Love and Luca: Triumphs and Trials

By Ella Harrison

Filming and producing a mini documentary were by far the most daunting tasks in this class. Making the final touches to my film about tennis player Luca Vocke reminded me of my time playing tennis in high school. Anticipation and nervous energy coursed through my body.

"0-0, LOVE ALL"

Like any good match, we must start with the spin of the racquet and the first serve. This project formed from an idea I had about interviewing an international athlete here at Furman. After some of my classmates suggested I interview a member of the tennis team, I contacted one of my cheer teammates about a girl who lived on her hall. Luca Vocke is a freshman tennis player at Furman from Munich, Germany. After getting her number, I reached out to her, and she agreed to do the interview. Then, I made a checklist of everything I needed to accomplish before the due date.

Luca concentrating before a backhand. Courtesy: Luca Vocke

- Set up an interview date.

- Conduct the interview.

- Shoot B-Roll.

- Shoot additional drone footage.

- Transcribe the interview.

- Write the script.

- Edit.

- Meet with Dr. Sturgill.

"6-4, MINI DOC"

After meeting with Dr. Sturgill, I learned more about what it takes to make a short film great rather than just mediocre. Even though I thought I had enough B-Roll, I had too many static shots and not enough motion shots. The team was still playing regular season games, so I was able to make it to their match against Mercer to record more footage. I also learned that to make B-Roll as emotionally effective as possible, I needed to include more “nat-sound pops.”

Thankfully, I had learned from my previous projects, and I had given myself plenty of time to make these corrections and finish editing the mini documentary. I shot my interview in early April which gave me almost three weeks to complete the editing. Every couple of days, I worked on the project so I was not cramming the night before. While editing, I learned a few additional techniques in Premiere Pro. I added text effects to the credits and used the blur tool behind my B-Roll images.

"8-7, ELLA"

Though this project had its challenges, I felt like I had won after it was completed. I have now refined my skills in Premiere Pro, and I feel confident in my ability to produce visual projects. I think that in a future job, I can produce a quality feature on an athlete. I am confident in my ability to curate a story arc, film content, and edit it in a powerful way on Adobe programs. I think these skills will be useful in the fall when I am taking sports reporting. I also think if I were to work as an athletics intern for Furman, I should create short video stories such as “Love and Luca” to dive deeper into the lives of student athletes on campus.

Watch Love and Luca here!