more than throwing elbows and wearing fishnets. Within a derby team there is so much community and passion. Through this video I had hoped to demonstrate that very notion. Getting ahold of the Emerald City Rollers was super easy, yet I never actually expected a reply. Within a day after contacting them through Facebook I was able to get in touch with their social media gal. She informed be days, times, and locations I could get some good filming. That very Saturday I was able to go out and film a bout (a game). I was there for a good two hours, and sadly because of my poor filming had very little useable footage. I showed up with two Gopros, a T5i, and no tripod. I thought I was recording the whole thing on the Gopro, and didn’t realize I wasn’t until I brought it to class, and I only had a few two second videos. I didn’t use a tripod so footage on the T5i was incredibly shaky and unusable. In the end the majority of my video is footage from the very last day of shooting. I filmed and interviewed the Emerald City’s recreational team (T-rec) at one of their last practices of the season. It was super awesome to actually interact with the players and hear some of their stories.

I came into this project with too high of expectations and I let myself down. I think my message and overall idea was in the right place for an interesting project. I just don’t think I carried it out fully how I wanted to. My participants were so awesome and gave me such great content. I just don’t feel like I gave them justice.  At the bout I was only a spectator and couldn’t really interact with players. I wouldn’t want to take their focus out of the game anyways. It was the same kind of feeling at their practice. I didn’t want to impose or distract or make anyone uncomfortable with the camera. Because of my shyness and the feeling of being an inconvenience I feel as if my project came out flat. Almost every clip in my video was from the same spot. I wish I could have been more creative with my shots without distracting the players. In a year or so when I am on the team I’d like to try this project over again with more creative and dynamic shots. hopefully next time I will be a participant and not a spectator.

In the end I am happy I constructed my project from a topic close to my heart. I’m happy  I ended up footage to work with, and I’m excited to have made the contact with this team and get to join up with them in January.