THE AMAZING STORY OF KEI KAMARA GETS MORE AMAZING

Not following our Tweets?

Shame on you. If you’re not, then you’re not up to speed on the remarkable story of Kei Kamara. In 2011, we shot a short doc about Kei who, as you may remember, rose from refugee to soccer star.  We shared Kei’s love of Sierra Leone and our visit to open our school coincided with his return to play in an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt.  We thought it would be a great short.

We were wrong.

You see, Kei’s story continues to evolve.  And truthfully, even when we first met him, his life and personality was too dynamic to cram into a 25-minute short.  So, some time ago, Chad suggested that when we do interviews with soccer analysts here in the States for WE MUST GO, our doc about the Egyptian national team, we ask them a question or two about Kei.  You know, “just in case.” So we did.

We heard from Grant Wahl how Kei was among Major League Soccer’s top 5 players in 2012.  Then Alexi Lalas told us that he respected Kei’s “punishing style.”  Everyone we talked to said that, in the right situation, Kei could play in the English Premier League. That situation is here.

On January 6th, Kei was named the Sierra Leonean Footballer of the Year.  On January 30th,he was loaned to the English Premier League’s Norwich City.  On February 9th, he made his debut in the 86th minute of a scoreless draw with Fulham (a match which we watched from the back of an RV in Canada while on break from our own games in the World Pond Hockey Tournament–global village indeed!).  And on February 23rd, Kei became the first Sierra Leonean to score a goal in the Premier League when he headed home the equalizer against Tim Howard and Everton in the 84th minute.  Norwich would go on to claim a dramatic 2-1 victory (and, perhaps less important, become the official Premier League team of Copper Pot).

Since then, Kei has become something of a folk hero.  Will it continue?  We sure hope so.  And, as we have all along, we’re continuing to follow it.  To do so, we’re headed to Norwich on March 13th to film with Kei and see Carrow Road for ourselves–not “just in case” something amazing happens, but because it already is.

TOP 10 RUN AND GUN SHOOTING TIPS

Nothing, in my opinion, is more fun/nerve-wracking than run and gun shooting. You are following your subject in a new environment, not knowing what to expect. Here are a few tips that we’ve learned when it comes to run and gun shooting.

1.) Travel light. All your camera gear should fit in a backpack. We even rigged it up so we have a tripod strapped to the bag.  All we bring are our cameras, a sun gun/bounce, memory cards/tapes, shotgun mics, lav mics, a Leatherman, extra batteries for cameras and mics, camera battery chargers, lenses for our AF100, small tripods, a laptop and a hard drive.

2.) Keep an extra battery in your pocket at all times. There is nothing worse than losing battery power and having to stop and root through your bag for a new one.

3.) Keep an extra tape/memory card in your pocket at all times. For the same reason as number 2.

4.) If you are going outside to inside or vice versa make sure you check, not only your exposure, but also your white balance. We’ve set up our AF100 with two presets, one for 3.2K and one for 5.6K, so we can change our white balance with just a click of a button.

5.) Don’t be passive in your shooting. It is easy to find yourself sticking to a wide shot when you are following your subject around. You don’t necessarily know where they are going and what obstacles your environment might throw at you so it tends to be easier to stay in a wide shot. As Oscar the Grouch once told us, “BORING!!”  Make sure to vary your shots. Pick your times carefully but you have to get not only close ups of your subject but also the environment you are moving through. Where you are going and what you are walking through will more than likely be important to your story as well.

6.) While varying your shots is important, even more important is to be decisive with your camera work. If you are shooting a wide – get that wide shot. If you are going in on a close up stay on that close up. Be decisive. The frame most likely won’t be perfect but stick with it. There is nothing worse than getting back in the edit and the camera is constantly trying to find the frame. Going in and out and back again. That footage is useless. Pick a frame and stick with it. And when you get a chance and the moment calls for it, pick a new frame and go with that one.

7.) Have more than one camera rolling!!! We always try to have at least 3.  That way you can have someone stay in the wide for safety and someone else getting interesting close ups. If you can roll with a third person who is just responsible for getting environment shots that is ideal.

8.) Once you’ve burned through a memory card or tape - lock that thing down so it can’t be recorded over or over written. There’s a tab on both tape and card, click it for safety!!!

9.) If you are tapeless shooting, as soon as your day is over get those cards copied to a hard drive ASAP. You most likely will have a bunch of cards floating around and you don’t want to lose a card or get confused and not copy one.

10.) Have fun with it. Walk and talk, run and gun shooting is probably my favorite type of shooting. You never know what gems you are going to get and we are always surprised by how many gems we get. If you are properly prepared these shoot days will be way more fun than stressful.

POND HOCKEY FUNDRAISER FOR SIERRA LEONE

Those of you new to our mailing list might not know that every year at this time we embarrass ourselves for Sierra Leone… specifically, we pack into an RV and head north to Plaster Rock, New Brunswick (Canada) for the World Pond Hockey Championship.  Each year, we pick something embarrassing to do to try to raise money for a Schools for Salone project.  This year, we’re teaming with Kei Kamara, the newest member of the English Premier League, to build a school and home for children in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

As you probably know, SCHOOLS FOR SALONE is a non-profit that builds schools in Sierra Leone (West Africa), a country rebuilding from civil war.  In 2010, our team, the Salone Rangers, raised enough money to construct a latrine for a new school in Freetown, the nation’s capital.  In 2011, we had tremendous success when turning our attention to raising money to sponsor the secondary school education of Sierra Leonean war orphans.  We raised $3,350–enough to send 13 children to school for an entire year.  The next year, we topped it. Now, in 2013, we’re trying to raise $5000, enough to put a room in the school Kei is building.  How are we going to do that?  Glad you asked.

CLAY FROST

Clay is sacrificing his hair for Sierra Leone.  For $500 pledged, Clay will shave his head completely bald (which he hasn’t done since he was a college swimmer).  And for each $100 beyond $500, he’ll keep it bald for another week.

CHAD WALKER

For $1000, Chad will skate (which itself is a feat) wearing nothing but shorts, into a snowbank, Mystery Alaska style.

DAVE LaMATTINA

For $1000, I will allow Chad to post my acting reel from high school on the Internet, then share it with our mailing list.  I took it too seriously and it’s super embarrassing.  It has nothing to do with hockey, true, but I’ve lost too much hair in the last year to do anything fun with it for charity, so this embarrassment will have to suffice.

PLEDGE HERE (add “pond hockey” to “add more info about donation”)

We’re also accepting pledges in the below categories.  Every little bit helps!

$___ general pledge for participating in the tournament

$___ for every goal FOR the Salone Rangers (FYI–there are no goalies, but goals are standard width and six inches high)

$___ for every goal AGAINST the Salone Rangers

$___ for me to execute a “Spin-o-Rama” leading to a goal (never happened before)

$___ for me to attempt a “Spin-o-Rama,” but falling hard (happened many times)

$___ for each win

$___ for each loss

$___ for a Salone Ranger hat trick (three goals in a game)

$___ for every time I fall down

$___ if we get interviewed on HOCKEY NIGHT CANADA

$___ if we get interviewed by American media

$___ for each joke regarding the Canadian pronunciation of “about”

$___ for each bathroom break on the way to Canada

$___ if we make the playoffs

$___ if we advance in the playoffs

Thanks, as always, for your support.  And one more reminder, you can PLEDGE HERE.