Having just watched part 2 and reflecting on part 1, I can't help but feel a touch underwhelmed.
I'm sorry for how potentially long-winded this might be, but there's such a good product in this idea.
Firstly, it's watchable. Totally watchable. But there's such a great story to be told down there and it's not all that difficult to tease out the major plot points or characters.
This is the first steps in the rebuild of an iconic sporting brand. Last year we were at our lowest ebb in generations. The leaping off point needed to be accepting and facing that era, that it didn't work out and that we are where we are: rock bottom. You don't need to slander anyone or be overly controversial, nor do you need to spend more than a minute detailing the disastrous 2015 season. Starts poorly, ructions emerge, a coach is removed, Barker takes over, we see a little growth, we go through a little hardship, we lose a legend, we see the emergence of Cripps...
We - the football community - lived through Malthouse's last days. The actions of both parties are on the public record. It's less about whose fault it is, more about this is where we are.
My issue with what we've seen so far is an absence of theme and narrative. Either the people making the doco don't know what either are, can't find either in the material they've shot or are incapable of expressing it.
Bolton, Trigg, Silvagni should be the director/producer's "holy trinity." They're the three driving the culture shift and therefore should take centre stage. The films suffer for a lack of face time with this chief three, something that could've been solved with the good old fashioned talking head interview.
At the moment Bolton exists as a sort of skeleton-like caricature. All rhetorical questions and new-age teaching philosophy. We get it, he's a teacher. Rather than see the same footage or theme over and over again (Bolton challenging the team with rhetorical questions), show him outline his philosophy in a piece to camera, then show it in effect in a meeting and on the track. The repetition of meeting room footage after a while becomes, well, repetitious. Yes, we're getting a look behind the curtain, but the excitement of that is washed away very quickly by the controlled flow of information.
In episode two we see a glimpse of Wietering told he's selected contrasted with Curnow missing out. Now, a filmmaker with awareness would run with the Wietering story first. His build-up in the rooms prior to the match, his warm-up on the field and the match itself. Narrating this with the footage underlaid? How about Jacob Wietering.
A night of personal excitement and achievement ends in collective disappointment for the number 1 pick. In the rooms congratulating and consoling his teammates is Curnow... next scene, Charlie's week on the track. High intensity training footage, quick edits, the young man with the coach's words ringing in his ears, "you're not far away, you're closer than you think." How does that story end? Why, with his debut!
It's a series of disjointed clips that don't exist in support of one another. They're like 2-3 minute vignettes that don't ultimately lead anywhere. If you're going to focus on the games, use Bolton to analyse or interpret them. If you're worried about cobbling a story together after you acquire the material, plan ahead.
The doco should've focussed wholly on the draftees. Right there you know you've got material no matter what happens. They're getting a game at senior level? Great, film the build up and monitor their development. They're playing at VFL level? Great, film their progress and tie it in to their development, give them a goal that they have to achieve, one the audience wants them to achieve: personal improvement and senior selection. They're struggling with injury setbacks? Film the fall out and their road to recovery.
Interspersed with that, of course, their teammates interactions (don't show Murph, Gibbs et al TALKING about leadership, show them leading!), their coaches observations and the man who is bringing the list together's appraisal of who they are, what they bring to the table and the Club's hopes for them.
Like I say, it suffers for a lack of direction; for a lack of something to say. Don't merely capture footage, but tell a story.
Finally, Adam Zwar's narration is beyond jarring. It just doesn't fit the tone at all. He's so earnest.
_________________ Whatever happened to this club I wish I understood We used to be so strong We used to be so good
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