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FILMING SUNDAY LEAGUE MATCHES

HOW WE FILM, EDIT & PRODUCE SUNDAY LEAGUE CUP FINALS & OTHER MATCHES

All Sunday League Cup Finals are filmed from as near to the half-way line as possible, using just the one camera on a tripod from a reasonable vantage point in (or on top of) a main stand of a Non-League Club's stadium (which is where most Cup Finals are played). For Cup Finals and other matches which are played at more basic venues such as roped-off private pitches, we will try and use our own portable platform if we can, so that our cameraman Laurence Hughes can at least get some sort of vantage point and an unobstructed view of the action. (See picture right). Please note that we do not use aerial mast (Hi-Pod) filming equipment as that is more suited for wide-angle performance & tactical analysis filming where the action is too distant and close-ups are difficult to obtain.

We currently use a Canon XA11 camera filming in 1080p high definition with a 28Mbps bit-rate, together with a 50 frames per second frame rate which produces excellent slow-motion replays. After filming the match and depending on whether an editing & production option has been chosen, the captured footage will then have slow-motion replays, titles and transitions inserted and the final production will either be uploaded to You Tube and other social media or file-sharing platforms or put on a supplied USB Flash Drive or SD card.

All Sunday League Cup Finals are filmed by starting the recording from the players entering the pitch for the pre-match respect handshakes, then the Captains shaking hands with the Referee. We may film the odd cutaway shot of the crowd and other things happening in the stadium just before or after the teams enter the pitch, but in general we just film the whole match and nothing else (apart from post-match trophy presentations). If the filming of post-match interviews are required, the club who have booked us to film the match MUST provide the interviewer. We do not film pre-match coach journeys, warm-ups, team-talks or Half-Time entertainment, mainly because we need a rest and they are things that can be filmed easily by anybody. Our expertise is in filming the fast-moving action of a match, which is something that volunteers often find difficult. However, we do have professional commentary as an option on our Price List should teams wish to pay for it.

We film all matches as a complete neutral and show no favouritism towards any one side...such as refusing to zoom in on a goalscorer because he is playing for a team who have not initially booked us to film the match. This therefore encourages teams to share the costs in order to obtain access to the footage after the match depending on the result.


CAMERAMAN AVAILABILITY & THE AREAS WE COVER

During each Season up until the end of April and even into early May, we are generally unavailable to film Sunday MORNING matches as Laurence Hughes runs and films his own Sunday morning team Edmonton Rovers. However, we may be able to cover Sunday AFTERNOON matches if they kick-off after 2.30 pm, depending on the location.

In general, we will not film matches any further away than 100 miles (or a two-hour drive) from our base in Edmonton, North London. The area we cover is basically the whole of the South-East of England, most of East Anglia, and the ‘Home Counties’ surrounding the M25 only.
Travel expenses are already included in the prices on our Filming Options list for distances up to 30 miles from our base, but matches further afield will be subject to extra costs.

Please also note that we are no longer using freelance camera operators to cover matches for us, and any double-bookings we get where a match cannot be covered by Laurence Hughes will be passed on to other video companies for them to indicate their availability. These will be companies that we have carried out freelance work for and who we can therefore recommend.


INFORMATION WE REQUIRE WHEN YOU BOOK US TO FILM YOUR MATCH

  • WHICH OPTION YOU REQUIRE FROM OUR PRICE LIST
  • YOUR NAME, POSITION WITH THE CLUB (e.g. Secretary, Manager, etc.), ADDRESS (for invoicing & delivery), MOBILE PHONE NUMBER & E-MAIL ADDRESS
  • YOUR TEAM'S NAME
  • THE OPPOSING TEAM'S NAME
  • THE NAME OF THE LEAGUE (including sponsors) & DIVISION or CUP COMPETITION & WHICH ROUND
  • THE VENUE FOR THE MATCH (including address & postcode)
  • THE DATE OF THE MATCH
  • TIME OF KICK-OFF
  • Whether you have contacted your opponents to find out if they are interested in booking us as well (and sharing the cost). On some occasions, we have been filming for one team while another video company has been booked to film for the opposition.  This usually means that there is another Cup Final being played somewhere without a cameraman at all, and that both teams would have saved money by only booking one video company to film for both teams.
  • Please note that for the match to be filmed professionally by one of our cameramen, you MUST obtain permission in advance from the League/Cup Final organisers. Some adult Sunday Leagues and County Football Associations charge prohibitive ‘filming rights’ fees for their Cup Finals to be professionally filmed (which we then have to charge the club that has booked us), while other Leagues and County F.A.’s will not allow us to film at all because they may already have a deal with another video company to cover all their Cup Finals.

Once we have all the above information, we will then confirm the availability of a cameraman and send you a Confirmation of Booking letter by e-mail which will give you all the necessary details as to how and when to pay.

TO BOOK US FOR FILMING YOUR CUP FINAL (or other match), PLEASE CONTACT US WITH THE ABOVE INFORMATION


INFORMATION WE REQUIRE ON THE DAY OF THE MATCH

Your cameraman for the match will normally arrive at the venue an hour before the kick-off.  On doing so, they may find that the person who has booked us to film the match is busy doing a team-talk or getting changed. In that case, the cameraman will quite often go straight into the stands or onto the side of the pitch to look for the best vantage point from which to film the match from, so it is best to approach him when you come out onto the pitch if he has not introduced himself to you first.

To enable us to complete the match production that we advertise, it is essential that on the day of the match our cameraman is supplied with an official match programme (if there is one) and given the following information regarding your team:

  • YOUR PLAYERS’ FULL NAMES (no initials or middle names) and CORRECT NUMBERS OF SHIRTS WORN ON THE DAY.
  • YOUR TEAM’S STARTING FORMATION (e.g. 4-4-2, 4-5-1, etc.) AND WHO PLAYED WHERE.
  • YOUR TEAM’S (& YOUR OPPONENTS’) COLOURS PLAYED IN ON THE DAY.
  • CAPTAIN’S NAME
  • Confirmation of GOALSCORERS (in order of who scored)
  • SUBSTITUTIONS MADE (who came on for who and at roughly what time in the match...this is especially important if any half-time substitutions are made)
  • BOOKINGS or SENDING-OFFS (if any)
  • TEAM MANAGER & ASSISTANTS’ NAMES
  • REFEREE & ASSISTANT REFEREE'S NAMES

At most of the Cup Finals we film for clubs at Sunday League & parks level, we find that the Team Manager is normally (and understandably) too busy to write out all the above details for us on the day, so we strongly advise clubs to appoint another club member as being responsible for providing this information for our cameraman. It is always best if a club can find somebody to write things down as the match goes on, especially for details such as the correct shirt numbers for players, substitutions made and the goalscoring order, as these can all be easily forgotten after a match and it is extremely difficult for us to guess which player is which if we do not have the correct shirt numbers available when we are editing the footage. This is also extremely important if you have chosen the option to have professional commentary added to your match.
If our cameraman has already left the ground after the match without being given the above details regarding team line-ups, etc, please e-mail them to laurence@hughesvideoservices.co.uk


HOW WE FILM SUNDAY LEAGUE CUP FINALS

CAMERAMAN AVAILABILITY & THE AREAS WE COVER

INFORMATION WE REQUIRE WHEN YOU BOOK US TO FILM YOUR MATCH

INFORMATION WE REQUIRE ON THE DAY OF THE MATCH

SUNDAY LEAGUE HOME PAGE

PRICING, PAYMENT & DELIVERY

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