Creating great video content, despite massive footage challenges.
This project was a four-part documentary series following Josh Berry, a young British golfer who had just earned his place on the DP World Tour at a remarkably early age. It was commissioned by his sponsor Travis Mathew.
Matt and Charlie led the production across two separate shoot phases. The first was a day in Doncaster, capturing interviews with Josh and the people around him at the moment he made it on to the tour, featuring interviews with family, coaches and the people who'd watched him get there. The second came later in the year, once the tour season had played out, to capture the narrative of what had actually happened. This time that was a mix of interviews and specially constructed sequences to illustrate what the interviews described.
That second element was where the creative problem-solving came in. Without rights to broadcast tour footage, there was no archive to cut to when Josh talked about life on tour or his journey to get there. The solution was to build it from scratch, shooting b-roll sequences designed specifically to carry those moments, and digging through social archives and personal collections for photographs that could drive the edit.
A documentary series like this lives or dies on the quality of the interviews. Getting a young athlete, someone not used to being in front of a camera for extended periods and getting them to open up honestly about a year that was by turns exciting, challenging, and at times brutal, requires a particular approach. The interview environment, the questions, the pacing of the day all of it shapes the end result. What Josh gave us was genuine, and that's what makes the series work.
Yes. Series documentary production requires a different discipline to a single film. There has to be a consistency of tone and visual style across episodes, a narrative arc that holds across the full run, and a production pipeline that can manage the volume of material involved. We plan that structure before we shoot, so the edit has a clear shape to work to from the outset.
It can be a common challenge, particularly in sports documentary where broadcast rights are tightly controlled and very expensive to obtain. The answer is creative problem-solving, shooting b-roll sequences specifically designed to carry the moments that have no visual coverage, sourcing personal photography and social archives, and building sequences in the edit that illustrate what's being described rather than simply cutting away to existing footage. It takes more planning and more imagination, but the results are often stronger for it.
Yes. Brand ambassador content works best when it feels authentic, when the subject's story and the brand's values genuinely connect, rather than one being bolted onto the other. We work with brands to find that connection at the briefing stage, and build the production around it. The result is content that works for the brand without feeling like an advert.