This is a Risk Assessment form made for our shoot at the Pole Persona academy.

Pole Fitness Risk Assessment by helzwelsh

As a first try our producer Helen came with this script based on the ideas that we wanted to implement in our video

Digital News Draft Script by helzwelsh

The second step of the project was to contact this girls and see if they were interested in us making a quick piece about them and their views on being the fastest growing female sport in the UK. At the beginning we went to their website in the 'Contact Us' area but we couldn't find a single phone number anywhere plus the email that was on there didn't seem to work. To be honest contacting them was the most painful bit as we didn't have a direct way to go and talk to them, but just sit and wait for a reply. We found they have a Facebook page.

What I did was that I contacted them through the Facebook website as I saw they post stuff every day. meaning there is someone checking that site and updating it regularly. I created a message that was sent to them which was the following:

Hi. My name is Chris Sarmiento, I am 2nd year student at the University for the Creative Arts, currently studying Television Production. I am the Editor of a new online channel for youngsters, focused on innovative sports around the area of Kent. As a member of Tekkers Productions, we would like to know if we could do a quick 2 min story about your group and what you do. We will be coming to you in Chatham for this project. We are really excited of being part of this unique sport and showing the local people about this exciting activity. If possible, we would like to have a contact number to discuss and explain more in depth what our aim is about. If you rather arrange a meeting with us, we are more than willing to come to you.

Kind Regards,

Chris

The days passed and passed and I had absolutely no answer about it and one week before our tentative shooting day, I received and answer from one of the girls called Jo-Commotion. This was her reply:

Hi Chris I'm happy to to talk to you about KRG over the phone. I'm on 07779998136 if you'd like to give us a call. 

Cheers!

Jo-Commotion

I phoned her and she was really happy and keen for us to go there and film and the only sort of condition that she gave us was if they were able to get hold on some of the footage once it is done, as they all lack skills in technology and would like to have some footage of them in action. After that it all came down to decide which of the 3 places where they meet was the best one for us. At the beginning we said Chatham on Wednesday as we all live closer and it will come more in handy, but Jo explained to me that the best one and the one we could get the most from was the one in Herne Bay during Sunday. We decided to give it a go and Haley, Helen's friend and our production assistant, took us there alongside with our reporter Jamie Terry, which made the trip easier for us. 

After deciding to give it a go to do this sport for our live production, I started doing some research so that we could find a good angle to make this story a good one. I had a tutorial with our teacher Helen Curston and she mentioned something to me that was very true and useful. During the tutorial she pointed out that in order for us to do show people what this sport is about, we need to know what it is about, because it is hard do deliver properly without self understanding. The first thing that I came across with was finding wether Roller Derby is considered a sport here in the UK or not, as it is in the USA. The very first bit of research that I did was whether there was an organization of Roller Derby in the UK or not and that is when I came across with the UKRDA (United Kingdom Roller Derby Association). Like FIFA on football, it is the maximum authority of Roller Derby and has been the one to consider Roller Derby a sport in this country.

 Here a link to the article http://ukrda.org.uk/?p=90 

After confirming that it is a legit sport, I went more in deep to find out whether England had a national team or not, because the goal was to see how big this sport really is. For that I found the website of the Team England which is http://englandrollerderby.com and also a Facebook page that has some really interesting information about the events and the trainings in which these girls are involved.

During the research and after talking to our producer Helen Welsh, we went to find out a bit more about the angle and one thing that popped in mind was how big the sport is and how fast is going and voilá, we did find what seemed to be the best angle for a live piece. 

First of all we have The Independent making an article on this, saying,

"It's the UK's fast-growing female sport and there's a World Cup to be won but you'll need strength, speed, cunning and a risqué nickname" - See more at: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/roller-derby-rollers-who-are-rocking-the-world-of-women-6268604.html

Then we have the BBC making a video about it saying,

"Roller derby: Fastest growing women's sport in Wales" - See more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23085953

And finally we have The Positive making a long article saying,

"The Positive talks to the stars of roller derby, the UK’s fastest growing female sport - See more at: http://thepositive.com/roller-derby-female-sport-britain/#sthash.KD6RPIBV.dpuf

This was all the main research done for our angle and we found a way to sustain that it is definitely the fastest growing female sport in the UK. After that it all went down to research about the sport itself and the kind of stuff that needed to be known in order to understand how the game rolls. I came across with I like to call the ultimate and perfect piece to read exactly what the whole sport is about which is The Rules of Flat Track Roller Derby, published by the WFTDA (Women Flat Track Derby Association). Here is a link to the full book in PDF: http://wftda.com/rules/wftda-rules.pdf

Making a summary of the basic rules of what needs to be known in order to understand what you see is that Roller Derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short matchups ("jams") in which both teams designate a scoring player (the "jammer") who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to assist their own jammer while hindering the opposing jammer, playing both offense and defense simultaneously.

I believe that even a better way of understanding what the whole sport is about is by watching videos which is when I came across with a very good documentary made by 5grand productions called "This is Roller Derby." Although is a documentary from a university student, the video covers very well what the sport is about, including Derby associations like the ones in Liverpool, Manchester and we can also see our Kent Roller Girls in action in this video as well. The whole idea of the video is to show what this means to this girls and it is not only a male sport. Here is a the full documentary:

As part of the research for our live piece, we came across with this sport that at least I had never heard about, Roller Derby. We looked into exotic or unusual sports, as our brand and our aim is to broadcast sports that are not really out there on TV and that are not being taken too much into account. As soon as I googled roller derby uk, the best and closest we found was Kent Roller Girls. Although they all come from across Kent, they all meet at the following places:

WEDNESDAYS (Main league members) 8pm - 10pm - Lordswood Sports Centre, North Danes Way, Chatham, ME5 8YE

SUNDAYS (Main league members) 7pm - 9pm - The Bay Arena, Herne Bay High School, Bullockstone Road, Herne Bay, CT6 7NS

SUNDAYS (Rec League) 4.00pm - 5.00pm - Abbey Sports Centre, London Road, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8RZ

As we went into their website www.kentrollergirls.com, we saw this amazing world that seemed very fun and it was even better the way they were showing this sport and their team. On the first picture below you can see their logo which doesn't look like typical baseball or football or even american football teams. We can compare

PSG

New York Yankees

Miami Dolphins

Apart from the Miami Dolphins one, all of the others look very serious and professional, when the Kent Roller Girls one is very cartoony with a funny image. 

Once we started surfing on the website we found a bit of information of the team. We thought that was the best and most hilarious thing we could have found as they put up their team as a proper group that is about to fight. First of all they get some 'derby names' which is their way to be called in the sport. Like the almighty Brazilian football player Ronaldinho is not really called Ronaldinho, but Ronaldo de Asis. Even though is more or less the same deal, their names are funny and are usually based on something the person likes or does. For example we have Scrappydoom that comes from favorite character Scrappy Doo. Here are some of the members of the team (for a full roster visit the website):

After discussing the focus for our channel and the type of news that we wanted in it I came up with the idea of making a story about pole dancers and what people think about them compared to what this means to them. A lot of people tend to judge and describe pole dancing as something 'slutty.' As part of how people see this sport, people also tend to think of women that do pole dancing as 'the easy thing' 'the sexy ones' and all this adjectives that makes them look or sound like 'sluts' when they are actually not. We want to show people what this means to them and how they make this one of sports that builds the most strength in your body. There has also been attempts to put this sport in the Olympics and there are many associations trying make this a reality, but at the moment is still a no go. 

Me and Helen found some pole dance academies that were willing to do this, from which we decided to go with one of them. The one I found is called Bewitched PoleFitness and I got to it thanks to Kym Mumford who works with me as a Student Warden here in Rochester. The one Helen found was thanks to a friend of her that also works with her at Cineworld called Beth. Her academy is called Pole Persona Dance and Fitness. Both of them based in Rochester. 

The main idea for our package and for our show in general was to talk about sports that are not very popular or are becoming very popular but are not being taken into account when it comes to broadcasting them on TV. 

One of the main questions that emerged while trying to find the angle for our piece was wether pole dancing was a sport or not and if it should be included as and Olympic sport. A very good article from the Huffington Post talks in depth of what some important celebrities of the sport say and believe should be done 

Pole dancing has evolved over the last decade, becoming a popular workout and an organized gymnastic competition. So is it time for it to become an official Olympic sport?

In the last week, the International Pole Sports Federation instituted some new rules to help get it there. On HuffPost Live Friday, a group of pole dancing enthusiasts and national champions came together to discuss whether the sport's athletes should be allowed to compete on the world stage.

Sergia Louis Anderson, the 2013 U.S. National Pole Championships winner, said that while she defines herself more as an artist, she thinks those who want to see pole dancing in the Olympics have a great argument.

Amy Guion, co-founder of the Pole Sport Organization, and Fawnia Dietrich, owner of Pole Fitness Studio in Las Vegas, agreed.

For our piece we are set to talk about whether pole dancing is considered a sport or not and the views of becoming an olympic one. Our main character for this piece is Angie, the instructor of the Pole Dancing Academy. She told us she is a mom and after having both her kids she wanted to lose weight but didn't engage that much with the gym, so she tried pole dancing and in a couple years became a professional. She is accredited as an instructor and has trained some important people such as:

Estee Zakur (US Pole Dance Federation (USPDF) 2010 2nd place & Miss trixter )

Karol Helms (USPDF East Coast Champion 2009 & USPDF Miss Sexy 2010)

Alethea Austin (USPDF Champion 2010)

Pantera Blacksmith (USA & world famous pole dancer)

Sally Ann Giles (Multi-titled UK pole champion)

Josiah Grant (aka BadAzz one of the top male pole dancers in the USA)

If you wanna find out more about this centre visit the website www.polepersona.co.uk