Sam Gordon: The Fastest man in Wales!

Sam Gordon is the fastest man in Wales with hopes of sprinting towards his dreams of the Olympic games. He is full of laughter and exhilarated energy that just lights up a room. In this story, we uncovered the never-before-seen layers of life that make Sam who he is today. Sam takes the audience through the journey of his highest highs and lowest lows on and off the track in a story that will inspire the world.

Background:

Ball State Sports Link created an international partnership with Cardiff Met University in Cardiff, Wales. This gave me the opportunity to be a part of an international documentary production. I worked alongside Zach Roy, a student at Ball State, to create this video production project. Before traveling, Zach and I sat together and researched as much as we could about Sam. Due to Sam’s busy schedule, we were not able to do a pre-interview prior to the trip. So, there we were, on an eight-hour flight overseas to film a story about the fastest man in Wales with only internet research.

We had roughly 11 days to film and conduct interviews for this story before returning back to America. The filming sessions included weight training, indoor and sprint training, family night, walks through Cardiff, and athletic treatment. During these sessions, a wireless microphone was placed on Sam, so that there would be sound bites of Sam in informal settings. Throughout the week we built a connection with Sam, his teammates, family, and friends. Doing this strengthened the level of trust we needed to be able to get the full story of who Sam Gordon is. This was proven when, during the interview, Sam opened up to us about something he had never told anyone outside two family members before. He trusted us with this information because he knew we were truly there to tell his story the right and respectable way.

The post-production was a bit more challenging due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Once we returned, the campus closed and all classes moved online for the remainder of the semester. This made Zach return home to Minnesota and I returned home to southern Indiana. This resulted in us being hours away from each other, trying to edit a feature story. Zach and I agreed to quarantine for 2 weeks, and then meet back in Muncie, Indiana to work on this project. During those two weeks of quarantine, I listened to all the interviews, taking notes of certain quotes I thought could impact the story. Next, I created a circular diagram of where I thought certain things could fit throughout the story. I had pages of notes for ideas on how we could construct the story in the best way possible.

When we finally got to Muncie, Zach and I sat down and just talked through each other's notes. We then constructed the story around the idea of circular storytelling. This means that all things connect throughout the entire piece. We compared notes we took from all the footage and interviews filmed, and collaboratively decided on our circle of the story. We spent 5 days inside of his home editing from morning to night. That was not enough time to finish the story, so we had to come up with another method. We had a hard drive that contained all the video elements and would ship it back and forth to make edits. We conducted many zoom calls between us, our professor, and Sam Gordon to discuss the story, get feedback and make notes. After weeks of editing, the final story was exported, and that is what you can view today.